#might do a series of similar stuff based on other boss fights?…maybe

[seagull-scribbles]

NateWantsToBattle did a cover of open your heart and IT SLAPS!

Available on red bubble

[commenter2]

Helluva Boss season 1 episode predictions

Vivziepop does it again ! For those that haven’t heard, Vivziepop posted a trailer for season 1 of Helluva Boss on her YouTube channel containing a lot of news scenes of what will happen during the season, and it makes me excited to see what kind of mischief our favorite imps will get into in 2021.

Since we don’t know when episode 3 will come out (my guess is February) I thought I’d make some theories on what kind of episodes we will get based on what we know so far and what was seen in the trailer. SPOILERS !

Though not shown much in the trailer, I think we can all agree that episode 3 will be about the gang dealing with the Cherubs for the first time (I’m actually working on a theory post for the episode’s plot) and I still think episode 4 will be about Blitzo and Stolas dealing with Stella appearing at Stolas’s party in the ring of wrath, something I talked about in an older Helluva Boss post.

One episode I think we will get in season 1 will be a Moxxie and Millie only episode where they go on a date or celebrate there anniversary that keeps getting interrupted by various things as shown by scenes of something coming out of the water and wrapping Moxxie in a tentacle on a beach followed by Millie throwing a Molotov cocktail (with a picture of SANTA CLAUS on it) at something. I also think that episode will have the two going to the theater Moxxie use to perform at, if the theory about him being a musician is true, where they take down the same enemy that attacked them on the beach. Maybe that scene will also tell us how they met each other there, which as a big Moxxie X Millie fan I support 100%.

Another episode seems to have Blitzo and Loona having to deal with what looks like Loona’s boyfriend/ex boyfriend which will most likely have Blitzo freaking out about it since he treats Loona like a kid, but also likely have some father/daughter moments between the two while still being funny as there seems to be a car chase in that episode. He could also be Loona’s biological father which I bet would make Blitzo nervous about losing Loona somehow.

One episode seems to be about I.M.P being tasked with killing a pop star who I bet jut like in episode 1 will be much tougher then she looks as she seems to capture Blitzo and Moxxie for some reason. I also think she will try and use Moxxie to try and make her songs more amazing as there is that scene of Blitzo nervously hugging a recording room window that is next to a door with an M on it, maybe she sprayed her and Moxxie's initials on there cause she’s really crazy.

While I’m talking about that human character, does any else think she looks like that Overlord that was seen in the pilot with the big hands that moved the curtains after the extermination ? They do have some similarities in appearance in my opinion, plus the popstar has X laces shown on her stage which the Overlord lady seems to (somewhat) have on her black jeans. What if they are siblings and that Overlord payed I.M.P to kill her still living sister on Earth for some reason ? That would be cool story and even lore wise.

It also looks like the season finale will have the gang hang out at some place in a desert/prairie area as everyone is in country clothes and there are tons of cacti in those scenes. Maybe they are there to lay low from someone or after they did something really bad as it looks like Blitzo is being attacked at his apartment which was confirmed to appear in the season finale. There is a scene of someone attacking Moxxie and he is wearing his country suit so someone or something big will attack them while they are there, maybe a creature.

Though a bit weak, I think that scene of Stolas eating cereal alone will take place in a flashback episode about how he met Blitzo and what his life was like before meeting him. This could also take place during the season finale as if Blitzo and the others are in hiding, Stolas might not be able to find them and thus is really lonely and again could lead to how he met Blitzo. Admittedly there is a lot coming from that one scene of sad Stolas but Ill get to that in a bit.

However I think the biggest thing we got from the trailer is that we will get an episode where Moxxie will not only perform in the ring of lust but also Blitzo and Stolas will watch him perform while on a date there, and I think I know what will happen in that episode.

Thanks to Stolas pulling some strings, Moxxie is going to perform at some kind of club in the ring of Lust called Ozzie’s, which he is excited for but Blitzo has to go on a date with Stolas there as payment for making this happen which he does only so Moxxie can perform. While there I bet some comical stuff will happen like Moxxie starts getting nervous about performing and Stolas will flirt with Blitzo, but Blitzo does something that gets him kicked out of the building and he has to try to get back inside but deals with some lady in the process, maybe the manager or bouncer ?

Eventually Robo Fizz appears and tries to ruin Moxxie’s performance as maybe he was going to perform there but got replaced by him and wants revenge, getting aided by another robot. This causes a big fight and eventually Blitzo gets involved which scares Stolas as shown in the trailer. Stolas helps save everyone but maybe in the process Blitzo yells at him out of anger, which breaks Stolas’s heart and thus cause him to get depressed as shown in that cereal scene.

There is a lot that can happen in season 1 and I can’t wait to see it, but I just quickly want to state that the one thing I DON’T want to happen in season 1 is having the secret affair between Stolas and Blitzo being revealed to all of Hell as I’m kinda getting that vibe from that scene of sad Stolas. Maybe he is like that because his family left him after the secret got out and Blitzo is either in hiding and/or not talking to him as he and his business is a laughing stock now. I think we can all agree that that plot point should be saved for the last season of the series but I might touch on that once we get more info on the Helluva Boss universe.

What do you hope to see happen in season 1 of Helluva Boss ?

[ozzdog12]

2020 Top 7 (and 1)

2020 am I right? We saw an insane amount of games come out and 2 brand new consoles. What a wild and weird year for gaming, and life in general. In case you are relatively new here, and to be honest that would be completely fair considering I don't post very often on Tumblr anymore, every year going on the last 4 years (on here) I have done a Top 7 (& 1) for my favorite videogames of the year. Check out 2019, 2018, & 2017. What’s wild, as I look back on my list of games that I’ve completed and played, only maybe 10 came out this year. 2020 was a huge backlog year. 

Lets get on with the ‘And 1!”

Favorite Game that Didn’t Come out in 2020: Control (PS4)

Control may very well have been my 2019 Game of the Year, had I played it in 2019. I LOVED Control. I wanted to play it in 2019, but initial reports that it was a little rough on base consoles put me off until it was fixed. And Holy smokes what an insanely fun and trippy game once I finally started it. I knew within the first 20 minutes this was going to be the shit when I went down a hall, walked into a room and talked to the “janitor” left out a door behind him and the entire building had shifted. I’ve always liked Remedy games, but from a distance. Max Payne 1&2 and Alan Wake all oozed with weirdness and intrigue, but never enough for me to finish them. I missed out on Quantum Break. The story is Control is just the right amount of mind f*!$ for me and builds a universe I didn’t know I needed. It take some time to piece everything together, then everything just clicks. The game does have a weird difficulty spike when fighting bosses and the checkpoints were too far apart at times, but those were later patched. I spent an insane amount of time within the Federal Bureau of Control building and even more time after that with the Foundation and AWE DLC and it STILL wasn’t enough. I wanted more. Outside of Prey, I can’t think of another game that stuck in my brain more after I’d finished it. Control is absolutely a MUST PLAY title. In a world where everything sort’ve feels similar, Control stands out of the crowd.

Number 7: Astro’s Playroom (PS5)

I never thought in my wildest dreams that a game I had almost zero interest in playing would end up on my list of favorite games this year. Astro’s Playroom is being labeled as a ‘Tech demo’ but that feels like an insult to what it is. It’s a full fledged game and its free! I’ve paid more for less. A charming little platformer that lives and breathes the history of the Playstation. So many cool Easter eggs and references. It certainly centers its gameplay around the DualSense controller and everything it can do, but at its core, its a completely approachable and forgiving 3D platformer. I played it just to see what it was about, next thing i knew I had completed all the levels and wanted to further explore all the nooks and crannies within the game. I wanted to see everything the game had to offer and I had an absolute blast doing so. Makes me kinda wish I’d played the previous game on PSVR (I’d have to have a PSVR too)

Number 6: Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)

Another quality title, albeit a spin-off, from Insomniac to add to their Spider Man universe. Gameplay felt obviously like Spider-Man, but Miles has unique abilities that made the game feel different enough, especially the cloak and stealth. I enjoyed the fact that it was short and concise. The issue with most ‘open-world’ games is that they are entirely too bloated with unnecessary filler content (I’ll get to that in a later game), something I felt the first game suffered from, but I also understand why they are there. However I could’ve use one or two more story missions to help flesh out some characters, but it wasn’t required and didn’t change my opinion one way or the other. My one BIG gripe was with Miles himself. He is an extremely smart young kid, but so incredibly naïve. Peter Parker tells him the one thing he SHOULD NOT do is tell people he is Spider-Man. I get it, that’s part of his growth, but Miles thinks he can just solve his problems by revealing his identity and it almost certainly never works out. 

Number 5: The Last of Us: Part 2 (PS4)

The Last of Us Part 2 may be the most polarizing game in the history of the medium, but for the absolute wrong reasons. I’m in the minority that I very much enjoyed my experience with TLOU2, quite a bit actually. Its better in every single way over its predecessor, except the overall story. There are plenty of fair criticisms to be had about the story and various things within the game itself, but I thought the gameplay was so tight and crunchy. There were genuine moments of suspense and terror that I felt that no other game has ever given me. The entire hospital section (2nd time) was so susensful, I had to put my controller down to gther myself. Some of my favorite moments in the series I experienced with a character I wasn’t overly fond of. How many games can do that? The Last of Us Part 2 was meant to invoke emotion, not necessarily joy. I think that's what people lost along the way. Say what you will about the direction Naughty Dog has taken over the years, but you would be hard pressed to find a studio that makes games graphically better than they do. Yes, I know about their crunch culture, but this is not a place for that. I will say, the game was a tad bit too long, which is not something it typically say for a single player, narrative driven game. The pacing and the way the story was told wasn’t my favorite, but I respect what it was trying to do, even if it failed in some aspect of that, I finished the game within the week it was released. Something I RARELY ever do. I’m a father and I related with Joel a lot in TLOU, but I also recognized how wrong he was. There is a lesson to be learned. Your actions always have consequences and while he was doing what he thought was the right thing, it wasn’t his choice to make, and in doing so set up a series of events that were entirely avoidable, but again, that’s the point isn’t it?

Number 4: Grindstone (Switch)

I’m counting this as a 2020 game since it just came to the Switch this year ( less than a month ago) but its not the first time I’ve played it. Grindstone was the only reason I kept my Apple Arcade subscription and when I let it lapse, there was a void I just couldn’t fill. I bought Puzzle Quest on Switch but it just wasn't the same. Its THE perfect game for bite sized play, even though in its addictive nature, you’ll clear a few levels and an hour has passed before you know it. It has the perfect amount of depth that most ‘match’ games don't. You have different weapons, items, and outfits w/perks to use and experiment with to keep it fresh. I went months without playing my Switch and when this was announced in August, I couldn’t wait! Sadly, I had to wait 3 months, but since then I have spent so much time on the Switch. It gave me a reason to play it again. The art style and humour is great. The variety of enemies and challenge is just right. I can’t recommend it enough. Seriously, check this game out!

Number 3: Doom Eternal (Xbox One)

I will be the first to tell you, I did not like Doom (2016). I found it extremely boring and trite. I understood what Doom(2016) was doing and it succeeded, maybe too much. Nostalgia is a helluva thing. So in saying that, I was mildly interested in Doom Eternal. Doom Eternal is nothing like 2016 outside of it being a Doom game that connects to the rest of them (& also being a sequel to 2016). The mechanics are drastically different with more platforming (for better or worse). Eternal is challenging, at times very hard, especially early on. Eternal has no respect for its players, in a weirdly good way. It laughs at how you’ve played FPS before this one and WILL MAKE you play it its way, not your way. Yes, you point and shoot, but ammo is scare and you MUST use everything in your arsenal. No more using just 2 guns for the whole game. The enemies are relentless. Sometimes you have to pause and take a breath after a battle because you go a 100 mph for the whole fight. You have to continuously move or you die. There is an enticing rhythm to it. I categorize Eternal as ‘Blood Ballet’. Its a game where when your feeling it, much like a rhythm game, you get in the zone and there is no stopping demons from getting slayed. Surprisingly, unlike most games in the genre, it seemed to get easier (sans one extremely frustrating platforming section late in the game) the longer you played it. Was that a testament that I ‘learned’ the Eternal way or it truly did get easier? I don’t know, but the final Boss(es) were....easy.. I had more problems and deaths within the first 4 hours than I did the final 8-9 hours. The multiplayer was also surprisingly fun. The older I get, the less interested I am in multiplayer, but I found myself coming back for more for a good month or so. 

Number 2: Gears Tactics (Xbox One)

As 2020 comes to a close, I came to a stunning realization. I might be a bigger Gears of War fan than I had previously thought. Don’t get me wrong. I love Gears, but I seem to love Gears more than I thought. I'm way more invested into the lore than I recall. Anyways, Gears Tactics is everything XCOM 2 SHOULD’VE been. Not only does Gears Tactics utilize the Overwatch action, its makes it EXTREMELY important. The story revolves around the father of Kait Diaz, Gabe and a ragtag group of mostly random soldiers to take down Ukkon. Anyone who is remotely interested in the Gears universe will love the story and references. The gameplay is just so damn satisfying. The bosses are very challenging and different. I actually had to change my strategy to finish the final boss. I experimented with a totally different style of class and was rewarded for it. The post game stuff is also aplenty. This game scratched a VERY specific itch for me and I’m itchy to jump back in. I’m glad this came to Xbox One because I’m current computer could not run it.

Number 1: Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

I have a very odd relationship with massive open world games. I love them, but I get very burnt out on them. They all have a relatively same-y formula and are often populated with bloat. GoT does have some of that but to its advantage, its not very populated, in a good way. One of the things that I really appreciated about GoT and its side quest is most of them felt meaningful. The thing that really stood out to me about GoT is the absolutely satisfying combat. It just feels SO GOOD. It requires timing and patience. There are different fighting styles for different enemies and even the armor you wear is more than just cosmetic. The combat is so fun and satisfying that I was immediately excited when they announced Legends, a multiplayer add on, for free. Its so much fun and is a blast to play with a group of friends. I’m sporadically still playing the Legends mode. I initially wanted to play the game in ‘Kurosawa’ mode but I am glad I didn’t because the game, even on the PS4 is stunning, and on the upgrade on PS5 is jaw-droppingly smooth. I did play the entire game in Japanese with English subtitles. I still don't know what Jin’s English voice sounds like. GoT does a good job a drip feeding you new abilities and things to keep things fresh. I love stealth and once I unlocked it, I spent the majority of every battle taking out as many enemies as I could while in stealth mode. Ghost of Tsushima does a lot of things very well, that the few things it doesn’t can be easily overlooked.

[miyomiikonran]

Burn the Witch Personal Review

I know how this sounds, especially I never did smth like that, so just pls treat it more like bunch of thoughts and opinions on this new title from long-term fan of Bleach rather than some professionally done review. I watched all three episodes and for now I didn't have much time to read the manga (I have a lot of stuff to read for my studies so ;;") so I just went through stuff written on fan wiki. So beware! Spoilers ahead!

So anyway, new title from Tite Kubo. I could not know who's the author and I still would've guessed who it is. It has such a familiar vibe for me, it's a lot like Bleach for me in terms of humor, dialogues, character interactions and so on. Backgrounds also have this kind of similar vibe but I can't tell what's exactly causing it cus I'm no artist. Kubo in his glory days always had great backgrounds so that's all I'm able to say. I think he catched some breath after Bleach's ending and came back with new energy, so his skills are back too.

About characters. I'm glad he did two main female characters this time, even though both Noel and Ninny annoyed me through most of these ~60 minutes. I'm gonna say that's how it usually is before you get to know these characters better. Balgo annoyed me the most because he's typical perverted guy (which I'm really tired of) but with sweet dumny appearance (I'm here for it) so we'll see where will this character go further. Ninny's idol type, so I wasn't really excited at first, but I really liked her interactions with Macy, so I see chances for future development. Kinda the same with Noel and Balgo, they have some chances to get better through their influence on each other. Noel is kinda boring on her own most of the time, but her drive for money is sooo relatable for me right now.

My absolute favourite for now is Osushi, which kinda amused me, cus it's complete opposite compared with how I reacted to Kon at first, who also was sort of mascot in Bleach. I think Kubo has a thing for "seems cute but can kill you" type of mascot...

Let's adress the elefant in the room now. It's the same damn universe as Bleach. It blew my mind completely since I read about this series. It's the same universe (12 years after the war) and it has witches and dragons! Don't get me wrong, tbh I think it could work, it makes sense in it's own twisted kind of way. I just wish we were given any clues about existence of other "reverse worlds"/Soul Societies before this title came out. Cus it makes sense when you think about it. For me it looks like each country/culture (cus idk if each country wouldn't be too much) could have it's own kind of reverse world coexisting with human world, with it's magic, creatures and rules rooted in it's history, culture and beliefs. That's why suddenly we have these european-looking dragons and completely different approach to them- rather than kill them, humans are using them for their own gain, which for me makes sense for country that started industrial age and was first capitalistic-kind of system in the world. Obviously they would be like "ey, it's kinda a waste to kill them, maybe we could use them to make our life easier?". In Bleach it was all more about restoring and keeping balance between worlds, moral duty, honor and strict rules which makes sense (at least for me) in japanese society. Same with Shinigami and their powers. Other stuff like Quincy and Arrancars kinda throw off this kind of logic but well, I'm just trying to find some sense in this madness.

