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thatgamefromthatad · 3 years

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Seen these ads? (Obey Me! Review)

This is a visual novel/otome/gacha card RPG game with the same characters and themes as featured in the ads.

As stated in many of the ads this game centers around seven demon brother love interests (as well as some other potential love interests) although the game has a lot of plot elements other than just romance. Most of the ads that I’ve seen feature real art that appears in the game one way or another, and the ads tend to be focused more on the characters and theme in general rather than specific gameplay. Of the ads that do appear to show gameplay, most of the time it’s not really what you’ll see in the game but still follows fairly close to the actual game (for example, the “kiss, free, whip” ad on the top left doesn’t show real gameplay, but you can kiss or whip that character. But that specific art comes from a gacha card I believe and isn’t what you see when you do the kissing and whipping).

A few notes before I get into the full review:

I’m a lesbian, so I’m definitely not the target audience for this game, but I always try to be objective and open-minded when playing any game I’m not the target audience for (other examples I’ve reviewed in the past are Moments, which was also primarily targeted toward women who are attracted to men, Immortal Taoists, which involved a genre I had never heard of before and really had no interest in, Time Princess, which also wasn’t my favorite genre but was still a great game, and various Genius Inc. visual novels, which are targeted more toward high-school age boys as far as I can tell).

Speaking of lesbians, this game weirdly censors the word “lesbians” but not any other LGBTQ+ terms (that don’t include the word “sexual”) as far as I can tell; I decided it was enough of a one-off thing that it wouldn’t factor a huge amount in my overall review of the game, but I think it’s still something to take note of and not let off the hook since it definitely shows bias and can be offensive to players.

This game is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and I was pretty harsh on Crush Crush for being rated that way because I thought it crossed the line with some of its sexually suggestive content. I kept that in mind while playing this one, and personally I don’t think it crossed the line in the same way, at least not from what I’ve played so far; although it does have sexually suggestive content (most often when interacting with the character Asmodeus, who is literally known in the game as the “Avatar of Lust”), it’s much more occasional through tidbits of dialog as opposed to in Crush Crush where it involved a whole section of the game and was more interactive in nature. I would definitely still cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old reading some of this dialog, but I think it fits fairly within the App Store descriptors of “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity” and “Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”

Last note - there is a character in this game (Luke) who has the appearance and demeanor of a small child who you can interact with in a similar way to the other love interest characters, which concerned me for obvious reasons. I looked more into this, specifically reading into all of the different dialog options involving this character, and his responses never seem to be more than platonic, which is good. He still blushes when you give him gifts and stuff, which is kind of awkward, and it seems weird to throw a kid character into an otome game, but all considered I wouldn’t say the game is promoting anything inappropriate (unlike one of the Genius VNs that clearly involved relationships between an adult and minors).

Sorry I know that’s a lot of notes and disclaimers but I just wanted to that all out of the way as general concerns anyone might have trying this game or reading this review!

Without further ado, read my full review below:

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(I’m trying a new color-coding system to help highlight some of the main points of my review if you don’t want to read my entire essay word-for-word lol. Pink is a positive aspect of the game, red is a negative aspect/criticism and purple is not necessarily positive or negative but just something I wanted to highlight.)

😈 Is the game actually fun? Yes! Just in terms of production value, this game is top notch: the art and character designs are very appealing, the transitions between characters’ poses and facial expressions during VN scenes are actually animated (which looks much smoother and more natural than switching between still images), the voice acting is great (although the VN scenes aren’t fully voice acted, some parts like phone calls are and the characters say different phrases during scenes and battles as well)(Note: all the voice acting is Japanese), and the music is FANTASTIC and perfectly sets the vibe throughout the game.

The best parts of this game in my opinion are the different personalities of the characters and the overall plot; although some of the characters’ personalities can be a bit one-note at times (for example, one character’s entire personality that I’ve seen so far is that he likes to eat and is always hungry), the characters each have their own charm and play off each other well. I found myself getting invested in each of the characters’ desires and goals throughout the story, even the characters I didn’t particularly like. The story is also chock full of humor which is always fun, and the whole world and backstory built around this game (the “Devildom” setting and the idea of an exchange student program with angels, humans and demons) are also unique and impressive.

I really enjoyed the multiple modes of storytelling i.e. how the VN chapters are supplemented with text messages and phone calls from characters and an Instagram spoof with additional side stories to unlock. I know this isn’t a new thing in mobile games (even Gardenscapes and Homescapes do it to an extent lol) but add the compelling characters and overall production value on top and it’s a really enjoyable experience. Since the home screen of the game is set up like it’s your phone, with the different parts of the game represented as “apps,” the game kind of creates a feeling like you’re really living in this world with these characters where you can freely scroll through their Instagram feeds and check the messages you get from them on your own time. The shop where you can buy items and premium currency is called Akuzon (an Amazon spoof) and the place where all your gacha cards are is called “contacts,” which further adds to the immersive effect.

The “dating” part of the game is pretty cute although I haven’t gotten super far so I’m not sure of the full scope of the romantic interactions. From what I can tell, in addition to the dialog, blushy faces and bedroom eyes you get from characters when you give them gifts and touch different parts of their body (above the belt lol), when you raise your intimacy level with them you get additional phone calls and messages from them (I haven’t played a lot of otome games but I think that’s how a lot of them go). I wasn’t that invested in this part of the game but I think there’s some strategy that goes with using the right combination of gifts and touches to maximize intimacy boosts and get certain dialog, which adds a whole other aspect of gameplay in addition to the main game. I also noticed that occasionally your choices throughout the VN chapters will give you a small intimacy boost with a certain character; I kind of wish this was even more integrated since most of the time I felt like no matter what I chose it didn’t make any difference in my relationship with characters. Also, I don’t think there’s a way to “officially” date a specific character, it’s more about raising the intimacy level to earn more interactions but it doesn’t actually affect the main plot.

As far as the main mode of progressing through the game, which is winning “dance battles” with teams from your gacha collection, this part of the game has its own positive qualities such as the cute chibi forms of the characters that appear on screen and the fact that some of the special attacks show a little anime clip of the character (of course it’s less exciting when you see the same clip every battle but I still thought it was a nice touch). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a rhythm aspect as the “dance battle” name would imply, and your main interaction during the battle itself is basically just tapping hearts that pop up and tapping the characters when their attacks are ready, but you also have the option to skip that whole interactive sequence and just get a result based on your team’s stats, so there’s not much to complain about there (especially since the battles are sort of a side note compared to the storytelling aspect of the game despite being the main element of RPG-based gameplay that allows you to progress). If you are interested in the RPG aspects, there’s plenty of that to work with (building teams, balancing attributes, managing resources/rewards to level up cards and progress through skill trees of sorts, all that good stuff) although you’re limited to an extent by how difficult it is to get a lot of gacha draws without paying real money. It’s even harder to be able to focus on both strategy and character relationships while playing for free when the same scarce currency is used for both gacha draws and gifts.

👿 Is this a free game or a “free game”? Despite what I just said, I would still consider it a free game - you can gradually save up some of premium currency the game gives out through tasks in order to pay for more gacha draws and other items, and as far as I can tell you can access the main story and the other parts of the game without hitting a paywall. I only got to the fourth chapter so far though so don’t take this assessment as gospel. Like with a lot of other freemium games you might feel pressured to pay (especially when you run out of gifts to give your lover boys, which was the biggest downer for me, or if you’re obsessed with wanting to collect a lot of cards or get a specific card) but since you don’t actually need to pay to progress I still consider it free.

There’s also an energy system where you hit a wall and have to wait if you run out, but I never ran out because of the huge amount of energy the game dumps on you when you first start, and it seems like there are a bunch of other ways to get extra energy as well. There also aren’t pop-up or watch-to-earn ads in this game that I saw.