How's the plot then going, in such weird curricumstances? For me it could easily defend itself as independent idea and separate universe. If someone didn't knew Bleach and watched this I'm pretty sure it would be viewed almost the same for now. Will it have more connections to stuff we know from Bleach? Idk, I hope so, cus if not then it's just kinda using the nostalgia left by previous series. This world is surely builded the same, we have two coexisting worlds, one with common humans and the other with people being able to see and fight supernatural beings that endanger both of these worlds. We have the same kind of structure of power as well, at least for me. Wind Bind is new Gotei 13, this time with symbolism based on zodiak signs. Cool, it would probably suggest 12 divisions, but for now we know about only 8 but once again, we'll see.

Each division has it's own field of work, responsibilities and leader. They all look just as weird and eccentric as Gotei 13 when we first met them, so hello darkness my old friend, especially one lady looks like nazi-wannabe again (Quincy I'm looking at you!). For now we only saw Bruno in action who's division is a fighting type, tasked with extermination of dangerous dragons. He's got very cool design and I adore style of magic he uses because I never saw anyone use spray paint for drawing magical symbols before. Very modern-looking guy and I'm here for it, especially he looks like Grimmjow's younger bro. In general this universe is on our typical technology level with smartphones and stuff everywhere, which is suprising to see having in mind whole traditionally japanese looking enviroment from original Soul Society. About the rest we barely know anything so well. We'll see, once again.

Do I see any clear villain in sight? Nah, not for now. For now we only know about 8 dangerous legendary dragons based on common fairy tales. Interesting concept, but I would like to see some classic villian too. However, we already got the same kind of lesson that Bleach served us- authorities cannot be easily trusted either, as their judgement also can be too strict, cruel and subcjetive without many possibilities to oppose them by avarage person. I smell more future drama in this topic. Especially we once again got elderly boss who looks similar to Yamamoto from Bleach.

One thing that kinda dissapointed me was music. Bleach made me used to very climatic, often dramatic soundtracks, kinda dark-sounding most of the time. Openings were mostly very good too, while here I barely noticed any music at all. Animation didn't really leave me in awe either, only fights seemed interesting and magic was nicely animated. But it's kinda boring compared to very dynamic animation in Bleach. First two episodes made me think of first two arcs of Bleach but it's been over 15 years! ;-;"

In the end, will I watch more? Yeah, for sure. I got very excited to see something new from Kubo, I'm rooting for him and his new series to be less damaging for his health and mental state so this time he'll have means to develop and finish it properly, ideally without more conflicts with Shounen Jump. If he'll play it right with connections to Bleach it might get every good and bring back old fanbase, maybe even make people forgive him completely for Bleach's rushed ending. I see he already got some lessons from that experience, as now he decided to publish chapters in small batches rather than weekly. For me it's good solution that may help him keep his sanity intact. I'm willing to wait if it means he'll get back to his fomer skills and glory because I loved Bleach with my whole heart. If only anime production will be okay with such work dynamic then sure, great. I hope music and animation will get better overtime, maybe with more people getting interested they'll be able to spend more time and effort on it. I'm waiting for more characters to appear for more screentime as well, despite what I said about weird looking leaders of Wind Bind. Kubo proved he can make interesting and unique looking characters before, as well as create engaging villians and fights that fans are waiting for for months or years even. Maybe he even learnt a thing or two from plot holes that happend before. We'll see, I'm hopefull and willing to see where this series will be going c:

[newtgati]

Ok here’s a post I wanna do before Bravely Default 2 comes out, these are just some stray thoughts and sort of prediction type things that I wanna put out before these are probably rendered irrelevant. There may be some spoilers for the previous games here so watch out because those will be below the image! These are mainly crazy theories and subtle hopes so.. yea!

My prediction for the subtitle, the Roman numerals/ 2 being more than it seems is that...... I believe it actually represents a pause button, I know it’s a bit out there, but considering the previous games’ relation to the bravely second mechanic where time is stopped in battle (although I don’t know if this kind of feature is retiring or not) I could see the fourth wall break somewhere where pausing the game is needed in the plot. A bit of a stretch maybe but it’s the best thing I can think of.

Next is a few interesting things I’ve thought about after playing the demo, while it’s abundantly clear that there is no direct correlation to the previous titles, such as old characters and that this is a new world, not luxandarc I’m not expecting any huge plot relevance to those games.

However. I’ve noticed that the plot beats of the new game are similar to the original bravely, Awakening the crystals, Gloria shares similarities with Agnés in her role, starting in a desert area in the demo (although octopath did this too so bit of a stretch there) I’m not saying it completely follows the og to a T but there is similarities. This either means :

I’m thinking way too into this and it’s simply a return to form, especially for those who played the original and are picking up this one after a long time they want to follow some patterns (this is most likely true)

Or.. my other theory is that Bravely Default 2 is a mirror of the original Bravely Default, while not a direct sequel like Second it instead mirrors the original in terms of plot and other stuff, which may play in to the later story, bravely has alternate worlds, and who’s to say this game’s setting isn’t one of these, where Luxendarc never came to be and Exelant happened instead etc.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and it may also work with the end scene in second and the whole Planeswarden thing. The other thing to support this theory lies in the music.

Now once again, this is all speculation and could be me thinking way to into nothing. Revo is back doing the music, as they did in B1, what’s interesting is that there are a lot of motifs and and call backs to B1 in B2’s soundtrack. The most obvious is the intro to the normal battle theme, which I made a meme of. This could just be Revo’s way of composing and keeping to the original with little snippets like this, after all two games in a series have gotta have some shared motifs in music. Another motif I caught was in the field overworld theme where the latter part is very reminiciant of old tracks as well, it feels really nostalgic :) And again that might just be it. Nostalgia, Revo is composing just as they used to.

Which is what I would be inclined to believe completely if it not for the fact that motifs in bravely’s OST are really significant or hint to certain things, and I adore hints of symbolism like this. Some examples in B1 is the Ba’al theme featuring Airy’s theme, while the two aren’t directly linked in the plot, it does show that both are enemies in a sense, and in second Anne, her sister was pulling the strings and such. Another interesting one is Florem’s theme (an absolute masterpiece of a song) where it really is a slowed down version of That Person’s Name Is, the asterisk boss theme. As Florem is a hub of corruption and under the influence of the asterisk holders this is really cool to me, that the song features the antagonists theme throughout but isn’t overt at unless you pay close attention to it. It’s almost like story telling in music in a way!

Anyway. What I’m trying to say here is that these music throwbacks and motifs may have more meaning than just being similar to the original...or not, depends what happens! Apart from the obvious title theme and other overt uses of the motifs, there is one song in the demo that really caught my attention that may support my “Mirror theory”

There is a song which annoyingly I can’t find since I don’t know the name, and I don’t want to search up the OST since I’m pretty sure at this point the OST from the full game is up on YouTube and I don’t want to run the risk of getting spoiled by song titles.

This song plays in the demo in the talk with Prince Castor, and it sounds like a reconstruction of Bravely Default one’s Melody of Nostalgic Reminiscence. It has the same instrumentation however it’s almost...muddled. Some sound bites are there but others aren’t. I’m sure this isn’t the only song to do this, but it sparked the theory for me that this game is a mirror of the original, not a complete retelling, but some things are the same in both. If that makes any sense.

Finally of things I want to know about in this game is if there will be any referral or fight with Ba’al Firstborn, the ba’al that never had any plot relevance and was simply fought on the moon base, there’s always stuff in the bravely series that hints toward a sequel such as the magnolia cutscene and such so maybe firstborn will have something more to do in this. Or not.

I might make another post if there’s anything else but these are my theories and thoughts that are heavily just me wanting to find similarities and just obsessing over a game series I adore.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far :D

[natsubeatsrock]

The Rewrite of Fairy Tail: Bonus (What If? #16)

What if Gray and Erza joined Crime Sorciere?

I don't know how obvious it is to many of my current followers what my shipping preferences are. With as much reshuffling of fans as happened since the series, I can't blame anyone. I really like Graytear, and I've always had a soft spot for Jerza. I've had a good deal of internal struggle with them and other ships, and how I can write them in the rewrite. No doubt, I may want to talk about this in the future. The easiest way to explain it is that there is a good amount of moving parts that make it hard to canonize them in ways that make sense.

There is one easy way to make the ship work: give them more time together. For a lot of ships, that's fairly tricky to justify in canon. With these two, canon gives a fun way to make this possible. What if Gray and Erza's involvement with Jellal and Ultear was more than temporary?

To start, let's remember the canon impetus behind this.

In the original, it's revealed that Jellal connected with Erza to work with Crime Sorciere to take out Avatar. She went to Gray to help with the situation. Within the context of the original, this has a few interesting implications. For Erza, she gets some opportunities to coordinate plans, which might have been helpful if she stays the guild leader. For Gray, he gets more chances to find END. (I say this as if I don't know that Natsu's END.)

What would have to happen for that to be more permanent?

At the end of Tartarus, Jellal has some words for Erza to continue moving on. Instead of just watching them leave, Erza can ask to help them. She can have a good sense of what Makarov is going to do to the guild and want to find a position with him, even if it's temporary. She may also figure that Gray would benefit from a similar arrangement. (Ignore for a moment how she would know about his quest for END.)

Of course, this starts out as a temporary arrangement. However, everyone comes to wish that Gray and Erza become permanent members of Crime Sorciere. This may present a bit of an issue for Fairy Tail as Erza became the guild master in canon. I'd say she's the most natural choice for the job. However, Laxus wouldn't make a bad replacement for our purposes. Frankly, that would make an interesting story in its own right. Laxus goes from an arrogant jerk who thinks he deserves to be the guild master to being banished from the guild. He is reluctantly accepted back into the guild and ultimately ends up becoming its guild master. No wonder people like him so much. (I wrote this before part 28, and it shows.)

Of course, there are other benefits to this scenario. I once said that the idea of Lucy being a part of another guild, like Sabertooth, is interesting and absolutely worth exploring. I feel the same way with the rest of the Strongest Team. In many cases, joining Fairy Tail is almost coincidental. Gray happened on a guild west of Isvan. Erza knew an old member of the guild. These are the kinds of things that would be interesting to consider one way or another.

Of course, there's also the shipping thing. I get that not everyone loves Graytear as much as Jerza. (I will be working on this in the future.) However, is it wrong to want more interactions between both parties? Wouldn't it be great to see Gray and Ultear do more stuff? Wouldn't it be cool to think of Jellal and Erza working together to take on a mega boss level threat? (For what it's worth, there's a possible version of this scenario where the ships are Grayza and Jeltear.)

Why is this only hypothetical?

As cool as this idea is, it falls apart a few different ways.

Logistically speaking, doing this almost restructures the final arc. There's not a great way to get around Erza and Gray being in Magnolia in canon. But it's also hard to explain why they're in Magnolia before other members of Crime Sorciere before the fighting starts. Even Ichiya has a reason to be in the area. Can I justify their placement in the area? Maybe.

However, there's the fundamental issue with their reasoning for being with Crime Sorciere in the first place. Gray's not too bad. He's more or less on a crash course to being with END being Natsu no matter what I end up doing. I said this earlier, but him going around to find END is an interesting type of dramatic irony. If he wanted to get END, he should want to continue his commitment to Fairy Tail. 

I could see it argued that having that connection to the guild makes it easier for Gray to take him out only for him to realize how far he's gone later on. I don't love that and it makes more sense to do that and have him either Natsu (way too far a change) or come back to the guild (invalidating the scenario) rather than what we got.

But Erza?

No.

Just... no.

Look, I love Jerza. Maybe not as much as other people I know or a certain other ship with Erza in it. But I still have a love for what is one of my first ships in Fairy Tail. One of my favorite fan stories is effectively a rewrite of Tower of Heaven to Fantasia that has Jellal ultimately join Fairy Tail. I do love that the sequel is hinting at their feelings for each other being romantic and reciprocated.

This is not the best way to make it happen.

Erza's entire thing is that Fairy Tail has become hilariously important to her. This is to the point where she isn't beaten up about her mother neglecting her. She's considered Fairy Tail to be her family forever. They're her source of strength. It would be a huge mistake to move her out of the guild to be with Jellal. The better solution, by far, would be to make it so Jellal is or can regularly be where Erza is.

Based on Part 13 and Part 14

What If? #1 | What If? #2 | What If? #3 | What If? #4 | What If? #5  | What If? #6 | What If? #7  | What If? #8 | What If #9 | What If? #10 | What If? #11 | What If? #12 | What If? #13 | What If? #14 | What If? #15

[moodysnowflake]

Please mind the Spoiler slap that might come your way guys...

Let’ talk about Rufus Shinra.

Yes, he has been exploited better than the OG, and yes, once you get the hint the assesment is trying to throw at you, it’s easier to whack his butt.

He still beats the crap out of you. 

We have to realize that Rufus is a normal human being. He’s not a Turk either. Sure, he was a prodigy and has been trained by the military, and he might have trained with the Turks too during his “extended assignment oversea” (despite being him the boss, I bet Reno would still try to zap him in the crotch, if left unsupervised). Rude would gave him a sturdy run for his money (of course pun intended) and Tseng did probably manage to wipe the floor with his gorgeous platinum-blond ass at least once when they were younger. Rufus manages to stand his ground against Cloud, a final-stretch-game Cloud. Not an early-game Cloud. You have to run, dodge, parry and dive like hell, and when he hits you, it fluffing hurts. He’s the only human enemy in the Remake who actually manages to do some serious damage using a firearm. 

He’s been designed to do that, you might say. Well, yeah, duh, he’s still the only one, so that’s awesome.

Moreover, he doesn’t actually look exhausted, nor particularly beaten up when the battle ends; he just smirks his way out. We couldn’t appreciate it in the OG, but heck yes we can now. 

We might argue that’s all a façade, and I think that part of it could very well be true. Cloud did roughed him up after all. Plus, that’s his character, he would never show a speck of vulnerability (”nobody has ever see him bleed or cry” - can we seriously blame him for becoming an ice prince?).  And he’s not stupid; once he’s disarmed, he immediately opts for strategic retreat. He’s not a brainless goof, he recognized his huge disavantage: a true tactician indeed.

Him and Cloud's battle dialogue...is it just me, or did they sound like ex-boyfriends angrily snapping at each other?...

C: Think you got my number? [Cloud?]

R: Not at all. You’re making me sweat. Good thing I came prepared. [Rufus?]

C: That’s a new trick.

R: Like it? ‘Course you do.

[Did they actually meet in Before Crisis?!]

R: Let’s make it a night to remember.

Okay guys, seriously, tone it down a notch, would you? That’s too much gold for a single scene!

His outfit might not have us all agreeing, I can totally see why. That off-white contrast to Cloud’s pitch black tho...

Here’s the knot my brain is twisting itself over.

The question slammed my brain like a train, pretty much the same as Rufus’.

I don’t know, you tell me how the heck are you seeing the Whispers...

Tseng going:

Rufus looks at him like “Wait, what? You’re not seeing this shit? You kidding, right?” then proceeds to glare him into submission, either because he thinks Tseung might imply he’s not okay after the fight and he might be suffering some side-effects, or he’s mocking him.

[If it’s the last one, that would open another pit of thoughts, like: if he thinks Tseng is teasing him, that means that happened before. If that happened before, it means he’s not a utter cold-blooded bastard, and they interacted like functional(ish) human beings up to the point of joking. What is this? Solid character background? OG-wise, we know he’s not a saint, but we also know he’s not totally batshit cracker either. Because WRO and Avalanche. (Can’t wait for Barret’s reaction when that’ll happen. That’s gonna be spectacular XD)

Reno’s line ‘You’re sure you wanna do this by yourself, boss? (ENG)//That’s dangerous (JAP)’ could support this theory, even if we know he would talk back to Sephiroth himself.]

Untill now it’s evident that he being able to see them is “Because Plot“

But my spider senses are tingling, feeling something lurking below.

He didn’t seem to be able to see them on the platform while Cloud’s smacking his way through. That could be arguable, ‘cause spotting dark stuff in a dark background is not that easy. 

But after the Edge of Creation cutscene (and that’s another thing I’ll talk about later), he’s pretty well able to do that. And he’s the first character we see...

So what happened in between?

Well, there’s Wedge scene...but that’s the only thing we’re allowed to see. 

Based on what’s happening in the game, you’d be able to see the Whispers because of Aerith/Sephiroth’s intervention or because the Whispers need you to see them.

That create some interesting choices, which might combine, ‘cause they’re not mutually exclusive:

1. Rufus finds/saves Wedge, or the Whispers are bringing Wedge to him (very unlikely, but you know, overthinking is so fun). He was minding his own businnes, and Wedge suddenly appears. If this happens, I don’t think he’s gonna kill him...Because Avalanche (and because if you resist Wedge’s puppy eyes you don’t have a heart, nor a soul). Yes, he’s ruthless, I know, but there are times during the story in which he doesn’t behave like a complete dickhead. Very few times. But maybe the Whispers need for Rufus and Wedge to meet, and maybe that’s what happened in the hall.

Also, my useless rambling neuron got stuck over a very stupid, very impossible, but very cute idea why Rufus wouldn’t kill him: what if Wedge and Rufus know each other? Barret and the other knows his face, but what about Wedge? Maybe somehow they casually met in Junon, or (god forsake it, my heart) even before in Midgar he saved him from whatsoever situation and he never mention it? Chances are never really zero in FFVII, but I’m well aware that this is far-fetched...like, a lot. 

How cute would it be if Wedge woke up with Rufus crouched down there, skeptically looking at him.

‘What are you doing here?’

To which he would chirp “Hey Rufus, long time no see! How’re you doing? I thought you were still in Junon.”