💀 Features

Main visual novel scenes and storyline (the visual novel scenes come between dance battle stages and there are a few short side routes that branch off but still one main route as far as I can tell, I don’t think your dialog choices really make a different except for in how the characters react to you immediately afterward. Still the main storyline in itself is fun to follow and it’s fun to get different reactions out of the characters based on what you say)

Dance battles (I’m not fully knowledgeable about the minutia of the RPG system at play here but in general the outcome of the battle will depend on the level, rank and attributes of your cards compared against the difficulty and attributes of the stage you’re playing. There also “memory cards” that can be assigned to support your team and expendable temporary boosters called “glow sticks” that boost your stats for one battle. During the battle itself you tap hearts that appear to earn extra points and you can tap your characters when their power is charged up to “attack” your opponent and use special skills. There are guides online that go deeper into stats and strategies and such if you’re interested. Different stages have different rewards for completion and you can quick complete levels you’ve already beaten to mine resources you need)

Gacha mechanic and cards (the gacha area of this game is called “Nightmare” and there are a few different pools along with event pools each with their own odds and sets of cards you can get. For the default pools you get free draws periodically and I believe you get one free draw for each event pool IIRC. You also get a bunch of vouchers for draws when you first start the game which got me handful of SSRs and a couple URs to build a couple of solid teams right off the bat. In addition to drawing directly from gacha pools you can get some cards by collecting card pieces as rewards from stages and events until you have enough to get the actual card. Each card has its own set of stats/attributes, can be leveled up and has a skill tree of sorts that can be progressed through with resources mined through beating stages, although it’s more of an attribute tree than a skill tree since most of the branches just add points onto one of your card’s attributes. Some cards, the rarer ones, have special skills that can be used in battle)

One-on-one characters interactions and intimacy i.e. the “dating” part (there are two ways this occurs: 1) you can set a specific character to your home screen that allows you to enter into an interaction with them, with a refresh period in between interactions 2) the main way, which is through “surprise guests” after dance battles. These surprise guests show up frequently but not always, and they’re always one of the three team members you used in battle, selected randomly. For each one-on-one interaction you can do three actions - either give a gift, touch the character or ignore the character. Sometimes the character will also offer you a high five which counts as an action if you oblige. Different characters have different favorite gifts and touching different parts of the body can get a different reaction depending on the character and your level of intimacy I believe. Your intimacy level with a character increases depending on the combination of actions you perform, and sometimes the character also gives you gifts back like more energy or resources. There are guides for this online as well)

Text messages and phone calls (text messages are the main mode of storytelling outside of the main VN scenes - you get messages from characters or multiple characters in group chats that you respond to with preset messages or stickers similar to how you make choices during the VN parts. Some of the text messages correspond with the main plot as you progress, ex. A character texts you to be in a certain place at a certain time and next VN scene is of you two meeting at that place. I think other text messages also come up when you reach certain intimacy levels with characters. There are certain group messages that you don’t respond to where you’re basically spying on a group chat among characters and just get to see what everyone’s saying. In addition to written messages and emoji stickers characters will also sometimes send pictures. Phone calls are fully voice-acted dialog you have with another character and they seem to pop up when you reach certain intimacy levels - I’ve only gotten ones so far with the two characters I have the highest intimacy with)

Instagram spoof/“Devilgram” (Devilgram is an in-game photo sharing social media app similar to Instagram and the photos on there correspond to gacha cards. When you acquire the gacha card that corresponds to a Devilgram post you unlock a side story, but you also need keys to unlock further scenes from that story, which can be gradually earned through completing tasks and such)

To Do tasks (completing tasks on your To Do is the main way to earn premium currency in the game along with other rewards and resources. There are daily tasks, overall tasks and tasks specific to each character. Examples of tasks are completing a certain stage or number of stages, beating a stage using a team that includes a certain character or reaching a certain intimacy level with a character. There are also beginner missions when you start the game that I think stay available until you complete all of them)

Events (there are sometimes side story events called “pop quizzes” and gacha events that are available for a limited time, or sometimes an event has both a corresponding pop quiz and gacha pool. The pop quizzes are separate chapters with their own dance battles and VN scenes, and the battles will come with reward points that you can spend on different prizes. Sometimes there are unique cards you can only get from an event. Other minor types of events include log-in bonus events and events where you can get special types of gifts for your love interests. There’s also a feature where you can “time-travel” back to old events at some cost but I haven’t explored this much)

Jobs (you can assign characters to passively complete jobs that earn you a small amount of non-premium currency over time and also increases your intimacy with the assigned characters by a small amount)

Customization (you can unlock avatars of different characters to use for your profile and set the name you want characters to refer to you by throughout the game. You can also change the outfit of your homescreen character, change the homescreen wallpaper and change the homescreen background music by making purchases in the Akuzon shop or acquiring certain gacha cards)