‘I’m the boss here, I ask the questions. What are all these creepy things flying around.’

“Well, I don’t have that much of a clear idea...Also, you’re not my boss!“

‘That’s not helping. Also, technically, yes Wedge, I am.’

”Huh?”

‘I’m Rufus Shinra. (smug smirk)’

“I know that dummy (Rufus would scrunch up his face), what I don’t understand is how that would make you my boss. Blowing up one of your reactors using your explosive can’t make me pass as construction worker.” 

‘I am not your boss because of Shinra. I am your boss because I’m the boss of the boss of your boss.’

“WAIT, WHAT?!”

*Whispers taking him away*

2. Sephiroth has a brief chat with him during the moment he’s left on his own (while we’re fighting his true self in the singularity). In the OG, Rufus always had this incontrollable drive to find Sephiroth, an inespicable and obsessive draw to hunt him down, which only Cloud match (and he’s the one guarding Jenova’s remants in Advent Children...). And no, it’s not because he killed his father...we know how idyllic that relationship was. That spark could have been started here.

3. A combination of the two. Because why not.

4. Something else within him helped the trigger.

Speaking about this, I discovered some interesting info. The Remake has retconned his age from 25 to 30, flopping back his birthday from 1982 to 1977. Five years shouldn’t make that much of a difference. We can agree, artistic licence. 

Too bad 1977 is also the exact same year Jenova’s remnants have been discovered...As well as the very start of the machination for Project S and Project G.

Using Dirge of Cerberus as reference, 1982/1983 should approximatly be Sephiroth’s birthyear. Which leaves 5 years of preparation.

Is this a coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe the president let Hojo start to experiment on baby Rufus as he saw fit. Nobody would convince me that the president wouldn’t have done it, those two are just too fucked up. That could explain why he was so flipping good with a shotgun since he was 10, why he managed to face a SOLDIER without turning into minced meat (he didn’t show negative repercussions because he could have been resistant to mako poisoning, like Zack; plus he is the only human enemy with some resistance to Poison and Magic), why the president didn’t kill him when he sided with the Turk’s assassination attempt. That wasn’t paternal love; that was probably Hojo interceding to not have a succesfull test subject except Sephiroth eliminated, promising to have him brainwashed.

Like Cloud, despite Jenova’s cells, he wouldn’t be able to see the Whispers by his own. But Sephiroth, or Aerith, might have flipped the switch in some way. Or even Jenova’s or n#2′s bodies, to which we still have no idea what happened.

4.1. The annoyed/angry glare This could also be another reason for the angry/annoyed glare he shoots Tseng, like he’s saying “You know what I am” or “You know taking me down is not that easy”. The first one reminds me of Cloud’s line to Jessie...the look is pretty similar.

Another interpretation of this expression could be that he actually has, from time to time, some odd quirks or weird moments, residues of the mako treatment/cells' interaction. It is very likely that if that’s true, Tseng - and maybe even Rude and Reno - witnessed them.

That wouldn't surprise me: he’s sporting some serious dark circles under his eyes in this scene.

So, he could be also saying “What? Are we doing this again? You still think I’m frail and crazy? Do I have to beat that out of you like last time?”

5. He touched Jenova’s blood; it wouldn’t be that improbable, since it was smeared all over the floor. That might have done the trick by itself, or, if connected to point 4, he could have been drawn to it by the cells within him, which could have worked as catalyst. 

6. Any combination of two or more of the previous points. It’s Nomura Testuya we’re talking about, they could all be true for what we know. He’s a goddamn psycho: it’s easier to build a house with a sand-pail and a plastic shovel than understand Kingdom Hearts' series plot .

 Too many questions, but the revelation that Rufus can see the Whispers is very intriguing; the whispers needs him for something. Destiny needs him for something. That makes him an even more valuable character that he already was in the OG, and I’m glad they’re doing it. 

Nobody seems to be left behind (in character development sense) this time.

We can only wait and hope.

Wish you all the best, Rufie (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *

[aion-rsa]

Zack Snyder’s Justice League Ending Explained: The Sequels and DCEU We Never Saw

https://ift.tt/3cQz1lS

This article contains Zack Snyder’s Justice League spoilers.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a lot of movie. It’s four hours plus of superhero action with some heavy mythological overtones. And it’s ending isn’t even a single ending to this story…it’s multiple endings. And each of these multiple endings is meant to set up a host of spinoff movies and Justice League sequels that we will unfortunately never get to see!

We’ll consider the “main” ending of the film, the one that wraps up the initial story begun in 2013’s Man of Steel, to be the defeat of Steppenwolf. But from there, we get several epilogues, and that’s where things get even more complicated. There are no post-credits scenes in Zack Snyder’s Justice League because, well, it doesn’t need them, but the “additional endings” kind of serve the same purpose.

So let’s get started…

The Defeat of Steppenwolf

The key to defeating Steppenwolf actually comes much earlier in the movie when Barry is explaining to Bruce some of how his speed works, and his discovery of what he dubs the Speed Force. 

“When I approach the speed of light, crazy things happen to time, but when I do it I create massive electrical power.”  

It’s that “massive electrical power” that is ultimately used to help “wake” the Mother Box that’s used to resurrect Superman (who himself is, of course, a key to Steppenwolf’s defeat). Barry builds up enough of a head of steam to generate the necessary to spark the Mother Box and charge the chemical soup that brings Superman back to life. 

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But there’s another key here, and that’s the “crazy things that happen to time” which comes in later…

With Steppenwolf in possession of all three Mother Boxes, he’s in position to bring about “Unity,” which grants him impossible destructive power, and which would allow Darkseid to easily access Earth and begin his campaign to attain the Anti-Life Equation. Since the Mother Boxes have already been joined, and “Unity” appears to be underway, Cyborg needs to “hack” into them (since some of his power and technology was derived from a Mother Box).

The only problem? Not enough power!

And that’s where Flash comes in. As Barry begins building up the speed necessary to generate the kind of power required for this, he’s hit by a lucky shot from a Parademon, delaying Cyborg’s ability to prevent Unity from happening. In the process, the Mother Boxes unleash a torrent of energy powerful enough to vaporize everything and everyone in its path (and possibly the entire world), including Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, and even Superman. Barry witnesses this from afar and with only nanoseconds to act, decides to break his own rule about not surpassing the speed of light, for fear of the “crazy things that happen to time” he mentioned earlier in the film. 

Needless to say, Barry succeeds in his goal and seems to reverse time by the necessary few seconds as he approaches the Mother Boxes, reconstituting everyone, delaying the explosion long enough for him to give Cyborg the energy needed to hack the Mother Boxes, and stopping things in their tracks long enough for Aquaman, Superman, and Wonder Woman to send Steppenwolf back home… in pieces.

We’re going to come back to Barry in a minute, but let’s just take a moment here to talk about Steppenwolf’s boss.

Darkseid Will Return

Or… he would have returned if Zack Snyder’s original plan for multiple Justice League movies had come to pass. “When I made the film originally, it was part of a five-part trilogy,” the director recently told Vanity Fair. “There were two more episodes of the Justice League to be shot.”

Darkseid isn’t cowed witnessing Steppenwolf have the extraterrestrial crap beaten out of him by Superman, skewered by Aquaman, and decapitated by Wonder Woman. Instead he calmly tells DeSaad to “ready the armada, we’ll use the old ways,” indicating that he’s ready to just invade Earth the old-fashioned way again with a massive alien army and warships. 

Why he feels confident in doing this considering how it ended for him the last time is anyone’s guess, but the fact that he knows for sure that Anti-Life is here probably has something to do with it, along with the fact that he can use the Anti-Life Equation to control Superman, who just proved himself to be the most powerful champion in the galaxy.

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In other words, the Justice League 3 (yes, three…we’ll get to Justice League 2 in a minute…I told you this would be out of order) that we’ll probably never see would have dealt with Darkseid’s second invasion of Earth and his clash with our heroes. What this means now is that the Knightmare sequence from Batman v Superman (and which is revisited in this film) wasn’t just a nightmare after all, but a vision of a possible future in which Darkseid is successful, at least to some degree.

Which brings us to…

Joker, Batman, Knightmare, and more…

In the not-too-distant future we see Batman, once again wearing his desert togs that we saw in his Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice nightmare. He’s joined by Cyborg, Flash (wearing that weird armored get-up that we saw when he visited Bruce with his “too soon?” warning about Lois Lane in BvS), Deathstroke, and Mera. Why this team?

Well, it turns out the vision Cyborg had during the resurrection of Superman (see? I told you it would keep coming back to that moment!) was what would happen if Darkseid was not only successful in his invasion, but in acquiring the Anti-Life Equation. We know from that vision that Wonder Woman is dead, Darkseid skewered Aquaman just as Aquaman skewered Steppenwolf, and Superman is… not a good guy anymore. Apparently, Darkseid vaporized Lois Lane with his Omega Beams and then used the Anti-Life Equation in Superman’s moment of weakness to bend him to his will.

This explains why Superman is “evil” in Batman’s original Knightmare vision from BvS, and explains the wrecked Hall of Justice, the dead Green Lantern, and more from Cyborg’s vision at the moment of his resurrection. Things are apparently so dire that even the Joker, the Clown Prince of Crime and an Agent of Chaos, has thrown in his lot with Batman, the Flash, and all the rest in an attempt to reverse time and save Lois Lane from being obliterated. Hence Joker asking Batman, “You need me to undo this world you created by letting her die. Poor Lois.”

Of course, Joker also hints that the only way to truly undo this is for Batman to ultimately sacrifice himself, and Snyder has indeed said that the plan was for Batman to die at Darkseid’s hands, in his final bid to save Lois. Batman getting fried by Darkseid was a key part of the climax to Grant Morrison’s excellent Final Crisis series, too, but that’s another matter entirely.

And if a ragtag band of heroes and villains fighting an alien invasion and an evil Superman isn’t out there enough for you, Snyder ALSO told Vanity Fair that Batman’s ultimate sacrifice would restore the timeline to where Lois Lane survived…but was pregnant with Bruce’s child. No, not a typo. And then the Justice League trilogy would end with: “Twenty years later, on the anniversary of [Batman’s] death, they take young Bruce Kent down to the Batcave and they say, ‘Your Uncle Bruce would’ve been proud if you did this…something like that.”

Anyway, with this weird potential future stuff out of the way, let’s talk about the more immediate implications of what happened in the ending there.

The Flash and Flashpoint

Barry comes to a realization as he sprints towards Unity that he can “make your own future/your own past/it’s all right now.” When moving at this speed and when he’s this deep in the Speed Force, he perceives time differently than we do.

More importantly, from a wider DCEU standpoint, this is absolutely the moment when Barry realizes that he could potentially change the past. Specifically, he probably wants to go back in time and prevent the murder of his mother, and thus keep his father out of jail. In other words, this is the first seed of what would have been (or will be?) the long-gestating and troubled The Flash solo movie, which will be based on the Flashpoint story.

In Flashpoint, Barry goes back in time, prevents his mother’s murder and…does NOT live happily ever after. Instead, this causes ripples in the timeline that lead to a very strange and unpleasant world, and Barry realizes that maybe he shouldn’t be doing things like that.

The current Flash movie plans (the film is now in the hands of director Andy Muschietti) probably involve Flashpoint in some capacity, since Barry is able to access the multiverse and meets Michael Keaton’s Batman from the Tim Burton movies. So Barry might not have just gone back in time a few seconds here in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, he may have accessed the DC Multiverse itself. That, of course, is another can of worms entirely.

Lex Luthor, Deathstroke, and Batman

Think of this as what would normally be a “mid-credits scene” and a tease for the Justice League 2 that we’ll never see. Lex Luthor escapes from Arkham Asylum (which is a weird place for Lex, but whatever) by using a fakeout move kind of similar to the one Gene Hackman’s Lex pulled in Superman II.

But when next we see Lex, he’s in the recruitment business. His first meeting is with Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson, better known as Deathstroke. You might remember this scene from the Joss Whedon version of the film, but here it plays out differently. While here, as there, Lex is indeed looking to put together a team of supervillains, he’s a bit more specific here, revealing Batman’s true identity to Slade, who apparently has a grudge against the Dark Knight.

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This was supposed to be the premise of the Batman solo movie when Ben Affleck was still involved as both director and star, but that, like so many other DCEU projects, fell to pieces. It’s a shame, because after Affleck’s terrific performance as Batman in this, that really could have been cool. 

Lex earning Deathstroke’s loyalty here by doing him this little favor also would have helped set up Lex’s team-building efforts, which apparently would have paid off in Snyder’s planned Justice League 2.

Martian Manhunter

As we learned earlier in the film, Harry Lennix’s General Swanwick was actually J’onn J’onnz, the Martian Manhunter in disguise. Here, he finally reveals himself (in his true form no less) to the no-longer-xenophobic Bruce Wayne, who is now fully the hero we hoped he would be when he was introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

It’s pretty self-explanatory stuff. Martian Manhunter tells Bruce Darkseid will come for the Anti-Life Equation, lets him know he’ll be around to help, and flies off. Bruce accepts this pretty readily, and we’re ready for a sequel, and for that “unite the seven” marketing prophecy to finally come true.

But while Lennix’s reveal as Martian Manhunter was always intended to be part of this film and Snyder’s DCEU in general, he wasn’t the superhero intended for this scene! Yes, just as Bruce wanted “room for more” at the Justice League headquarters table, this movie would have also introduced an eighth hero.

“We shot a version of this scene with Green Lantern, but the studio really fought me and said, ‘We really don’t want you to do Green Lantern,’” Snyder told Vanity Fair. “So I made a deal with them, and they let me do this [instead].”

The Green Lantern in question would have been John Stewart. But it turns out the studio has long intended for Stewart to be the center of their Green Lantern Corps movie, so according to Snyder, Martian Manhunter “was the compromise.”

Wait, did I say eight heroes? I meant nine!

Ryan Choi is The Atom

In case you were wondering, Ryan Choi, the STAR Labs scientist who works with Silas Stone throughout the film is indeed an important character from the comics. Choi is destined to become the Atom, the shrinking superhero who will one day become a member of the Justice League.

Here, we see him getting granted the position of “director of nanotechnology” for STAR Labs, a role which will certainly lead to some useful discoveries for him down the line. Hopefully someone decides to give Zheng Kai another shot at the role down the line.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

What do you think? Do you still want Zack Snyder’s vision of the DCEU and his plans for Justice League 2 and Justice League 3 to become a reality? Let us know in the comments!

The post Zack Snyder’s Justice League Ending Explained: The Sequels and DCEU We Never Saw appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[morshtalon]

Digital Devil Monogatari: Megami Tensei

Possibly part 1 of a series of posts on the whole series, maybe?

So, the first game in the popular MegaTen franchise is, wouldn't you know it, kind of weird. It was actually a video game sequel to a series of two novels starring a sort of villainous protagonist and the (government-mandated to exist ubiquitously through japanese media) high school exchange student as they become indirectly related to the summoning of ancient bad dudes Loki and Set through the magic of 80's computer programming, go into historic japanese landmarks to resurrect shinto goddesses, witness horrific, gruesome, sometimes sexual actions from the demons, go to space, fight using gods that turn into swords, and generally have a good time.

Naturally, considering the, um... Notorious source material, it's only logical that the videogame adaptation would, then, turn the sort of dark, villainous, intelligent programmer guy into a blank slate warrior with no personality, the girl into a standard RPG magic user, and drop them into a big dungeon crawl with almost no plot, nonsensical NPCs and a connection with the novels so tenuous they might as well have just taken some inspiration from it and opted to create a more original IP instead (I dunno, maybe put a "shin" in front of the title or something). Thus is born the antiquated experience that is Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei.

While Japanese gamers did at the time have the original version of Dragon Quest - with the sprites that always faced down and the lack of a save system - ushering in a new style of role-playing gameplay into the mainstream, I suppose the mindset of RPG development was still rooted in the design philosophies of the western games from throughout the decade that were distilled into DQ. Games that, like Megami Tensei, typically featured a simplistic first-person view and a party of six characters, following the rough guidelines of the most recent version of D&D, and had generally no plot development, consisting instead of a hardcore, punishing trek through a few 20x20 grid mazes full of traps and gimmicks.

Furthermore, this type of experience, from what I heard, was huge in Japan, so it's no wonder Atlus chose to capitalize on that market instead of streamlining it and risk losing fans of the genre that were looking for an experience similar to what they had witnessed from RPGs so far. Less cynically, it's also entirely possible the developers themselves were huge fans of the first person dungeon crawler and wanted to replicate their positive experiences in a passionate love letter to the genre. Also, for what it's worth, they did add uniqueness in party management and customization, as you surely already know, but we'll get to that later.

I guess we'll never know the true context behind the original MegaTen's creation, but the point is, this is a very old-school game. I don't think it's nearly as brutal as the ones that inspired it, but it is also definitely far from holding your hand. At no point in the game is it entirely obvious exactly where items you're supposed to collect are located, so you mostly have no choice but to comb the entire dungeon yourself until you stumble upon the stuff you need to progress. Furthermore, sometimes the very NPCs that tell you there's even something to look for at all are slightly out of your way, so there's always the mental pressure of maybe having left something behind and having to backtrack and go to all sorts of places trying to find it when you run into the next dead-end.

By itself, this isn't really a bad thing. As an exploration-based dungeon crawl, it's expected that the player will have some agency over what they're doing, and it's refreshing to see a game where you have so much ground to cover, but with hardly any setpiece to spice up the crawling in terms of context, the job of entertaining the player falls squarely upon the gameplay's shoulders.