⚖️ Ad Honesty Rating: 4/5 (just from the ads I’ve seen, especially the ones that appear to be running currently, there don’t seem to be blatantly fake ads and the ads show real art and do well conveying the theme and characters in the game. However some of the ads are misleading about the actual mechanics of gameplay and may also lead you to believe there are actual romance routes with the characters which is not really the case)

⭐️ Overall Rating: 5/5 (I definitely didn’t want to give this game a great rating just because it’s super popular on Tumblr but I can definitely see why it’s so popular. There are lots of things to do, the characters are very lovable, it’s funny, the art is great, the music is great and the lore and overall vibe are compelling and unique. It’s a high-quality game with a good story and I’ll probably keep playing it)

▶️ Ad Example:

▶️ Gameplay Examples:

Dance Battles

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Surprise Guest

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If you got through this review bless your heart ❤️ Special thanks to @human-watching-ads-from-devildom which is where I was able to view some of the ads since I was having trouble finding them elsewhere online and viewing some of them on the Facebook ad library.

Follow me for more reviews of those free mobile games you’re always getting ads for! Thanks for reading! 🥳

#obey me #obey me shall we date #otome games #gacha games #visual novels #full review #anime games #rpg #dating simulation games #romance games #war and peace but it’s just a review of a mobile game #sorry if there are typos or mistakes

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dustedmagazine · 2 years

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Bad Breeding — Human Capital (Iron Lung Records)

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The title track from English band Bad Breeding’s new LP Human Capital is a seamless synthesis of death-rocking swagger (recalling TSOL c. Weathered Statues or the Flower Leperds) and UK82 melodic bravado (the Abrasive Wheels at their toughest, or Lurkers during their second stint). Any suggestions that this reviewer tends to skew toward the 1980s in his punk genealogies and comparisons are entirely warranted — but in the case of Bad Breeding, the roster of references is earnestly used, and well earned. The song and the album around it recall that period during which punk cohered into a cultural form with a history, and even a musical “post-“ to parody and to ennoble it. But punk still felt alive, angry and dangerous in the mid-1980s. Bad Breeding projects that vivid aura of potential violence, and along with it a palpable, politically charged passion, engaged with our current conditions. You can even understand the words. Human Capital is a terrific record.

There are other resonances traceable in the songs: the ethos of Subhumans and the Crass, echoes of some lesser-known melodic punk greats like the Proletariat or the Freeze. Those bands cast long shadows, and the abiding relevance of their songs has its conceptual complement in many of the images and situations conjured by Bad Breeding. See the opening lines of “Community”: “Thorns dress the concrete / Sprinklers haunt gutted memories / The punished drift in codes of silence / Fettered to a walled garden”; or the closing lines of “Speculation”: “Corpses filled with Western promise / A fair trade done for a bludgeoned son / One ward shelled, another door opens / No cry for peace when crude oil seeps through barbed wire.” The idiom is venerable, featuring well-worn phrases like “codes of silence” and “cry for peace.” More striking are the physical objects and evocations of place: a “walled garden,” “sprinklers” and “concrete,” “crude oil” and “barbed wire.” It would distort to call that language timeless (it’s entirely accurate to call it poetic). But the things themselves endure. Their importance remains tangible.

Another way to say it: no mobile phones or social media feeds are mentioned on Human Capital. It seems intentional, more than just a choice of emphasis. Like the best punk bands, Bad Breeding makes visceral music, full of affect and intensities that you feel in your gut and your chest. You may listen to the record on crappy laptop speakers, sounds sprung from the mp3’s cold digital shell, but it’s still a physical event. Even when the band directly engages more abstract and heady issues, their lyrics insist on materiality. Check out these additional lines from “Speculation”: “Speculation is the sordid image / Of maimed, starving victims buried in rubble / While still they flog bombs that fall on Yemen.” It’s refreshing to hear a punk band tuned in to international networks of permanent war economies and referring to the slaughter in Yemen. Bad Breeding smartly navigates, with sure footing, from the financial games of market speculation, to the image-bound status of news in the 21st century, to the “maimed” bodies and “rubble” that result from the “flogging” of weaponry — from defense contractor to the Saudi air force to Yemeni villages. The kicker is in the song’s specifics, like the choice to describe the movement of capital with a verb that suggests damaged bodies: to flog. Capital may flow like code, but its costs are always human, and bodily.

The music acknowledges its roots in various strains of anarcho-punk and crusty ’core, but Human Capital is grounded in the current conjuncture. The band is pissed and sad, but not defeated. It’s telling that the record closes with a song called “Rebuilding.” Vocalist Chris Dodd snarls and hollers, “There is contact in grief, union in agony / Bonded by the guise of every stolen hour / And there is latent love in the medicated guilt / Beneath dead labor and the laundering of time.” The band grinds on behind him, a foreboding, down-tempo construct of melody, accumulating into towering sonic wreckage. Unhappy sentiments all, but shot through with something like possibility: union, bonding, latent love that needs resuscitation (and a bit of sobriety) but is still there. It’s a thrilling song and a fitting close to a powerful, angry record that treads grimly at the verge of hope.

Jonathan Shaw

#bad breeding #human capital #iron lung #jonathan shaw #albumreview #dusted magazine #punk #uk82 #anarcho punk #crust punk

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the-bjd-community-confess · 3 years

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Dear 'Anime Bad' Anon: I Want To Help I pity your situation, so please have a list of weebshit that isn't moeified, or wherein the cutesy art-style serves a greater purpose. (Note: though they won't be soft marshmallow uguuuu, they may still have issues in other ways. Some may have aged badly with regards to how society views or portrays groups or beliefs, some may have upsetting content and dark themes, and some may simply not be to your taste. Note: Anime is a genre, not a monolith, and the disparaging stereotype that it's all cute girls uwuing over their brother s-s-senpai!!! is as much of a disservice as saying all western movies are just vapid cash grab superhero movie sequels with no inegrity or thought put into them. There are indeed a lot of superhero movies, but they're not all identical schlock (megamind vs venom vs kick-ass), but even more than that, there is a wealth of creative endeavor just beyond the veil of Marvel's cape: just as there are plenty of good anime if you dig past the isekai high school harem wish fulfillment genre that no one wants to keep making but people keep making because it prints money to a very small demographic of the animation equivalent of a mobile game whale thereby allowing this frankly quite-small industry to work on engaging and worthwhile series where the budget permits, Regardless,)

Mushi-shi: -Pros: gorgeous animation, tranquil vibes, episodic stories so you can cram in an episode between classes or on your lunch break. highly recommended by the literal-who typing this out. -Cons: some themes or stories may cause emotional distress, learning to tell apart Urushibara Yuki's characters is a learning curve.

Baccano-Pros: meticulously-researched 20s-and-30s-era mafia violence with a hint of the supernatural, as a treat, told anachronistically with flair and jazz music. practically made to be binge-watched. the novels are finally getting translated into english as well. -Cons: lots of characters to keep track of, fair bit of blood and violence, some scenes or themes may be upsetting, lots of jumping around between different time periods. See Also: Durarara, another series by Ryōgo Narita with a ton of characters and a plot with more threads an overpriced sheet.

Cowboy Bebop-Pros: incredibly well-regarded, space bounty hunters are cool, episodic series that slowly takes on a plot towards the end, fantastic animation, scoring, and even dub work. -Cons: some scenes or themes may be uncomfortable, some parts have not aged quite so well, the smart doll version of the main character is ugly, you're gonna carry that weight.

Trigun-Pros: starts lighthearted, develops an increasingly investing plot as the series goes along. fictional westerns are cool. this world is made of love and peace -Cons: some scenes or themes may be upsetting, and probably will be. gun violence is naturally present, but that ain't all of it.