To that end, the gameplay is definitely more boring than stimulating. This is where I have to admit, I beat the Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei remake version of it. I have played the original, though, and I am aware of the differences between versions. I have also played future games in the franchise with the same issues, so there's no evidence that the original is much different in this regard. Anyway, apart from an intense earlygame where you're at risk of death from a stray Zan spell cast by a gnome if you're unlucky, the rest of the game's fights are uneventful, once you level up enough and have an array of serviceable demons at your side. There's only ever one group of enemy demons per fight. There can be up to eight of them, but all eight are the same type of demon, and the graphics will only show the one until the entire group is dead. It's kind of like every fight is against only one demon but the demon can attack several times and has an erratic, huge HP pool. Furthermore, targeting is completely random for all moves, and you'd think this would add a fake layer of frustration, but the game gives you an auto-battle option. It simply makes the entire party use their regular attack for as many rounds as you want and prevents text from popping up on screen to slow down the monster-slaying, but for the most part, this is more than enough to get you through whatever part of the dungeon you find yourself in, with only the occasional, very rare exceptions of either:

-A demon that has a dangerous ability, therefore making it so that you want to kill them as quickly as possible;

-A boss;

-A battle that you got yourself into without noticing your HP is getting low, so you have to get yourself back to good conditions before proceeding.

It's definitely more of a preparations game than a reactions game. Preparation is fine, but there's never any need for you to deploy clever strategies. The game is ALL about having a good arsenal of choices up your sleeve and, when you do, you're good to go, and then you need to be either very callous or purposefully challenging yourself while playing in order to get into a situation that requires mental resourcefulness and wit. I will admit, I checked some of the mechanical differences between the original and remake versions, and it seems like they reduced the HP of enemies and bosses quite a bit, and generally went to great lengths to streamline the gameplay and make it more in tune with the next few games in the series (as far I could tell from the party itself, Kyuuyaku seems to have taken the inner workings from Megami Tensei II and applied it retroactively to the first game as well to make it more consistent, but I'm not 100% sure). Maybe this means that the original is more nerve-wracking and you need to level up much more, but I doubt it really becomes more strategy-based and oriented towards exploiting the mechanics, like the style future franchise titles would strive to achieve. As far as I can tell, the abilities remain the same, only the stats change, so it's likely more of a formula redesign than any major gameplay departure. If it is though, I apologize, and rectify my statements regarding battle mechanics boredom as far as the original version is concerned.

But hey, regardless of version, the whole demon system is pretty cool. I don't remember the characters doing it much in the books, I believe Nakajima only had Cerberus and that was it, so there's a nice, original expansion of the novels'... mechanics (?) on display here. I don't think the demon conversation, recruitment and fusion systems need any introduction, but I will say that up until Shin Megami Tensei II, the seventh overall game in the franchise, for some odd reason all demons were limited to three abilities/spells (later three spells and a few abilities), so they were not very versatile. Furthermore, magic and abilities generally sucked for the most part in early MegaTen, and in this game, outside of Hanmahan, group healing and the occasional kaja spell, all you really want is a good punching bag to take the heat off of Nakajima and Yumiko.

Also, maybe it's just in the remake, but there are quite a few demons that are exclusive to the player through demon fusion. This begins happening from pretty much the start of the game, making them sort of unique all the way through and making it sort of cool for the player to go around with these demons that you can't see anywhere else and who are usually more powerful than the enemy demons in the area. Still, however, the limited abilities and limited usefulness of said abilities make things a bit boring and makes the demons sort of interchangeable for the most part, especially considering you can't even see them in battle. But hey, in 1987 I'm sure the vast array of options alone would have been pretty impressive and, considering the plethora of real-life inspiration that was put into the demons' designs, it's kind of still impressive today, really.

Enemies do have a few tricks of their own up their sleeve, too, though, and they usually fall into the "early RPG unfairness" spectrum quite nicely, such as being able to cast death spells when the game's programming is such that you get a game over if the 2 (out of 6) human party members die, even if all your demons are still alive (naturally the final boss can use a pretty accurate version of this move), or the loathsome "smiles and laughs" attack that permanently drains an experience level from a human party member if it hits, making you have to work your way back up again without even the mercy of having the enemy that sucked your level give a massive hoard of EXP when defeated. Or the mercy of adjusting the experience table (if you're level 41 and get a level sucked from you, now you're level 40 but you still need enough experience for level 42 to get back to level 41). It's basically a reset button.

The original version also had some major frustration in the fact that there was, like DQ and so many others of its time, no save feature. You had to visit a guy near the start of the game to get a password or use a late game spell from the girl. There was also no auto-mapping feature (though the mapper/mappara spell did exist, in the old MegaTen-style 3x5 grid), so you just had to create maps yourself, I guess, which is kind of like wizardry and bard's tale and such, and kind of interesting. Though, for a game that isn't all that stimulating otherwise, it's good that in the remake you don't also have to go get a sheet of graph paper to keep track of where you've been. I'm torn on whether the original's extra doses of hardcore game design are better or worse than the remake's streamlining, but it seems to me like the hardcoreness, probably caused by memory limitations and such, served more like an arbitrary layer of confusion placed over a game that didn't really have a juicy core, while the remake's alleviation of it brought about the black spots a bit more into the limelight... It's hard to make up my mind.

The more standard things to talk about in a review are usually average-to-enjoyable here. The environment graphics are pretty good for their time in the original version, and the remake has some good stuff in the late-game, but has a tendency to make the ground a fake-looking gradient that feels artificial and standoffish. Demon designs are always a treat in MegaTen and I wouldn't say this game is an exception, but I think the original designs look kind of goofy for the most part, while the remake uses the scaled-down style of SMT II and SMT If... instead of the better-looking, more detailed style of SMT I, so that's somewhat disappointing. The music is alright, nothing special, but it starts with really cheery, upbeat tunes that go against the ambiance, especially in the remake where they added a dark-ish prologue with more fitting, atmospheric music. The sheer length of each individual section of the dungeon means the tracks will start to get repetitive at some point, and they have a repetitive nature on their own, but they're not bad. I like the bass in Valhalla Corridor. I also like the last two areas' music. Bien's track sucks, though.

Either way, it surely isn't a great game. Nor does it have to be one, honestly. It's a 1987, sort of experimental game that toyed around with the concept of a dungeon crawler in a very japanese setting coming from a very risqué source. It has its merits in creativity, sorely marred by technical limitations and overly emphasizing on its subpar dungeon crawling gameplay, extending it to the point where it overstays its welcome quite a bit. The devs were wise in keeping the plot connections to its immediate sequel small (and it is fascinating, how different it is from all others in the franchise) because Megami Tensei 1 doesn't stand the test of time.

But again, such a thing shouldn't be expected from a late eighties, obscure weird little game, and for what it's worth, like I said about Dragon Quest, it served as a base, though in my opinion a rockier one, with which to found gameplay mechanics that would be expanded upon and embellished in future titles. I'd give it a 4 out of 10, perhaps an honorary extra half-point if the original version's gameplay is a tad more stimulating, but really it's hard to even give games like this a score. They're a product of the times, and they appeal to sensibilities of the times. Gamer mentalities, even within the genre, have moved past it, but it stays here as a testament to the growth of the series. Going into it, you're likely very aware of its shortcomings already, and whether you'd like it or not is, I think, even more independent of whatever mess of words I'd be able to string together like this than usual.

[tumblunni]

I had a really weird dream involving Dr Maddiman. Its a shame i can barely remember any of it and also it seems i woke up before it ended? Like i just had this overwhelming sense that allll the plot threads were gonna be wrapped up any second now and then BOOM awake. So just a whole bunch of random stuff happened with no real explanation at all.

It was some sort of post apocolyptic setting i think? Humanity was in these small isolated cities fighting against some sort of invading army but we never actually saw the aliens themselves. And some part of my brain was like "it makes sense its the same rules as a hairdresser and the design takes cues from a pack of AAA batteries". I have NO idea what that means! So basically everythibg was super vague and undescribed and dream-me just had a sense of already being a long time fan of this series and knowing enough to fill in the gaps. Apparantoy this was some sort of adaptation of a thing id already seen, but id been told the ending was different and more accurate to the manga? Also i wasnt actually a person watching this show i was still the protagonist of the show yet i acted like i'd been reincarnated and relived this week a million times or something

ANYWAY the way dr maddiman comes in is that he was some sort of 'brilliant but dangerous' expert the government had hired to help our fight against the aliens. It wasnt really explained why he was.. yknow.. maddiman. Like is this meant to be that ghosts also exist in this sci fi universe? Was he a half alien hybrid instead of a yokai? Was it just human maddiman with the personality of yokai maddiman due to ptsd...? In any case he didnt seem entirely tethered to the laws of reality and nobody knew exactly how he pulled off all his scientific miracles. He was treated as the only guy who could understand the mindset of the aliens, but that also made him dangerous because he trapped in the delusion of everything being okay and fun and happy and he often did evil things by accident while having good intentions. But they didnt have anyone else who'd cracked the code of the alien weaponry so they had to put up with him. He was just sorta assigned a crack team of secret agents whose job was Be The Old Man's Friend So We Dont All Die. Dont let him realise how the world is all destroyed and such, just play along with his goofyness and try and remind him to do his important work while dancing around why its important. it was super creepy how he was locked up and gaslighted like this!! And he was all 'oh im sure when im done with my ultimate experiment i can go home to my wife and kids' and yeah it was implied here that the same backstory applied :( 'distract the old man and validate his false opinion that his family is still alive and waiting for him' :( poor sci fi madds :(

Oh also for some reason he seemed to be wearing elements of Adventure era Dr Eggman's outfit? But just the general style of the coat and the wearing goggles that he never actually uses. And he had a very warm and cuddly autumnal colourscheme

Anyway i was part of the Super Secret Grampa Cherishing Division whose job was to act as his assistant but also secretly be packing a bazillion weapons to neutralize him if he poses a danger to humanity. But i started to genuinely care for the guy and question the 'any atrocity is permitted for the sake of saving the world' philosophy of my bosses. Also it was just very weird how it was this post apocolypse alien fighting action thing yet i didnt see ANY OF IT cos this story was confined to this one laboratory. It was surreal hearing about all this stuff happening offscreen!

I think Maddiman's main project was some sort of dimensional transport thing using salvaged alien tech? It was just a door in his lab that usually led to a closet but if he got it working itd teleport us straight to the alien base and save the world. And a lot of it wasnt explained but i got this great sense that itd all come together with a great twist ending evebtually but then i woke up before i got that far. Same for the reveal of this maddiman's new sci fi backstory and soooo many other dropped plot threads. Alas!

So anyway: closet. Closet with one of those bead curtain things cos i was thinking about them when i fell asleep. It was supposed to be a teleport but when it malfunctioned it had really scary negative effects warping people's biology and stuff. I remember one of the test subjects was sent in for a five day trip to a specific alternate dimension but then when they came back itd been several years and theyd had to survive in a deadly wasteland and been mutated into a hellbeast. And maddiman had a huge breakdown because he felt like his recklessness and optimism towards this experiment had caused this mistake to happen, and he'd never realized just how awful the consequences could be. He was babbling motor mouth discussing theories for where it went wrong and there was something like 'we'd only tested it for one day trips and assumed that just programming two of them would equal two days but actually with each additional number on the screen it multiplies the days by 3" And there was something about like...the bead curtain was the machine rather than the door itself? Like trying it on a bunch of different doors around the lab to try and find a way to cure this person.

And there was some sort of artificial intelligence computer with the personality of an adorable lil girl, who helped maddiman do calculations and stuff. She missed the mistake in this calculation cos her concept of linear time and the limits of human organs was kinda undeveloped. She only existed within the realm of numbers after all, and didbt even have functionality to record footage of her human friends's faces. No idea wtf a human looks like! So maddiman was lost in his desperate grief of potentially accidebtally killing or at least mentally scarring a person and the government would probably kill them now if they saw they were a super mutant. And he was sobbing and begging this AI to help, his last resort was her maybe being able to see a brainwave that he'd missed. But she was freaking out cos she didnt even fully understand why maddiman was crying let alone what to do to fix it. Eventually she did manage to find a solution theough some simple different logic thing that she had from her perspective as a computer. And that person was saved but still traumatized and maddiman had a moment of realizing just how high stakes everything was and freaking out. He was like 'whats wrong with my head, why didnt i notice that, why was i so reckless, why cant i seem to grasp basic human logic that i need right now" Having a big existential crisis of 'wait how did i even get in this lab, where's my family and why do i seem to have superpowers'. Protagonist mission: hide all the goddamn mirrors to avoid this weird ghostgramp (...aliengramp??) from realizing he's dead (..or an alien??) and losing control of himself. And everyone was running around talking about 'containment procedures' and poor maddiman didnt know that if his panic attack continued he might just straight up be killed for outliving his usefulness. So the protagonist was desperate to help him calm down and it sucked SO MUCH cos they had to lie about his past and weave the web of deception around him again for his own safety. In the end they just hugged him close until he calmed down, and all the other employees were like GASP THEY ACTUALLY TOUCHED THE EVIL DANGEROUS SUPER EVIL MAN and protag was like 'i am 1% away from slapping the next bitch who insults this grandpa'. And it was super depressing cos once he'd calmed down he seemed to start forgetting that anything bad had ever happened?? And he was really panicking and scared cos he didnt understand why he was forgetting, and he knew he had to cling onto something important but he didnt know what. And then five minutes later he was back to haha cheerful nothing is wrong and i love doing my fun science in this room im never allowed to leave. And protagonist was crying the tears that this poor gramp wasnt allowed to cry :(

Also actually i think maybe he was a ghost AND an alien? Like he was a scientist who died in some sort of tragedy back when the aliens first invaded, but along the way he'd been infected so his body got back up as a twisted combination of human and inhuman. And this was something unique to him, like he just happened to have a genetic mutation in his blood that was totally undetectable in life but happened to mix unpredictably with this alien virus to turn him into a hybrid instead of just killing him. So the government was very interested in finding a way to replicate this and create new supersoldiers, as well as just taking advantage of this dude's confused mental state that granted him a unique understanding of alien tech that made him more effective than other scientists. And, of course, also made him easy to manipulate :(

And i also had a feeling that maybe his backstory was mixed up with Adventure dr eggman? Like here it seemed he had a daughter instead of a son, and she had a similar death to Maria Robotnik where she was assasinated by the government he worked for, and it tipped him over the edge. I think Maddiman-alien-scifi-dude originally died trying to save her from being used in some sort of experiment? Like she was already dying of a disease and thats why maddiman took this job to have access to powerful government technology to try and look for a cure. But when the whole alien apocolypse happened, the evil government decided to use her for experiments cos she was 'basically dead anyway'. Theyd just lie and tell maddiman she died of her illness. So this was how they found out that this particular family's bloodline had a mutation that let them form a viable hybrid with alien dna. They were turning this poor kid into a monster in the basement while lying to her dad about her being dead! And maddiman was about to commit suicide from having no reason to live anymore, with the hell of this apocolypse world and the false impression that his kid was already dead. But somehow monster-daughter sensed this or something and broke out of containment to try and save him, and when he saw her he was able to recognise her even in her twisted state. So when the soldiers gunned her down in front of him and fed him some lies about this not being his daughter, he just completely snapped. He tried in vain to fight back and take down as many of them as possible in revenge, but well he was just a simple round dad with no ability to fight a government. So he was unceremoniously executed along with his kid and they shoved the bodies back in the lab to continue testing. "Damn that overemotional science dad, he made us execute our most valable test subject! But at least this way we can analyze his corpse to see if the mutation is passed down on the patrilineal side." But at some point during the fight, monster-daughter's blood had splashed on her dad and gotten into his bloodstream. So the seemingly dead body suddenly got up out of the morgue and started sucking people's blood or something. And this led to the current situation where they have him locked up cos he's a valuable test subject but also hey he has 100% reason to kill all of us and we're screwed if he remembers his past. Also i think the computer AI thing was his subconcious attempt to recreate the personality of his daughter even if he couldnt remember she'd ever existed :(

Anyway at some point things escalated and there was this final showdown versus both the invading aliens and the evil governmebt guys. I think there was some corrupt greedy politician dude who stole maddiman's teleporter tech and sold us out to the aliens cos he wanted money and power or something. And probably predictably the aliens just threw him off a bridge after he gave them the thing, because seriously even this evil army thinks these government dudes are too evil!

So this big actiony event was happening and Maddiman was freaking out like 'no no no i cant leave the lab everyone wpuld be mad at me, i dont even know what its like outside this room' even when he was in the middle of being attacked by aliens. He was forced to face his repressed memories to survive, and he naturally had a massive fuckin freakout! And i think maybe when protagonist character was trying to protect him he accidentally lashed out with his powers and hurt them, and he was so horrified thinking another person he cared about was gonna die because of him. Protagonist was like 'dont worry gramps its just a scratch' but he'd already freaked out and run away into the battlefield to his heavily implied death.

BUT THEN at some sort of moment of dire need, he came back all powered up and re-memoried and was like 'i have every reason to despise humanity but im not gonna let more children die because of these damn corporate monsters (and also literal monsters which are infinately less scary)" And he did some sort of great sacrifice to save the protagonist at the cost of his own life, and it was super dramatic falling from a building into a lake of fire or something. While sobbing and smiling peacefully thinkibg "did i atone for my sins? Will i be able to see my family again?" As his smiling face sunk beneath the flames and the protagonist cried out into the abyss...

Aaaaand then i dont really know what happened in the big battle and i also never found out wtf the solution was to fixing the transporter thing or how the aliens invaded or any of the million plot points that were non gramp related.

I just remember that when we all saved the day and defeated the baddies we found that maddiman had actually survived and it was a big hugs reunion. He was like "OH YEAH i totally forgot i literally already died once and regenerated from it, and this was the entire start to my story. My bad!" *shrugs inexplicably not dead arms*

So yeah in summary im glad my brain summoned up a universe where my favourite sad granddad is literally immortal now, but also why did it torment him with an even sadder plot than his original one

[badbackgroundscience]

Spider-Man better not have spider blood

You remember that plot line in the franchise-killing The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Electro Boogaloo where mini!Osbourne wants Spidey’s blood ‘cause he’s gonna live to be an old man with a disease that makes him look not like a power ranger baddie? And Spidey doesn’t want to give it to him because he fears what a transfusion will do?

Not entirely made up for the movie.

For you see, all the way back in The Amazing Spider-Man #10, Aunt May needs a transfusion, and Peter almost refuses (right in front of a couple of his fellow students) - though not because of what it might do to her, but because something in his blood might reveal his superpowers to the world (That’s real selfish, dude).

However, 1960′s medical technology is unable to detect anything, so Pete’s second identity is safe for now. His strength, meanwhile, is weakened for the rest of the comic, so he has to work a bit harder to catch the baddie, who turns out to be a fellow employee of the Bugle named Frederick Foswell.

(He’s a mask-wearing mob boss named The Big Man. JJ thinks it’s Spider-Man. JJ thinks every bad guy is Spider-Man. Spider-Man, meanwhile, thinks it’s JJ.)

Let’s talk about blood.

First, let’s get the “spider blood cells” out of the way, because if Peter actually had spider blood, the last thing he’d be worried about is a doctor finding out he has superpowers.

While spiders do have circulatory systems, they function incredibly differently than what you’re familiar with (Unless, of course, you study spider anatomy for a living). What you’d call their ‘blood’ is actually a more generic bodily fluid called hemolymph. Like human blood, it’s made of cells and proteins suspended in plasma, but unlike human blood, it’s not different from the fluid that exists between all the various tissues in the body.*

The hemolymph gets pumped by the heart into a cavity called the hemocoel, bathing organs directly with its oxygen and nutrients, and then gets pushed back into the heart. It doesn’t stay in one closed series of tubes going around and around.

This “open circulatory system” requires less energy than a closed one like you or I (or other animals more complex than arthropods) have, but doesn’t have the high pressures needed to get blood back to the heart particularly fast, so it wouldn’t work for any animal with an oxygen-hungry metabolism.

In humans, oxygen is transported via red blood cells, which are made up of a protein called hemoglobin. Some arthropods (which includes spiders) use the copper-based hemocyanin instead. It’s dissolved into the hemolymph - rather than existing as ‘blue blood cells’ - and is a much less efficient oxygen transport method than hemoglobin (carrying 17x less). So just like an open circulatory system, it’s probably not the best thing for a warm-blooded human-sized super agile spider hero.

The cells that do exist in spider blood exist as part of the immune system and for healing wounds and stuff. There’s a chart comparing human blood cells to spiders’ here. That does not mean they’re interchangeable and Aunt May’s body would appreciate getting infused with them...

But let’s pretend for a moment that Peter doesn’t have superpowers. His blood is just regular ol’ blood whether the tests can tell or not.

We never do find out what blood type Peter is, or what blood type Aunt May is. In fact, at this point in the comics we don’t know exactly how Aunt May is related to Peter. The fact that they share a last name suggests Uncle Ben was Peter’s dad’s brother, unless they adopted him and he took their last name. Assuming the former, Peter has no blood relation to his aunt, which means the likelihood of him being a compatible donor is the same as the likelihood he’s a compatible donor for Liz or Flash or the doctor. 

Among Caucasian Americans, 37% have O+ blood, and 33% have A+. So if we’re randomly guessing, both Peter and May would probably belong to one of those. O+ can donate red blood cells to A+, but not the other way around.

Here’s a quick refresher on blood types: If you’re type A like me, then your red blood cells have a protein on them called an “A antigen”, and your plasma has antibodies that attack red blood cells with the B antigen on them. If you’re type B, it’s the other way around. Type O red blood cells have neither antigen, and both antibodies in the plasma. And type AB red blood cells have both antigens, and no antibodies.

The antibodies are why you have to worry about who’s giving you blood. It’s also why the red blood cells have to be separated from the plasma before they can be donated. We’re often told O- is the “universal donor”, but if you just pumped a person’s O- blood straight into an A person, the A antibodies in the O plasma would attack the person’s own red blood cells (The B antibodies wouldn’t do anything, because a type A person already has them). AB plasma, on the other hand, can be given to anyone.

The +/- matters, too. That’s a separate antigen, known as Rh (D) (”Rhesus D”). If you’re a + you have it, and if you’re a - you don’t. Type - can be donated to type +, and + can be donated to a - exactly once (because after that, the body becomes primed to fight it).

If you botch a transfer with the wrong blood/plasma type, a patient can go into renal shock and die. So...don’t do that.

In addition to ABO and Rh, there are 33 other recognized “blood group systems”, with more than 600 antigens that can be found (or not found) in blood. Some differences are restricted to certain ethnic groups. For example, people with African ancestry might have red blood cells that lack the Duffy antigen, which actually gives them resistance against malaria. I don’t think we have to worry about Aunt May not having that one.

So, let’s assume Aunt May’s body will accept Peter’s donation. I don’t know what the practice was in the 1960′s,** but this day in age, blood has to go through testing. You can’t just draw blood out of a person, hand them a sandwich, then pump it into a person with a compatible blood type - even if you’re 102% positive both people have the same blood type. 

Maybe you’d resort to that if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere and the person was going to die ‘cause there was no other blood lying around (I’m sure I’ve seen this on television or in a movie before...), but not if you’re in a hospital. Even if the hospital was out of the blood they needed, they’d call around the city.

The other problem is the volume of blood needed. According to the Red Cross, the average red blood cell transfusion is 3 pints. But when donating blood, they only take 1 (or 0.5 L). The average adult body has 10 pints (or 5 L) of blood - being a pathetic teenager, Peter would probably have less. 

But say he did. That means he’d be giving his aunt around 30% of his entire blood supply.

Losing that much blood would likely send him into hypovolemic shock.

But I mean, Peter was once willing to give up the life of his child to save his dying aunt, so he probably wouldn’t mind killing himself to do it.

* A bit more detail: in a human’s closed circulatory system, red blood cells can’t leave the capillaries (ditto for certain proteins) so the “interstitial fluid” - i.e. the fluid in between tissues/organs - is similar to blood plasma, but it’s distinctly different from blood. In the open circulatory system spiders and other creatures have, the hemolymph is all there is.

** The first blood bank was established in Leningrad, in 1932. The American Red Cross blood program started in 1940, and in 1962 there were 4400 hospital blood banks in the US collecting 5-6 million units of blood per year. 

The concept of blood typing and universal donors comes from circa 1910. Nowadays, blood is tested for many markers (in addition to ABO and Rh) that would make the blood unsuitable for transfusion, including Hepatitis B and C, HIV, syphilis, and Chagas disease.

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The Amazing Spider-Man #10 - Writer: Stan Lee, Art: Steve Ditko

Image Credit:

Spider_internal_anatomy by John Henry Comstock, CC BY 3.0

[words-writ-in-starlight]

so i'm assuming that all the reincarnated ham crew look like their musical actors, which, awesome. but i was thinking about jefferson, who was a racist fucker being reincarnated as a black man. like. how would that even go down?

*emerges from cave, shamefaced* Right, so, does anyone remember that this AU exists?  Because I swear to God I didn’t forget, I just only now have had the time.  I actually have a bunch of prompts for it, not all of them are going to get written based on...like...my inspiration level, but also this series is alive again, so like.  Yep.  Here is some Jefferson.  Full disclosure, I dislike Jefferson and think his economic plan was some racist bullshit, so...that is evident.

To all you newcomers, I do recommend reading the other stuff, even if you could probably figure it out.  

All In One Spot AU

So, the academic affairs office holds out longer than theirpredecessor.  Not by much, but by alittle.  It takes two full weeks for Alexto hammer through his petition to be allowed to take more than max credits—and it’squite a petition.  Angelica takes one look at the twenty-page,double-sided, single-spaced letter to the dean of academics and disavows anyinvolvement, and John grins fondly, remarking that the dean has no idea what he’sgotten into.

The dean, incidentally, has lived his life with pleasantly dim memoriesof Philedelphia with cobblestone streets and a vague impression that he knowsthe unfortunate teacher annually strong-armed into teaching History of theAmerican Revolution.  He recalls verylittle else of his time in the Continental Congress—indeed, at gunpoint hecouldn’t have identified what exactly he was doing, back then.

He has a blindingly vividflashback upon looking at the first page of the letter—the pamphlet, really—and immediately feeds the entire thing through hisshredder.

“Jake,” he says, sticking his head out of his office to look at hissecretary.

“Yes, sir?”

“Approve whatever Hamilton’s request was before he sends anymoreletters.  I’ve seen enough for severallifetimes.”

“You got it, boss,” says Jake, whose past life was a blissfullyunremarkable farmer in the Italian countryside and who therefore has no ideathat his boss is sparing them all a lot of trouble.

Now, the reason this matters is because Alex walks into his Econ 101class for the first time two weeks into the semester, takes one look at thelesson outline the grad student wrote on the board, and makes a sound ofabsolute incoherent horror.

“Oh my god,” Alex says faintly, frozen in place two steps inside thedoor.  He was never an especiallyreligious person, but he’s wondering if maybe the universe is punishing him forpast crimes.  He’s not saying one way orthe other if he deserves it, but this seems excessive.  “Jefferson is haunting me from beyond thegrave.”

“Listen, kid,” sighs the grad student. She wears her hair buzzed short on one side and is clutching her coffeealmost as fiercely as Alex is, and he thinks this is maybe not her first classtoday from the also, I don’t carelook on her face.  “We’re doing a reviewof some basic socioeconomic structures, and the Jeffersonian/Hamiltonian debateis, like, critical.  So could you--”

“But it’s bullshit,” Alexbursts out before he can even try to hold his tongue.  “It was bullshit when Jefferson first came upwith it, and it’s bullshit now.”

“Jesus Christ,” a voice fromsomewhere in the front third of the lecture hall mutters.  A tall figure unfolds itself from a chair andsays, “Have you ever taken an economics class in your life?”

Alex can actually taste the way his blood pressure skyrockets.  It occurs to him, briefly, that someone—possiblyEliza, also possibly the General—might kill him if he starts a fight right now,but.  On the other hand.  He’s going to start a fight.  He’s got no choice, basically.

“Have you?” he demands rudely,turning to stare up the lecture hall at the young man—maybe a sophomore, he’stoo angry to be sure, but he’s wearing a very questionable magenta hoodie andhis hair is even fluffier than Lafayette’s and honestly he has a very punchableface, in Alex’s humble opinion—and narrowing his eyes.  “I mean, do you have a single legitimateargument for why Jefferson’s bullshit plan would work?  Because let me just say, plenty of Southernersloved to sit around and talk about how the country was being railroaded by thebig cities in the North but--”

“If the North can’t balance their own needs with the supply they cangenerate, why should the South--”

Fine, if that’s how he wants to play it. Alex raises his voice to try to drown the other guy out.  “If the South wants to call itself a part ofa country, it needs to support--”

“State-by-state trade--”

“—what, you expect landowners to share their profits freely enough tokeep a country alive, God you’re naïve--”

“—freedom from the chokeholdof a national bank--”

“—so the country can be held hostage by the South?”

“Farms and farm owners should be able to dictate where their finances--”

“—can’t punish the North for the sin of not having huge arable fields--”

“—your vaunted manufacturing facilities cover it?”

By now they’re bellowing at each other over the heads of the rest of theclass, real anger kicking up an intellectual debate into something familiar,and so Alex isn’t really surprised by the next slip of his tongue.  Old habits, new dogs—old dogs?  Something like that.

Anyway.

Point is, Alex slams his textbook down onto the grad student’s table andhollers, “Goddamnit, Jefferson, I wasright and history proves it, get off your fucking high horse!”

There’s a long couple seconds where Alex remembers, in the dead silencethat’s settled on the lecture hall, that he was kind of planning to keep a lidon that?   Oh well, any hope of secrecywas blown to shit by Washington’s class anyway and fuck it, he’s right, he was right then and he’s right now, andfurthermore—

“Go fuck yourself, Hamilton,” the tall guy says, and Alex has a smallheart attack.

“Jesus God, fucking Christ, what the fuck,” the grad student blurts allat once in a rush, but Alex doesn’t answer her, too busy taking a deep breathto launch his next volley.

Admittedly, it’s not a gracious one, but listen, just listen: Alex is not a gracious personand no one ever said he was, certainly never more than once, and definitely notafter having an argument with him.  

“Hey, look, I’m sure it’s rough to realize that all your best effortsonly ended in Andrew Jackson’s racist ass closing down the federal bank andlanding us all neck deep in shit a hundred and fifty years later--”

“Excuse me, I wrote--”

Alex drives over the tall guy’s protests—Jefferson’s protests, and wow, he’s going to hear about this fromWashington later.  “—but you really haveto get over your bullshit economic plan and just admit that it depends on slavery.”

“It does not!”

“Oh my god it does, it totallydoes, the only way your plan works is if there’s basically no economic overheadfor labor, and like, listen, buddy, I’m not sure if anyone ever told you this,but we had a whole war about the slavery thing, it was a very big deal, itkilled like a million people and then we agreed that slavery was bad.”  Alex pauses and very slowly arches an eyebrowat Jefferson, enjoying this…probably more than he should.  “Do youagree that slavery was bad, Thomas?” he asks with a wide smile.

If Jefferson purses his lips any harder, Alex thinks they might actuallyfuse.  “Still an asshole and animmigrant, I see.”

“Well, not all of us had such an easy karmic target on our backs as,say, just for example, a slave owner with a realbad track record getting brought back as a black guy,” Alex points outgenerously.  “If Maria shows up, I’m morethan happy to let her follow Peggy’s example and punch me, I’m doing mypenance.”

“I don’t deserve this,” Jefferson tells the ceiling.

“I dunno, man,” the girl sitting next to him says.  “Sounds like you might.  Like, I did the reading and your plan was kind of bullshit.”

Honestly this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him—well,no, it’s not even the greatest thing to happen to him this month, but it’s upthere, okay, it’s way up there.  “I feel so, so validated,” Alex tells thegrad student, who looks like she might be in shock?  Her eyes are wide and her jaw is slack, so hecocks his head and asks, “Are you okay?”

She shuts her mouth with a click, closes her eyes, swallows.  Pinches the bridge of her nose between herthumb and finger.  It’s shockinglysimilar to Washington’s patented Headache Pose that always appeared during thelatest cabinet battle royal.  

“Can you two be trusted to not kill each other if you sit on oppositesides of the hall?”

“Come on, now, we worked together for like—most of a couple decades,”Alex says after a second of mental math.

“Yeah,” she says, opening her eyes and visibly trying not to be star struck, which Alex…appreciates, to becompletely honest.  “And then you, youknow, mutually annihilated each other and he spent a couple more decades tryingto blackball your name out of the history books.”

“It’s so rare that I feel like the bigger person,” Alex says, bouncingon his toes.

“That’s because you’re unnaturally small,” Jefferson mutters, sullenlyresuming his seat.

“I am not listening to baseless insults about my height right now, thankyou, Jefferson, I have the eternal trump card and there’s nothing you can doabout it.”

The grad student puts her head back into her hand, and squeezes her eyesshut.

[yekulan-dothkah]

Jump Potions:

First off, I want to say I like what the jump potions offer, it’s a quick and easy way to get a second character into the game; great for roleplayers, people who have an alt on another server and want to help a friend with content they can’t do in duties, trials, or raids, the list goes on, they do have benefits. Super helpful for people looking to jump into the game if they were absent during 2.0 for example, or people who lost their account for any particular reason so they can catch up with some of the progress lost in both story and levels. Cool and positive still; but some things need to change or be taken into account before they make them “unlimited” like people are expecting come 4.1.

One problem with making them unlimited means someone could pay and have every class at 60 and never play one of them; this leaves the player with 0 experience if they never played before, for the illusion of “catching up”. No you haven’t really caught up, all you’ve done is skip learning how to play all those classes and as a result has lessened your experience with the game. “This game is stupid I keep dying.” “What does this do?” “How do I revive?” “This job story sucks, why am I doing this?” “How do I get the ability X?” “Why can’t I use X ability?” “Who is this NPC?”

I have literally played with multiple people who have said these things or similar. One example; I did the Aetherochemical Research Facility and our WHM died on the first boss halfway through, we finished the boss by a miracle and wait for the WHM to reset because neither me or the other DPS were SMN’s. “I don’t know how.” What? There’s literally a bubble that appears on your screen and asks if you want to revive back at the start, you have to click and hold OK. “Where? I don’t see it.” Did you close it? “I don’t think so?” If you did it’s a pink, brown, or yellow bubble that says something along the lines of revive at start? “I don’t see it.” ... Um... I don’t have a phoenix down do you? (tank doesn’t but the co-dps does so they start running back.) “Oh, I think I found it.” They revive and don’t go through the newly opened door after telling them to, and instead go through the whole first part of the dungeon and use the teleporter behind the boss to catch up.