Hellsing (standard or Ultimate. or Abridged)Pros: vampires killing nazis. the original adaptation isn't bad, the second adaptation (ultimate) is generally viewed as an improvement. abridged is a youtube parody version that was so popular the voice actors reference it in convention interviews.Cons: a Lot of violence, even trending to the gorey side of things. Uncomfortable Themes Everywhere, but it's a horror-tinged action series about killing nazis, so that's to be expected.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood-Pros: while the original anime was quite good, the second iteration is a large improvement. does to alchemy what naruto does to ninjas: It's Basically Battle Magic. the plot starts on a strong note and doesn't let up from there. -Cons: there are distressing scenes and themes that may or may not be tolerable to the viewer. there are moments of cheesecake and even an occasional joke or a moeblob here and there, and it's not all doom and all gloom all the time, but this doesn't detract from the abject horror-despair that comes to permeate this series as it progresses. finally understand why people on the internet respond so negatively to the name 'nina'!

[Mod: many more recs/reviews under the break, worth reading for those who like more obscure anime and animation]

Grave of the Fireflies-Pros: you will remember how to cry. it's a good reminder that one country's 'triumphs' often come at the expense of another country's people. -Cons: this movie is incredibly dark, do not watch if you are in a bad headspace. see also: Barefoot Gen, a similar tale but this time from the perspective of an actual survivor from Hiroshima.

Michiko to Hatchin-Pros: an actually diverse cast of characters tangled up in a messy and very humanizing story, interspersed with Shinichiro Watanabe's particular flare for adventure. -Cons: some scenes or themes are very likely to be distressing. can be tricky to find, too.

Mo no no Ke (not the ghibli movie, though it is also quite good.) -Pros: incredibly unique art style and pacing that draws heavily from japanese theatre traditions, every screenshot is wallpaper-worthy. -Cons: may cause motion sickness. it is a psychological horror series, and one that does not need blood, nor gore, to cause visceral emotional response in the viewer. scenes and themes will be distressing- as really, that's the point.

Tokyo Godfathers-Pros: a transwoman, a (self-identified) homeless bum, and a runaway teen girl find a newborn in the baby on christmas. incredibly wholesome, somehow, and grounded in reality, with wonderful animation from the tragically late satoshi kon. -Cons: it is grounded in realism, and sometimes, people are dicks. mild transphobia warning, too, but in-universe- the transwoman herself is portrayed with kindness and allowed to be her own (wonderful!!!) person. still, viewer be mindful.

Kino no Tabi (the first series is my preferred, the second is shinier but lacks emotional impact- in my onion.) -Pros: mostly episodic, very unique series that can be gritty where it counts and kind where it matters. -Cons: some scenes or themes might be disturbing. finding it's not easy, either, and unfortunately, i don't think the novels are being translated right now, either.

Spice and Wolf-Pros: it's mostly about economics. there are shenanigans, a harvest god, and a slowly burgeoning romance, sure, but it's still mostly about economics. -Cons: there are moments of cheesecake and comedy, and moments that may cause distress to the viewer. it may or may not be to your taste.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica-Cons: yeah i know, it's moeblobs. -Pros: you're gonna watch 'em die, though, in case that may interest you. it's quite a good subversion of the magical girl genre overall. somehow volks hasn't made an MDD of anyone from the series and i will never understand how that didn't happen.

Wolf Children: Ame to Yuki-Pros: watch a family grow together as a newly-single mother does her best to raise her twin children after the tragic loss of their father. -Cons: keep tissues handy. certain scenes or themes may be uncomfortable.

Lupin III (Red Jacket, Ghibli, and the new 3D animation are all A+) pros: heist comedy elevated to an art form before half (or more!) of the people reading this were born. the english dubbed series that used to air on adult swim is a treat. cons: this franchise started in THE SIXTIES, so naturally, some shit has not aged well. certain series (fujiko mine) are darker than others in themes and material. the 3d movie that released recently is an excellent starting point.

Samurai Champloo-Pros: breakdancing samurai, a fascinating roster of characters, and a superb soundtrack by the tragically passed Nujabes. -Cons: it was made in the weird era of the transition from analog to digital animation and so the /series master/ was animated at a painfully low resolution, so even if there's a bluray out there (I haven't looked,) it will be an upscale, which doesn't always look the best. as well, there are scenes and themes that may make the viewer uncomfortable here and there.

The Works of Studio Ghibli Oh, I'm sorry, Ponyo too suffused with childhood wonder for you? My Neighbor Totoro not depressing enough? In addition to the infamous Grave of the Fireflies, Studio Ghibli has made a wealth of movies that aren't aimed squarely at the kodomo (children's) sector. -Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: climate change existential dread, the movie -Castle in the Sky: government obsession with obtaining weapons of mass destruction destroys everything beautiful, the movie -Pom Poko: human-caused deforestation and urbanization is destroying the natural world and all that live in it, the movie -Princess Mononoke: industrialization will be the death of everything beautiful in the world, the movie, with a side of sometimes everyone (and no one) is the villain when everyone is simply trying to survive -Howl's Moving Castle: The Physical Manifestation of Depression is a Liquid Ooze, the Movie, also War Is Bad It's not all depressing, but let it never be said that Hayao Miyazaki was subtle. Whisper of the Heart is a good coming-of-age story, Kiki's Delivery Service is a classic, Tales from Earthsea is divisive among fans of Ursula K. Le Guin but I personally liked it. From one studio alone there is a wealth of opportunities.

And that's really the point. These are just some from the top of my head. There are so very many options outside of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre that I couldn't list them all if I was here for a week. Or as Madoka Magica so ruthlessly showcases, even series that appear a certain way on the surface might not be what you bargained for once you look into them! These are all (I think) mostly older, mainstream-appeal series that should be easy to track down, too -- there are all kinds of singular animations like The Diary of Tortov Roddle, crowdfunded experiments like KICK-HEART, Masterpiece World Theatre renditions of classic (western) novels that never get talked about, films like A Silent Voice that confront social issues- and of course, series like Rozen Maiden that helped popularize this very hobby!

There is literally an ocean of content to explore from Japanese creators alone, and it opens up even more if you look into works from other parts of Asia- just look at how popular manwha have become, or Chinese animations like Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild! It's a genre unto itself, with all the breadth of content and inter-industry problems that come with it, and without any of the respect that similar art forms have been granted over the years. The way an entire culture's art form is often disparaged, disregarded, and belittled- and by extension, the way most of Asia's animated endeavors are often rolled up into that reductive dismissal along with anime and manga- is honestly Not Great, and there is absolutely a thread of xenophobia that runs through it. The industry has so very many problems (low wages, poor training, overwork of everyone ever, archaic financial modules, the exclusivity and breadth of merchandising necessary to turn a profit and how it leads to consumer burnout and disconnection over time, and yes, the way minors are portrayed not just in anime, but in Japanese media in general- and how much of that is actually bad (some of it is indeed,) and how much if it is cultural difference (I've heard people call the scene where the family in Totoro bathe together problematic because of the nudity, but I've also only heard people say that from the West)

-- none of the actual problems affecting the people who produce this medium are gonna improve when the general response to "animators frequently have to live at home to survive" is "that's what happens when you're a weeb." It's 5am and I'm gonna point out the problems in the narrative around how we discuss this genre of entertainment because it's important, damn you! Regardless, thank you for coming to my unasked for and overlong TED talk about animation on a doll collecting drama blog, feel free to call me a pathetic weeb etcetera on your way out- but while you do so, might I suggest you also go watch a choice animated series! My current go-to is Bofuri, which is a cute-girls-doing-cute-things moefied isekai series that I refuse to apologize for watching. Be free. (The battle scenes are great and it captures the feeling of learning to play a new MMO with your friends better than most video-game-based anime I've seen in a long, long time. does anyone even still remember .hack? how about serial experiments lain...?)

~Anonymous

#BJD #ABJD #BJD Confessions #TrueBJDConfessions #Anime

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knightotoc · 4 years

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Anakin Blogging:

What’s the right order to watch the SW movies? KnightOTOC Ranks the SW Movies Why Ahsoka’s S7 Lightsabers are Blue ”I cannot interfere” Sometimes I draw Buzz Lightyear Luke Father-son or brothers? My favorite part of Wookieepedia the Skywalker name Content between TPM and AotC Helmet: A Star Wars Story Rey Anakin parallel Fresh Salted Hunk from the Deli Devil’s Contract AU An Explanation Are gifs libel or slander? Higher Ground Blogging Lars Quell Name Game Anakin’s Ghost Bum Out Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) Mind-Blowing Organizational Tool The Reaction You Requested Brad Pitt Cameo Can’t Explain, I think it’s Love My 3 Fave Characters Ever Worth its Weight in Gold Dark Middle Chapters My Curse It’s outrageous, it’s unfair Facts and Opinions Would these items work instead? Space Cowboys Diegetic Opera Lady Minnesota Update High-Maintenance Boyfriends Ranked + Part 2 Reconnaissance! This Guy + Part 2 Mirror Universe Karen Do Ben-Hur Again! Young, Dumb, and Full of Midichlorians Happy Birthday! + Part 2 My Ani Cosplay Best Title Crawl in Star Wars Low Poly Ani Hayden Voice + Hayden and Natalie Voices