That’s just one. They didn’t know about dodging AOE’s, they didn’t know about standing still so the tank could grab the laser line from the magitek bits and prevent them from eating damage, they didn’t know how to avoid the half room cleave. Later on they didn’t know that the explosion debuff on the final boss could be Esuna’d despite the new markers to signify that, they stepped on mines, they walked into more AOE’s. So I check their search info; they only had WHM to 60, and didn’t have ACN to 15 like you would have had to pre-SB, wearing a whole shire set like advertised in the purchase. If you think this is bad I have another story for you. Steps of Faith, not too bothered, even with level and item sync we should be able to skunk this boss, we got 3 new people but we’ll manage- Is that an Arcanist? They had a 70 summoner, but they didn’t have their Soul Crystal equipped. Now we did manage to complete this run, but we almost reached the last gate when I’ve cleared on the second to last before quite easily. Three new people contributes to that but we were missing a ton of damage due to not having summoner skills or traits, and watching them just cast Ruin 2 on repeat and their dots, but didn’t summon a carbuncle and then ran out of mp. I tried explaining things to them mid fight between activating cannons and dragon spikes, but they made absolutely no changes to their play style despite speaking English at the start. Maybe they only know simple etiquette in this case? But I used the auto-translate function to explain eventually and still nothing.

The list of experiences goes on, but in summary there needs to be limitations of these jump potions, currently they’re already causing problems and negative experiences for players both new and old. They take from the story, the involvement and the learning process that we all take for granted.

Ideas?

Make the novice grounds mandatory, and extend the learning. Perform the first collection of courses as usual rewarding the brand-new gear as it can be used for leveling other similar roles. After those courses are complete teach the basic mechanics; “The eye”, “The stack”, “The spread”, “The proximity”, “The final moments”,  “Doom” and lastly “Tether’s and their mechanics.” These are simple mechanics that have shined brightly in many dungeons; name one dungeon, raid, or trial, HW or later, that doesn’t use one of these? There’s even a huge clump of ARR dungeons that use these mechanics too. For each one they complete, reward them the Shire Gear from the boost potion until they have the whole set. It’s at most an hour long tutorial at this point, I know, but it teaches the player why they’ll “magically die for no reason” in the future, or why the dungeon is failing repeatedly. It doesn’t answer how to perform each mechanic for every dungeon; for example in one dungeon’s doom can be dispelled, and in another dungeon it’s stepping on one of three lit up platforms, but it still gets the basics across. “If you get doom, there’s a mechanic you likely have to do.” “If there’s a pulsating circle, run as far away as you can.” “If you see an big red eye, look away.” “If the boss is resistant to fire, try stepping in ice.” “If you see this symbol, spread/stack/run and hide behind something like a tank or statue.”

This is just one idea to improve quality of life for the purchaser, and the ones around them. Now maybe the training ground is removed as a requirement if the character is no longer a sprout-ling, or maybe they skip to the second half of the training so it’s shorter for people who likely know the mechanics, but may not.

Other ideas I’ve had include limiting jump potions to one per character, the first one requiring the training ground adjustments mentioned above, but the rest of your characters do not even if they’re a sprout; as these are alt’s and the other characters may be experienced. I know SE said from their studies that these boosters are mainly used by people looking to catch up, or trying to jump into the story with their friends; that’s great but you had a different player base for the study. It was noted that there were questions only the western conferences got asked about, stuff that Europe and Japan didn’t think of, and vice versa. We value different aspects and functionalities of games due to the culture around us that propagates those values. Western and European gamers in majority want fast instant gratification, where most games that come from Japanese developers reward steady hard fought progression, and more of the progression is the players skill to execute over the abilities or tools given to the user.

Take Armored Core series; a game where a perfectly tweaked mech could fly forever and never have energy problems, tweaking that required player knowledge to build, and even more player knowledge and skill to pilot properly. Look at the Monster Hunter series; sure the game can hand you all armor and fighting styles and bad ass weapons if it wanted to, but if you don’t have a clue how to use them without getting hit for every blow you land or don’t, you’re dead and not progressing anywhere. Look at the Tales series; games where the bosses can have huge unfair advantages from what I’ve seen, and only a smart player that knows their combo’s and the synergy of their party members make any progress, and the players who really know their stuff can combo a boss into oblivion like they’re a joke. Look at Dark Souls and Bloodborne; yes there are some weapons and skills you can abuse, but no one tactic gets you through every boss. If you have no skill behind the abuse tactics you still won’t make it very far before say, a boss melting you feet off in the lava it pukes, or cleaves you in half because of careless positioning, or a creature that sweats poison when you attack it up close. All games with Japanese developers that sell extremely well in Japan and less so in America, and even in Europe suffer for sales. Also, play any Drakengard/Nier game on the hardest difficulty, sometimes even just normal difficulty; skill is your only savior, not your super buffed weapon, that scrap of metal only meets the bar and makes it so the fights don’t take a millennia to complete. FFXIV is a mesh of the instant gratification mixed with skill. For example I’ve seen a new BLM and an experienced BLM in the same dungeon with the same skills, the execution of an experience skilled player puts out way better damage and utility than any new player. Can the new players still play and enjoy the game, of course, but the experienced play that has invested time and the knowledge to play skillfully far exceeds their casual or new comrades. Jump potions however take away from the player learning, this skill building that subconsciously happens over time; and can cause complications for the players new and old that might lead them not enjoy their time in the game, even going as far as to stop playing.

There’s not going to be a perfect answer that solves everything, I know this; but I hope SE is heavily weighing the pro’s and cons such an open option for jump potions, and the impact on the community. I desperately hope that SE isn’t focused solely on their revenue; the emotes, past event items, and mounts already cost absurd amount for just a single character to receive.

[gamesception]

KH3 first play through retrospective, part 2

This time, about the core gameplay & combat mechanics (again putting the stickier story stuff off till I have more time).  To avoid burying the lead, KH3 has my second favorite gameplay in the series.  Not quite as good as KH2, but a big step up from the various portable spinoffs that came after.

Edit: sorry, mobile ate the read more break

Right off the bat, magic is back to the KH2 system with mp recharge, cure putting you straight into recharge, customizeable L1 shortcut menu, etc, and to me that’s just a much more engaging system than the various decks and refresh timers of BBS and DDD.  You can even freely work spells into your keyblade combos again, so you could, for instance, open with an aero to collect some enemies, land a few keyblade hits on them, and finish off with an aoe thunder finisher.  The spells themselves aren’t quite as diverse as in KH2.  There’s no reflect equivalent, and aero, this game’s magnet equivalent, isn’t nearly as effective.  But they did bring back some of KH2′s gimmick of enemies sometimes reacting in particular ways to different spells.  For instance, there’s a dandelion monster with fluffy armor that you can blow away with aero, and the game never explicitly tells you this, there’s just a scene where Rapunzel blows some dandelion seeds and the game leaves it to you to make the connection, and that’s kind of cool and clever.  Not as much of that as I would like, and honestly even if you don’t find and exploit these weaknesses most enemies fall quickly and easily enough even on proud mode that you might play through and not even notice them, but it’s cool that those deeper aspects of the spells are there again.

As for just bopping enemies with your keyblade, melee combos are mostly pretty snappy and satisfying, most enemies & even bosses will stagger letting you get in combos if you’re able to land the first few hits.  Air recovery reprisals, dashes & dodges, and blocks, parries, & counters all work well & feel good, though I’m not sure yet if they feel as good as in kh2.  There are fewer keyblades to use in this game, but they can be upgraded so they can all stay relevant to the end, allowing you to use whichever keyblade you like, and they each come with their own shotlocks and, of course, form changes, which was a big part of the hype buildup for the game.

And those keyblade form changes really deliver.  Each keyblade has it’s own form changes that you work up to by landing combos with them, and limits that you can use in their final form change for big damage.  Now, you can just pick a favorite and just exclusively use it, and that’s mostly what I did (my personal favorite being the pirates keyblade with its spear-like transformations), but you can also switch between up to three equipped keyblades at a time, even mid combo, and if you build up the combos to open the forms, you can then bank those forms by switching to a different keyblade for a while, and then when you need the power up you can switch back to a keyblade that has a form change ready to go.  Or you can enter the form and switch keys, and the duration on that form will pause until you switch back.This isn’t something the game tells you or that you ever need to do either, it’s just a neat trick there to reward players who engage with the game’s mechanics.

The keyblade form-changes also change how your magic works.  For instance, the fire spells are by default long range projectiles like they were in KH1, but in the Hammer form of the melee-oriented toy story keyblade fire becomes a close range aoe to punish enemies that crowd around you, like it was in KH2, and this aspect further encourages experimentation with both your keyblades and your spells.

Now, there are some missed opportunities with the keyblade system in KH3.  For instance, dual wielding was a really cool aspect of a few of the drive forms in KH2, and none of the keyblades in KH3 have dual-wielding form changes.  At least, not to my knowledge, there are some hidden keyblades I never unlocked.  Also, there are relatively few returning keyblades from previous games.  The oblivion and Oathkeeper in particular are kind of notable in their absence.

There is one form change that isn’t based on your keyblade - rage form, kh3′s version of kh2′s antiform, which seems to become available based on taking a bunch of damage quickly.  In kh2, antiform was basically a punishment for using drive forms too much, temporarily locking you out of spells, items & reaction commands.  You got powered up physical combos, but loss of reaction commands in particular made it difficult to actually fight in antiform and you mostly just had to ride it out.

Rage form is similar in that you lose spells, items, and situation abilities while using it in exchange for powered up melee combos, but since you have to activate rage form voluntarily, and entering it fully heals you, and situation abilities aren’t critical to combat the way reaction commands were, this is a risk/reward choice rather than just a punishment.  that aspect is enhanced by rage forms own triangle command, risk charge, which ups your damage but cuts your health in half.  activate this three times to unlock the finisher which deals a bunch of aoe damage and ends the form.  Of course, you could just play risky, risk charge three times, and ride out the form’s duration doing stupid melee damage and save the finisher for the end, but since you can’t heal while the form persists doing so is obviously, well, risky.

As a result, where antiform was cool but frustrating, rage form is cool and fun, and I used it almost every opportunity I got, even if doing so did cause me to suffer a few extra deaths along the way.

Keyblades, forms, & magic make up the bulk of your fighting kit, and all are great, making for a very positive overall experience.  There are other tools as well, but they’re a bit more of a mixed bag.

Flowmotion & its related attacks are back from DDD, but, perhaps responding to complaints about flowmotion being overpowered in that game, they seem underwhelming to the point of not really being worth bothering with here.  Maybe I’m missing a trick and further experimentation with the system will show it to be more engaging and rewarding than I’m giving it credit for, but I barely used flowmotion myself, and almost never in combat.

Summons are in a similar boat.  They eat all of your mp - not just putting you into recharge like cure, you can only even use them when your mp bar is full and then they put you straight into recharge.  they fully heal you along the way, but with magic in general being actually fun and good in this game, if not quite as good as in kh2, i never found the summons worth giving up a full bar of spells, and that was me playing as melee oriented a build as possible.  Maybe if they didn’t heal you, but could be used at any mp level?  Or if they used an entire different resource, maybe an alternate use of the shotlock meter?  As it is, I couldn’t be bothered, and the few times I tried them out they seemed to fall woefully short of justifying the resource cost.

speaking of shotlocks, those are back from bbs, and similar to flowmotion they’re much reduced in strength from their debut appearance.  Mostly it’s a way to squeeze in some extra long range damage without burning mp resources, though different keyblades have different shotlocks and some try to be more short range oriented.  I found them good enough to use, but not quite good enough to get excited about.

Shotlocks also have a movement function now, in that you can push square while focusing a shotlock to basically teleport sora to a locked target.  This is used, albeit rarely, to reach some distant platforming target, and also is occasionally used in huge arena fights to teleport up to a distant enemy, though the game is inconsistent about when it lets you do this, and requires you to do this so infrequently that some players will probably forget it’s even a thing during the final boss encounters, which...  hurts.  I’m one of those unlucky players who forgot this was a thing, and you can beat the xehanort fights without it, but it makes things a lot harder.

Of course, the big new combat mechanic - apart from keyblade forms, and even those are mostly just an evolution of drive forms - is the ‘attraction commands’, basically disney world rides as attacks, and I’m sad to say that I mostly don’t like them.  They’re big and slow and long, they have you stopping the engaging combat to play much less engaging minigames, they have their own music which is generally less good and certainly less thematic than whatever battle music they temporarily replace, and they’re generally so strong and powerful that not using them kind of feels like a punishment.  And I feel bad for harping on them, because they look cool and impressive, there was clearly a lot of effort put into them, and for a disney game incorporating the disney world theme park aspect was just a great idea.

I think my problem with them can best be explained by highlighting the two times that they really do work, one towards the start of the game when you use a big flying train attack against the rock titan, and one towards the end of the game when you have a huge fight against an endless swarm of heartless & nobodies with opportunities to use all of the attraction attacks, including the return of that same train.

In these huge spectacle battles, whether against one giant monster or an endless swarm of smaller monsters in a spacious arena the attraction commands really work well.  They add to the spectacle of what was mostly spectacle to begin with, and had attraction attacks been reserved for these sorts of spectacle battles I’d probably really like them.  But they’re not reserved for spectacle battles in huge arenas, they trigger in almost every single fight, regardless of arena size or number or threat level of the enemies and it gets super old and super awkward super fast.  You can choose not to use them, but since they come up as triangle commands it’s easy to use them entirely by mistake

Which segways into the triangle/situation command system, which is similar to 0.2 except that multiple situation commands can arise simultaneously and you can pick the one you want to use by cycling through with L2.  This is mostly fine, but imo too many different kinds of attacks are triggered this way.  Keyblade form changes, keyblade form finishers, ally team attacks, super-spells like in 0.2, attraction commands, and contextual environmental actions like opening chests are all implemented as situation commands that you cycle through with L2 and activate with triangle, and it’s super easy to activate the wrong one by mistake, going into a theme park ride when you just wanted to open a chest or prematurely ending a form change by triggering its finisher when you wanted to use an ally attack.  It’s honestly a little frustrating at times.  I wish at least some of those - say team attacks and form finishers - had just been left in the menu.

The over-use of triangle for all these other mechanics also leads to a sad lack of kh2′s enemy-based reaction commands, which were themselves maybe a little over-used in that game, but still were quite effective in making different enemies feel unique in combat.  As is, the enemy designs are all really cool if you slow down enough to look at them, but in practice they mostly all come and go rather quickly with the same spell blasts and keyblade whacks and overlong theme park rides for massive aoe damage, so they just don’t feel as distinct and memorable.

Boss fights, which do sometimes incorporate reaction commands in some form, are also a little lacking, in that far too many of them are ‘fight against giant flying monster in over-large arena where 3/4 of the challenge is just getting close enough to hit the thing in the first place’.  These big monster fights can be cool, some of them are done well enough when considered in isolation, but some of them can repeat long combat phases if you don’t damage them fast enough which can start to feel redundant and frustrating.

More to the point, there just aren’t enough fights against humanoid foes during the game, whether we’re talking about organization members or disney villains.  At least, not until the end of the game, when there are suddenly arguably too many of these kinds of fights in a row with nothing but cut scenes to break them up.  But that’s again more a story thing, so I’ll talk about it more later.

...

Another thing worth mentioning is that your allies are a lot more useful in this game.  Donald & Goofy seem stronger and smarter in general, they have good support abilities and team attacks, and you can even tell them to reserve healing for sora if you want.  They’ll still spend a fair amount of the time dead, but they’re nowhere near the dead weight they were.  And you don’t have to swap them out for world allies either, you just get bigger parties to fight with when more allies team up.

Donald is especially nice when supporting rage form, as he can heal you after you risk charge a few times, negating the penalty and letting you spend more time beating face with your powered up melee attacks.

...

One issue that is kind of a sticking point gameplay wise is difficulty.  I died a few times in proud mode, which is good, that’s what I was looking for, but I was also rushing through the game and avoiding side content, reaching the end at about level 37 with keyblades mostly at levels 3 and 4.  And I didn’t play well, either, mostly just tanking hist and brute forcing my way through the last bosses with recovery reprisals, cure spells, and healing items loaded up on donald and goofy.  If you do go out of your way to complete side content, collect better gear, and level up your character and keyblades, then some of the later fights that are *supposed* to be difficult narratively might be lacking in punch, even on proud mode.  No-exp for a low level run is an option, but I don’t know yet if it’s a fun one, or just a frustrating chip damage slog, and in any event doing so means missing out on fun abilities and basically amounts to deliberately holding back which doesn’t feel cool to me.

Kh2′s final mix critical mode is rightly held up as one of the best ‘hard modes’ in video games generally, and it’s unfortunate that there wasn’t a similar difficulty setting here, one that might encourage me to learn & utilize Sora’s full tool set, including summons, flowmotion, & the like.  Oh, well.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for less difficulty for whatever reason, there I think you’re pretty well covered.  In addition to normal and easy difficulty settings, there’s also a ‘kupo coin’ system that works like a sort of purchasable extra life, sort of like bottled fairies in zelda games, though you can only carry one at a time.  Some of the minigames that gate story progression - in particular gummi ship missions and the pirate ship combat - might be problematic, as I’m not sure whether the difficulty settings affect minigame content.  In general I’ll talk about minigame stuff in another post.

...

finally, on the much memed subject of ‘floaty’ movement and combos... yeah, motion’s a bit floaty, and it can be a bit of a pain to get back to the ground.  However, combos are mostly quick and enemies, even most bosses, actually stagger, and while you’re in the air you can still use most of your defensive kit - you can block, dodge, heal, and even use items while in the air, so a somewhat floaty descent - while it can be occasionally frustrating if an enemy is out of reach beneath you - isn’t the same problem that it was for some of the portable games.  At least imo.

[starwarshyperdrive]

My Star Wars

This is editorial and highly subjective. I apologise in advance. The thing that annoys me the most is also the thing I love the most. The fact that there is not one Star Wars fandom, there are several. Star Wars is for everyone. All ages, all ethnicities and all walks of life. And I love that. At the same time there is a lot of room for things that I don’t love. Don’t get me wrong. Just because despite trying my best I just couldn't get into The Clone Wars (I still prefer the 2003 Star Wars: Clone Wars series) I don’t think that it’s inferior. I acknowledge it. I acknowledge Ashoka, but I just don’t get excited about it the same way I get excited about other stuff. That doesn’t mean that ‘my Star Wars is better than your Star Wars’, it just makes it more interesting and at the same time challenging. I see a lot of things contradicting my personal perception of what ‘the force’ is. Even seasoned fans with popular channels sometimes seem to have a completely different perception of what Star Wars is. And instead of thinking THEY ARE WRONG I started wondering where this is coming from. The fact that we all still love Star Wars just proves the universality of the mono myth as described by Joseph Campbell. You don’t have to understand why it speaks to you. It simply does. Does that mean you’ll have a hard time predicting the plot or understanding connections. Yes, no, maybe. After all - by now - it’s ‘just a story’ that’s being made up by other individuals. Not an universal truth. I came to the conclusion that every fan has it’s own unique Star Wars fandom, built out of a large pool of pick-and-chose parts. To understand mine, here is the kind of Star Wars fan I am and what I think about that subject.

I didn’t grow up on comic books. As a European suburban kid that always seemed uniquely American to me. I grew up influenced by the history of the land around me. Medieval castles, Roman ruins and pagan folktales. I was always very interested in history and movies. So thanks to - but not exclusively owing to - Indiana Jones my dream job as a child was archaeologist. So I chose Latin and Ancient Greek in school, further focusing on ancient myths of heroes going on journeys, seeking adventure and fighting evil. Jumping a few years ahead, I started to get interested in eastern philosophy. Everything always just brought me back to Star Wars or was in some way related or seemed very familiar in that way.

If I’m interested in something I always want to go to the core, to the source, so the natural development for me was to study Kendo. The way of the sword. Ironically one of the first things the Sensei told us ‘this is not Star Wars’, this is not ‘sword ballet’ Just one of the reasons why it pains me to see beautifully choreographed sword fights in movies (did someone say prequels?). Reality is fast, reality is quick and painful. The better you are the less movement there is. I fought with 80+ year old 8th Dan Japanese Sensei who didn’t seem to move at all. They won easily and it looked like they’d just stand there. Reminded me a lot of Darth Vader in A New Hope actually or SPOILER ALERT the way Obi Wan dealt with Maul in Rebels. Luke is still a learner in Empire Strikes Back and Vader is toying with him. Those fights seem authentic to me. Same goes for the way Kylo Ren fights in The Force Awakens. Someone who is too sure of himself and puts too much power into his fighting because he isn’t used to fighting someone even close to equal. Rey has the fluidity of someone with talent (and previous training). In a fight there are no unnecessary show-offy swirly moves. This would just give the opponent an opening. Granted, a lightsaber is a bit different. Whereas a sword, or saber has 1 or 2 sharp edges, a lightsaber is deadly no matter where it hits. But enough geeking out over Japanese swordsmanship.

As for the philosophy, I started meditating and again found a lot of similarities with the force as portrayed in Star Wars. Especially after or before a fight, we used to meditate. Before to focus. After to regulate the heart rate. Both in combination would what Qui Gon did, I have to assume. There are many stories about buddhist monks who managed to achieve things through meditation some consider to be unnatural. The Chinese and Japanese even have a word for it. Chi, or Ki - the life force. Clearly a major inspiration for George Lucas when he came up with the concept of the force. 

In the west and especially in our modern ‘we have solved and explained everything through science, there is nothing we do not know’ mindset we sometimes fail to see or understand other perspectives. So when someone talks about how a force ghost can’t do this or that or be at a certain time or space based on our ‘wordly’ limitations I have to wonder why they assume that force ghosts are limited the same we are. You don’t have to study quantum mechanics to be able to grasp the concept of more ‘timeless’ existence. The way I see it - once you’re one with the force you can pop up wherever and whenever you want. Ironically the fact that the midichlorians prove that the force can itself create life it also opens the door for reincarnation. I feel like a lot of people have problems understanding this concept of the force, which limits their comprehension a lot. Then again. Who am I to judge. But I think the force has to make sense in a philosophical kind of way. Something that parallels the myths on our own planet, be it Native American or Tibetan. This is also why I think seeing Star Wars through a Comic Book filter is bound to fail. And it’s why speculations of people too much into comic books tend to be wrong. I don’t know it very well but people suddenly turning good guys after being bad and killing people and no-one bats an eye, seems a bit too WWE wrestling for me. Motifs such as redemption and fallen heroes are a primal aspect of story telling. Enkidu in the epic of Gilgamesh couldn't return to his previous state once he spent too much time in civilisation. He went too far. The reason why Star Wars is so appealing is in my opinion because it speaks to this very essence of human story telling and repeats themes we heard and told over and over again for thousands of years. That and the fact that it mixes ‘fictional’ elements with real life. 

It always worked best when movie sets can be visited. We can identify with it. Avatars Pandora might be impressive and tantalising but at the same time, deep inside we know it is not real. Star Wars feels ‘more real’ even in it’s almost Freudian usage of the ‘slimy slug’ as gangster boss or someone named Greedo who’s claim to fame is trying to make a quick buck and even double crossing his boss to achieve that goal. There is no dead superhero who is suddenly someone else and then a giant human planet attacks. There are no superpowers. The force is something everyone can feel. To use another buddhist metapher. The mind is like a glass of dirty water, when you stir it it becomes cloudy. If you calm your mind, the dirt will settle and the water will be clear. In my understanding seeing clear water equals feeling the force.

Myths also serve as moral principles and teach us valuable lessons. Darth Vader was tricked into becoming a dark side apprentice. He had doubts. He was redeemable. Kylo Ren chose the dark side. He committed patricide. An element that can also be found in ancient myths from all around the world. An act that will always lead to the ultimate demise. Don’t go too far. Don’t cross the point of no return. Don’t turn around, Lot. or your wife will turn into a pillar of salt. 

Don’t turn around, Orpheus…

People talk about Anakin killing younglings (off camera) and use it as an argument that Kylo could turn to the light. If you look at historical themes this seems to me very unlikely and too comic booky for Star Wars. Which brings me back to why I didn't like The Clone Wars. Even though George Lucas stated that Star Wars is for 12 year olds, there has always been an additional element to it. Lets call it added depth. This depth I’m missing in The Clone Wars. Ashoka speaks up to her master and no-one is really acting the way they are supposed to act if they were Jedi or in some sort of military structure. Sure it’s good fun, but he constant disobeying of orders seems a bit..shall I say unrealistic (I’m aware of the irony). At the same time, that absolutely works for Star Wars Rebels. Kanan is an insecure half-Jedi teaching a street brat hungry for knowledge. While I’m not entirely on board for everything (you almost lost me at space whales) I am definitely a Rebels fan. The introduction of Thrawn gave me goosebumps and was the best thing that ever happened outside of the movies. I’m a strong advocate for the reboot and I never liked the old EU. Too many weird stories. The reboot came at the right time and was necessary. I never really followed it, but I’m all in when it comes to the new canon. I try to read all the books and get all the tiny bits and pieces of lore they hide in them.

As for the games, I know a lot of people like them and even though I’m not a gamer, I played most of them. Actually I exclusively play Star Wars games. I had a lot of fun with Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy and hope they do something similar again at some point. I also liked the Force Unleashed series and for a bit of fun the old Battlefront games. I don’t have a TV or console, so I couldn’t try out the new ones and I have yet to be convinced that a new game is so good that it warrants a purchase of the aforementioned. Of course I also played some Knights of the Old Republic and the visuals of the Sith are simply awesome. Darth Malak and Darth Nihilus are great. But somehow it seemed too detached from the Star Wars I knew. A bit of The Phantom Menace times a hundred. How often would designs and looks repeat themselves over thousands of years. And if it’s just a kind of similar look, then it might as well be Hunger Games with a lightsaber. I know a lot of people hope for an Old Republic movie or TV series. I’m not one of them. And I also think it’s not as marketable. The gaming target audience is huge but it’s not something that can easily be sold to the general audience. To quote Snoke ‘we shall see’. Of course I would watch and love it, but if I could chose I’d have other priorities, such as boba Fett never taking off his helmet in a movie unless it’s for 10 seconds and they get Temuera Morrison. Because: consistency.

Now for the movies.. There are several generations of Star Wars fans out there. Some say their favourite movie is Attack of the Clones. Some say their favourite character is Ashoka. If that’s what they grew up with that’s understandable. Star Wars is about emotions and association. If you grew up getting a battle droid for X-mas that’s the natural consequence. To me it still feels like a Christian saying that the local priest is better than Jesus. I can’t help it. The original trilogy is holy. Nothing can ever touch it. No matter how good the movie is it will never surpass 40 years worth of memories and experiences associated with the movies. I have seen the OT hundreds of times and they still hold up. When I watch the movies every couple of months I’m usually like ‘I forgot how awesome they are’.

Which brings me to the prequels. Yes I know. blabla, but.. I never had an issue with the prequels. I have always been an apologist, even though there are parts that tested my love. I don’t mind Jar Jar as much as I mind farting space gnus, but the pod racing scene always seemed much too long. And it seems longer every time I watch it. Apart from that I still hold on to the argument that the opulence and use of colours was a genius way to portray the fall of the republic and visualise the change to a bleak and cold empire. Of course the battle droids are no substitute for stormtroopers, but over all I’m surprisingly OK with The Phantom Menace. I would’ve preferred an older version of Anakin, but like I said.. it’s OK. It had Qui Gon Jinn in it. That immediately makes every movie five times better. Now Attack of the Clones is a different story entirely. I remember having high hopes for that one. The promotion back then seemed nice enough and the scene with the imperial march is still one of the most gripping scenes from the prequel trilogy and some of the battle scenes are really good. I’m talking about the clones, not the Jedi just pretend someone shoots at you CGI disaster. But that’s that.. The movie lacks a real opponent and the position is weirdly split between Count Dooku and Jango Fett. It somehow didn’t work for me. They should've kept Darth Maul. There is also something in Star Wars I don’t really like. Every bad guy needs a new and different lightsaber. In the end it make somehow sense for Kylo Ren, but did we need a bent one for Dooku, 4 for General Grievous, a Tonfa style in Force Unleashed, an upside down one for Ashoka, a helicopter lightsaber for the inquisitors. I mean it starts getting ridiculous. What’s wrong with a good old standard lightsaber. Thank you, Rey! (if she gets a saberstaff I’m ok with that). I recently rewatched Revenge of the Sith. I always liked it but for me - after watching The Force Awakens and Rogue One - it just didn’t hold up. It’s not Haydens fault though and the visual storytelling again is on point. The clouds increasing on the horizon to symbolise the fall to the dark side. Impeccable. And while I didn’t like the design the phase 1 clone trooper design, the phase 2 armours looks bad ass. It’s the unnecessary and completely out of place slapstick comedy that’s bothering me. The R2D2 vs. Battledroids scene in the beginning is the stupidest part of all movies. I always have to cringe. The CGI is also off.  

The Force Awakens on the other hand.. I’m not an impressionable person. Leaving the cinema I’m not like ‘WOOO THAT WAS AWESOME. BEST MOVIE EVER!!!’. I usually like to let it sink for a while and philosophise about what certain parts meant and such. I have seen it 14 times in the cinema. That should give you an indication whether or not I liked it. A guy told me ‘yeah.. I saw it 2 times, the first time I was like awesome, but the 2nd I didn’t like it at all. I give it 6 months and then it’s the next Phantom Menace’. Well it’s been 1 1/2 years and it’s still far from being the new Phantom Menace. Overall the movie feels just right for me. I think the argument that it’s a remake is plain stupid. Unless you make an entirely different movie and remove all that makes it Star Wars you will always have parallels. And if we stick to the mono myth theme it’s obvious that the new hero will have a similar journey. Yes, but… yes, but..  A weapon inside a planet might be round but it’s not a Death Star. If they’d contracted a new super star destroyer the experts on the internet would’ve said ‘it’s another shape but it’s just another death star. So there is no winning here. What I personally didn’t like was the fact that Han Solo wanted to put Cpt.Phasma in a trash compactor as if he’d be doing his ‘best of’ tour. Remember that, kid? You all like that, right? We were crazy back then. That seemed a bit lets say..pathetic. 

At first the rathtars bothered me but I somehow got used to them. Weird ball shaped monsters with tentacles seem to be both retro and Star Wars appropriate. The low budget cosplay look of Kanjiklub bothered me more. They looked more like the uninspired product of a costume designer on a budget for a cheap Nickelodeon series. I always thought it would be awful if Kylo took off his mask, but they way they did it worked perfectly. Most of the ‘plot holes’ people talk about can easily fixed by either watching the movie closely, thinking or being patient. Why do we need everything laid out and explained? I like that The Force Awakens left some questions open. I also think the often discussed scene - that even Mark Hamill himself would’ve loved to do - of him catching the lightsaber at the end would've completely defeated the purpose. Fan sometimes seem  like kids that want to eat sweets all day. Don't give them everything they want. They don't know what’s good for them. This plot would've been disastrous and much too tacky. ‘was someone Luke-ing for me?’ Star Wars is not an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

Speaking of what’s good for fans. Rogue One. Holy moly. Can Gareth Edwards please do every Star Wars movie now? (Unrelated: I’m a bit worried about Han Solo) When Star Wars episodic movies are for 12 year olds, then Rogue One is what happens if you look at the Star Wars universe through the eyes of an adult. Rogue One was intense. I’m lost for words. If it wasn’t for the sanctity of the OT Rogue One might as well be my favourite movie. We got introduced to new aspects of the force. Showing once more that the Jedi dogmatic approach that lead to their demise is just one way of interpretation the force, which reminded me of the buddhist saying ‘there are may ferries leading to the other shore’. There are mystics and pragmatists but in the end we’re all one in the force. Chirrut and Baze are two sides of the same coin. The one who loses faith and the other one who trusts the force. It doesn’t matter if they are gay. That’s quite frankly insulting and ignorant. The way I understood their bond was beyond puny worldly understanding. A spiritual bond. Brothers in the force. And I’m so glad they didn’t make a love story out of Jyn and Cassian. Out of the same reason. Not every bond has to be sexual. That’s a shallow assumption. I wouldn't have minded if someone would’ve survived, but that’s the way things go. A bold move and it breaks my heart every time I watch the movie. It puts so much weight on the sacrifice they made for the rebellion. Everything else would've been wrong. No matter how much I would’ve liked them to survive. At the end of the day we all want a happy ending.

Going forward..where do I think will the franchise go?

I’m just worried that at some point they will cast aside the traditional storytelling aspect in favour of a more comic book style popcorn cinema approach. I don’t think we’re there yet and I hope they are aware of what Star Wars is about and don’t try to jump on some train that is selling well at the moment. Kathleen Kennedy and the story group seem to be on top of it and seem to be very aware of that. Also luckily Star Wars is still No.1 but for the unlucky case that Guardians of the Galaxy or Avatar are more successful, if that ever happens, I fear movie executives do what movie executives always do and ruin everything by desperately trying to sell. Be it by doing a reboot with whoever is popular at the time. The next Jennifer Lawrence as young Leia or the next Zach Efron as Han Solo or by just copying the highest grossing movie. Marketing will make sure the general public will like it but what about us smart ass fans?

Predictions for The Last Jedi: Did/will Luke turn to the dark side? Of course not. Luke made his decision in Return of the Jedi. I can only assume that the reason why he became a hermit has something to do with the fact that sometimes doing nothing is the best option. Just like in the educational game September 12th. Everytime you shoot a terrorist, you create more of them in response until the entire game is populated by terrorists. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and not get involved to avoid even worse consequences. History is often repeating itself, so why wouldn’t Luke do the same thing they did to him? Hide a force sensitive relative in a remote place? There are several ways this could pan out, but it has been said repeatedly that Star Wars is about the Skywalker lineage. Kylo will never be redeemed, so it doesn’t really make sense to focus on him. There is only one person left. There seem to be a lot of people thinking she is a Kenobi. Which brings me back to the The Clone Wars. Obi Wan might have had feelings for someone, but Obi Wan abided the Jedi code. There is no way she is a Kenobi. Also from a storytelling point of view. The jump would be too big. The regular audience would be like ‘WHAT!?!’ and it would just be lazy storytelling. Yeah btw Obi Wan totally did it. And you are his granddaughter, because he hid his daughter well. We will also not have the time to explain who your father is, so just bear with us. NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. People seem to have a big problem grasping the Jedi concept of non-attachment which is a 100% Buddhist concept. It’s not about being living in celibacy. Anakin even says it. It’s about attachment, which leads to the fear of loss. Just take spies. They aren’t forbidden to marry. They have to accept that their family can be used against them which makes them vulnerable. Which is exactly the point, both physically and philosophically. So this attachment is what ultimately led to Anakin's downfall. Makes me wonder ‘have you understood NOTHING?’. Obi Wan might be able to see through the problems caused by the Jedi orders institutionalised dogma rules but he surely won’t make the same mistake as Anakin. Rey has to be a Skywalker. Even C3PO theoretically is. Family finds family in Star Wars. She might not even be Lukes daughter. There is a way to squeeze in a ‘Ben started acting strange so we hid his little sister from him’ explanation. He says ‘so it is you’. That can be everything or nothing. And Snoke. He will most likely be a nobody. A wizard of Oz. I expect him to be some slimy poser ex-politician, who is as much of an imposter as Kylo is. Someone once theorised that Kylo might kill him at some point, which would be a nice twist on the Darth Vader / Emperor relationship. A lot can happen in some 30 years and we don’t know half of it, so it will be interesting to see how they fill the gaps. 

To return to The Last Jedi - there are rumours that indicate that (SPOILER ALERT) Benicio DelToro won’t be some super duper Baddie, but much rather a sleazy casino owner kind of guy. I’m really looking forward to seeing his performance. He will bring gravitas to whoever his character is. Even if he is just another Dexter Jettster. 

At this point I have no clue what the plot will be. I have no clue how Carrie Fishers death will affect the plot. I kinda expected the legacy characters to die one by one, the same way Obi Wan, Yoda and Darth Vader did. Now Carrie Fishers family said that there won’t be a CGI Leia in Episode 9. Lets just say, if she died in The Last Jedi and that was the plan all along there’s no way they’d say ‘all good, we don't need reshoots’. Could all be a diversion. Leias death on screen would definitely give the movie an additional emotional momentum. Just look at what happened with Fast & Furious after Paul Walker died.

[bomber-base]

Sora Says: Super Bomberman R Sure is a Thing

Bomberlovelies! It’s your fruit-snack-loving neighborhood Sora here with some SBR stuff.

First off, I’m not sure how many people this matters to, and I suppose technically I’m practically a month late on this, but! I’ve been striving to keep the Base as spoiler-free as possible for those unable to play SBR for the time being. So, as you may have noticed, spoilers are noted and/or cut in the posts that they happen to appear in. I’m not sure how long to keep this up for; maybe six months to a year? What do y’all think? This is the first time I’ve ever had to be cautious about spoilers for a general audience, so I’m a little unsure on the etiquette.

Secondly, I’ve tested out the recent patch for SBR, and the controls are definitely improved. I had to use the not-quite-a-d-pad on the Joy-Cons the first time through, but now I can comfortably use the joystick to get around. I’ve been lost in the fields of Hyrule for the time being, though, so I haven’t yet had too much occasion yet to fully enjoy this update.

Thirdly, to the surprise of absolutely no one, I have Thoughts™ about this game. Not comprehensive ones, not coherent ones, and probably not even particularly interesting or unique ones, but Thoughts™ regardless. So here they are, spoiler-free: not so much a proper game review as it is me just bomberblathering into the void.

***

Super Bomberman R appears to be the result of what Bomberman used to be trying to score with what Bomberman could be. Unfortunately, they barely make it to first base, and on the way to second base they fall into a sudden rift in space-time that leads to the universe of Normal End TSA, a universe which could ultimately be considered responsible for that other reboot everyone knows about. This is a terrible metaphor from a terrible fan with terrible crack theories. That is to say, SBR should have been a triumphant return to form for the Bomberman series, but ends up being...a little less so.

For a loser like me, who properly came in during the Nintendo 64 era and had been super-stoked about the apparent return to that style of gameplay with the now-canceled Bomberman 3DS, the reality of SBR is once a golden promise and twice a leaden disappointment, a description which really shortchanges lead in its ability to shield us from bone-frying radiation. While obviously I was -- and still am -- relieved that Konami is actually making good-faith efforts to bring Bomberman to life again and save him from the nothing he’s become, I was much less thrilled with what they threw back to, and wholly unimpressed by the result from a gameplay standpoint. With mechanics that are pared down even compared to the game that inspired them, SBR completely failed to sell me on the old-school formula. It’s more impressive in terms of the rebooted aesthetics, with stronger visuals and writing, but the general execution of the reboot arguably comes at the cost of some of the nostalgic power that Konami wanted to harness.

Fans who lit their fuses with the SuperBomb games might feel differently than I do, of course. It’s entirely possible that maybe this game isn’t “for me,” that there’s something I’m missing about SBR that would trip the nostalgia wire in someone else. As a childhood fan of the Bomberman games for Nintendo consoles around the late 90s and early 00s, it’s difficult to talk about the flaws of SBR without making it sound like I’m just bitter that it’s not Bomberman 64 R(edux). I mean, I am, but that’s beside the point. Also I have yet to properly play Bomberman 64 so I’m probably not even a real N64 fan. In the cascade of sentiments that follows, though, I've done what I can to meet SBR on its own terms in order to argue that, even by the retro standards it draws from, it doesn’t live up to what it could or should have been. Conversely, there were things I quite liked about the game! And I’ve made my best effort to give credit where credit is due. Make no mistake: SBR had more pressure than other games I could name (like a certain legendary one...) to pull off a perfect 10 on balancing tradition with innovation. Both directions come with their high points and pitfalls, and fans will have differing opinions about how well Konami scored on either.

Personal grievances aside, I ultimately think it was important for Konami to first prove that they still had a handle on the bomberbasics, especially given the quirkier entries that got released in the lead-up to Hudson Soft being assimilated into the Konamiborg. (I mean, I liked Custom Battler Bomberman and think more people should check it out, but how did they even decide it was a good idea?) While I’ll contend that this game is maybe too basic, the overall choice to reference the SuperBomb series makes sense considering that Bomberman’s heyday was during his Super Nintendo days. (My gosh, have you seen the merch? The merch!!!) So in the end I can’t really blame Konami for using it as a springboard. I can only wish that they’d stuck the landing a little better.

The takeaway: Super Bomberman R is a more of a gilded lead pebble than a 24-karat star, but, like lead, it still has its uses and strengths. It’s a relatively decent effort by Konami to reintroduce him back into console gaming, a distinctive entry in Bomberman’s history up to this point, and a solid choice to start a revival with -- almost in spite of itself.

Hate the Game, Not the Player (The Game Already Hates the Player)

(I should note that I’m saying all this from the standpoint of having beat single-player once on Beginner mode. Aside from being a terrible fan with terrible metaphors and terrible theories, it also turns out I’m also a terrible gamer. The Terrible Tyrantress of Bomber Base: that’s me. So it’s entirely possible that some of my beefs with the gameplay are rectified in the two other difficulties, or in some other unlockable thing I haven’t done or heard of yet.)

How “pared down” are we talking, in regards to this game’s mechanics? When I began the initial round of wordbarfing, I initially wrote that Super Bomberman R was such a throwback that remote bombs don’t exist in it. Turns out that both Super Bomberman 3 (which appears to be the primary inspiration for SBR, considering that they share the same basic plot premise) and the original Bomberman game for NES featured them. Whoops. No Hearts or Louies/Tirras either, which means that Bomberman is back to the good ol’ days of being a one-hit wonder. Fair enough: that’s pretty old-school, right? We don’t need no stinkin’ heart meter in these parts. But let’s take a closer look at the powerups. SBR has a functional enough set comprised of Bomb Up, Fire Up, Fire Down, Speed Up, Power Glove, Boxing Glove, Pierce Bombs, and Rubber Bombs. But it’s quite clearly lacking when you compare it with SB3′s offerings. And for a game which actually translates your score into in-game currency for continues and unlocking multiplayer options (a.k.a the shit that 99.5% of bomberfandom cares about), it’s unfortunate that Konami decided not to include bonus items (which, again, were featured in both the original Bomberman for NES and Super Bomberman 3) to help boost your numbers. Additionally, the lack of Bomb Downs and Speed Downs/Sandals lowers some of the stakes of the gameplay. You gain points for every power-up you collect, so it’s not inconceivable to theorize that running into a Bomb Down or a Speed Down would result in you losing those points. (Admittedly, I’m not sure at the moment how Fire Downs function in the game from a score standpoint, since I’ve avoided them thus far.)

I can’t believe I had to satisfy my thirst for remote bombs with BotW. Unexpected perk of a Zelda game is unexpected.

The lack of item variety might not grate so much if the overall context of the gameplay were more diverse and/or expanded. SBR does a little better than its predecessors in introducing alternate stage objectives for each world, but I found that the ones for world 1 and world 5 were too similar, which is fairly glaring when you’re only looking at five worlds in total. Additionally, the objectives that requires you to find a set amount of certain objects don’t randomize their location, removing an element of challenge from the gameplay. The field enemies are generic and monotonous, with what seem to be only aesthetic variations across worlds (and movement speed across difficulties, as I understand it). You can sometimes take them out via bombing a support structure that collapses on top of them, which can be fun when it happens, but there aren’t too many opportunities to pull that off and not much incentive to do so other than personal validation. The Baroms/Balloms/Valcoms/no-one-cares-about-localization-consistency-with-Bomberman highlight my earlier point about SBR’s innovation at the cost of nostalgia: their flipped design is an interesting twist, but I admit I didn’t even realize what they were until someone pointed out their balloony nature. On the other hand, at least SBR also gave us the Hige Hige Bandits (technically they’re from the Saturn iteration of the games, but it was around the same era and they’re cute so I’ll let it pass), and you get the impression that the mecha forms of the Dastardly Bombers were absolutely made for 3D. Their arena fights feature some really smart AI as well, even on Beginner mode. (Though there are still sometimes...mishaps...) However, I’ve seen less-than-impressed comments about the rinse-and-repeat nature of their mecha fights, which further reinforce the dull repetitiveness that appears to be endemic to this game as a whole. At this point I would almost welcome a bonus stage of Pontans armed with just 1 Bomb, 1 Fire, and 1 Speed. While there are over 50 stages in the game, 1/5th of those are boss battles (if you count the arena battle and the mecha battle as two separate stages) and they overall go by quite fast.

Comments about the disparity between the dearth of game content with the game’s full retail price are further underscored when you consider that story mode’s main replay value appears to solely be in earning currency to unlock all the multiplayer goodies and custom antenna attachments. Not that replaying story mode for battle mode booty is anything new, of course. But at least something like Bomberman 64 also featured a way to unlock additional story mode content, and you were able to customize the full character instead of just the antenna. The setup reads like Konami trying to Stockholm players into liking a half-assed single-player misadventure. I’m a little concerned that SBR potentially demonstrates the modern limitations of Bomberman’s original arcade-based formula, i.e., the gridded, linearly-progressing stages. With the chance to reboot Bomberman for a new generation of gaming, Konami needs to do what the Zelda team did for BotW and sit down to figure out what is actually a legitimate convention of bombercanon, and what is a convention only because “that’s how it’s always been,” especially if it grew out of the technical limitations of the past. 

I’m not gonna shut up about Zelda, okay. I was Zeldatrash before I was bombertrash.

In terms of multiplayer, well, we already know that Konami sorta bombed it a little out of the gate, given the lag issues for online play. But even at its core, the multiplayer experience doesn’t make the grade -- or at least as high of a grade as it should have for a series that has such a huge reputation as a party game. You can’t even argue that it’s just “going back to basics,” as SB3 at least let you choose whether you wanted to do an all-out Battle Royale or a Tag Match, along with offering item minigames to let players have a chance to start the following match at an advantage. On the other end of the spectrum, one of the selling points of the Switch is its ability to adapt to multiple setups for on-the-go or at home. It’s not hard to surmise that Konami wanted to get hitched to the Switch in order to promote Bomberman’s multiplayer capabilities. So why are the battle mode options aside from the stage selection so bare? Obviously we don’t yet have any sort of insight into the development process and timeline of SBR, but it seems like they should have at least blown battle mode out of the water given 1) the price they charged for the game and 2) how much downtime the franchise had. It’s not like they didn’t have any inspiration for it, either: all they had to do was look at Bomberman Generation and they’d be set to start the party. Online play does host some interesting features, such as ranked match-ups and the ability to create individual battle rooms for yourself and whoever you invite to fight things out with, but I’m not sure how this compares with something like, say, Bomberman Live. Someone more informed is going to have to pick up the slack. The point is, where’s my Reversi Battle, dammit?!

Even the Way I Do Subsection Headings is Cool (Spoilers: It’s Not)

The first surprising thing Konami did for the franchise this year was to announce an actual console game for it. The second surprising thing they did was to upgrade the aesthetics of the original in both visuals and storytelling. The third surprising thing they did was Bombergirl. That they bothered to introduce no less than eight protagonist characters, animate cutscenes with those characters in them, and have those characters voiced with (at least in Japanese) some all-star talent continues to astonish me, not to mention some of the little spoilery details they threw in. While I generally agree about how short the cutscenes are, the writers still managed to make the most of what they were given to work with. Each sibling gets their fifteen seconds of fame not by hogging the spotlight and leaving the rest of their siblings in the dark, but by sharing it and letting the personality dominoes fall where they may; notable moments for me are the ending cutscenes for world 1 and world 3. In this way, in spite of the large cast and the decidedly-less-large narrative space, no character feels too neglected. We’re not talking JRPG levels of writing depth here, not by a longshot, but it’s probably the most consistently entertaining writing I’ve seen from a Bomberman game.

(Granted, the Bomberman series likes its writing the way Zoniha likes her men, i.e. barely there. So it’s not like SBR had a high bar to clear.)

The colorful cutscenes directed by Poeyama and illustrated by Hideyuki Takenami burst with expressiveness and fun, and the redesigns for Bagular/Buggler and the Dastardlies are delightful extrapolations of their older looks. So it’s a mystery to me why Konami didn’t extend any of that good stuff to the actual gameplay graphics. I said in a previous post that the contrast between the realistic environments and the cartoony vibe of the characters would probably help with navigating the game world, but in actuality I found the environmental details too overwhelming and distracting, which when combined with the then-iffy controls led to more than a few deaths for me. (World 3, I would say I’ve got my eye on you, but I need to keep what’s left of my poor eyesight.) Additionally, while they’re well-rendered, they’re also on the generic side, which is doubly disappointing given the distinct nature of the cutscene visuals and the character designs. It’s not like there hasn’t been a 3D Bomberman game with overly-stylized gameplay graphics before (see again: Bomberman Generation, and to a lesser degree Bomberman Jetters), so why so standard? Especially since such a direction, again, arguably neutralizes some of the nostalgic charm of SBR. Who the hell hails the Bomberman games, especially the Super Bomberman ones, for their ultra-realistic graphics?

The animation only kinda makes up for the uninspired environments. Konami gets my applause for the unique walk cycles, victory poses, and idle stances, any one of which would have been more effort than I would have expected out of them. But they all have the same bomb-throwing animation that honestly barely qualifies as an animation considering how it feels like it lasts half a frame. I wouldn’t normally harp on something so nitpicky except that Konami’s own promotional efforts for the game made such a big deal of the UNIQUE PERSONALITIES!!! of each bombersib. If they were already going as far as to customize each character’s idle stance, it seems like such a gross oversight to not also customize the other basic movement associated with a Bomberman character, or at least give it a little more flair and presence. The enemies also just flop over and blip out of existence when they die, which aside from being unsatisfying in general also doesn’t do justice to the source material. I’m not asking for bloody gibs splattered across the scenery here (although that could be kind of funny if handled in just the right tongue-in-cheek sort of way), but watch a couple of minutes of gameplay from SB3 and you’ll see that along with featuring death animations in general, different enemies even have different ones. In short, despite some genuinely nice attention to detail -- let me reiterate that the designs for the Dastardlies’ mechas are pretty awesome -- the gameplay visuals generally don’t match up to the fun factor of the cutscenes, resulting in a slightly inconsistent feel for the game and (more importantly) some missed shots at recapturing the charms of the original.

Given the effort Konami has put into the upgraded aesthetics and narrative and the subsequent promotion focusing around that (yes, I’ve seen episode 2 of Bomberman TV and me and BDR are working on summarizing that; well, mostly BDR, really), it’s hard not to think that Konami was trying to cover up a manure mound with sheets of rainbow gold. Nevertheless, that same effort, along with some spoilery stuff, suggests the possibility of follow-ups in this particular iteration of the canon, which can hopefully only be a good thing. I’d still prefer a return to the more traditional Bomberman lore, but I don’t mind riding shotgun for this. I mean, shit, the scenery’s great.

The Rest is Still Unwritten (Because My Pen Ran Out of Ink and Pommy Ate My Spare One)

There are some other things I could kvetch about in this game (things I didn’t touch upon here: the English voice-acting and the music, particularly the menu tracks), but in the end, I’m still happy SBR exists, and I don’t regret shelling out full price for it. The awesome thing about modern gaming is that Konami is able to fix parts of SBR according to player demand via online patches, as mentioned at the top of this post, which also means that, theoretically, there’s room for DLC to address the lack of content. The recent releases of Bomberman games of VC indicates more official interest in the series again, while the direction displayed by SBR show promising experimentation and expansion of the canon. And the scale of the promotional efforts for SBR is clearly Konami putting on some serious gameface in the matter of making Bomberman relevant again. It’s like seeing the signs of the apocalypse on Opposite Day.

As of the time of posting, the third week of numbers is in for SBR, from both Media Create and Famitsu (via Game Data Library). No matter which metric you go by, SBR has broken over 50,000 copies sold in less than a month, which is on par with or beyond the lifetime numbers of many other Bomberman games. Super Bomberman R might be far from a perfect game, with some circumstances mitigating its impressive numbers, but it’s still one to respect.