Love That Maul:

I’m not a Sith Maul’s will Jedi Maul AU + Part 2 Impress the Bridgers “I was hoping for Kenobi” Poor Evil Gay Men "There IS no ‘US!’” Memes for the Old Master Awkward Zelda is the Boy 🙏Manifesting🙏

Other Prequels Stuff:

You’re reckless, little one (Except Shmi) “That’s...why I’m here.” Padme 🤝 Destiel Sith Obi-Wan AU Yikes High Republic Thoughts Pink and Blue Wat Tambor Theory I’m a weirdo. I don’t fit in. Korkie! Actually I Want at Least 20 Prequels Discourse by Layer Rush Clovis Sideblog? My Evil Wife Ahsoka, Artorias, and Gerard Way Wait...We’re All Handmaidens!

I care about the Knights of Ren:

Illustrated Knights of Ren Headcanons The Baddest Boys of TRoS are Friends another Knight of Ren theory (with evidence) Avril of Ren Evil Monkey: Origins Poor Old TRoS Let’s split up, gang, and search for clues! vs Hux

Gay/Emo Shit About Han Solo

Solo is Sad, Too Solo 2 Solo Fandom the FOUNDATIONAL Rare Pair Han Feelings Chewie Feelings

Thinking about Mando:

Gallery review The Rise and Fall of Baby Yoda Coming at You from 2002 The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! Target Audience Mwahahahahaha + Meme + Part 2 Always Read the Comments Madeline just said “pooh pooh!” Warrior Gentleman Ouch, right in the niche! Yes he means ALL Mandalorians Put That Thing Back Where it Came From

Other Disney Star Wars Stuff:

Hierarchy of Needs + Part 2 Finnrey White Feminism Rogue Won LASaT Seriously Though, Where’s Ezra? Always Read the Comments, Bot Edition Cussin’ Anime Predictions My TFA Joke Revenge of the Jedi Promises, Promises

Gamer KnightOTOC:

Old Republic Wars Timeline Worth Fuckin Zeffo OTP YTTD = KotOR 2 Imaginary Sadness of Imaginary World + Part 2 Branching Paths Less Famous Sherlock Holmeses Hot Takes from my Kitten

Other Star Wars Stuff:

Last Thoughts Masterlist SW cartoons as meals I will never read this again My strongest Star Wars opinion Special Force Abilities Trek AU Top 11′s Balosar blogging Star Wars Writing Women Don’t bet against the house 20 Hot Takes Girls and Siths Vibing with Russ + Part 2 + Part 3 Powerpoint I’ve read approx. 10000 comics about this MY GIRL + AGAIN! + MY SON Ghostwritten by Cham Syndulla Mom Protagonists Dooku makes no damn sense...Compels me, though + Another List Starring Dooku A Daily Occurance + Part 2 + Part 3 Nostalgia and Ending a Franchise + Some Girls Planet Misandry Krayt’s Eye Color Continuity Small Companions Crossover #1 + Crossover #2

Catawampus from Star Wars:

Favorites Writing + Part 2 + Part 3 Senseless Violence MY ARM!!! Goodbye, Sheev Mashups for the faves Your SW Cameo Name Ahsoka’s suitors Ahsoka Fanart! My Mantra / My Better Mantra Fictionsonas SW Haters vs Trek Haters Darth Maul Prints They really are pretty useless Evolving Tastes The Gay Agenda Holorcon Boss Nass Kitty Balance in the Force KnightOTOC’s Official DNI There’s some good in...that! Ponchos: A Star Wars Story Fan edit of Maul vs Ahsoka Zabrak Padme Darth Hanna-Barbera It’s good, I like it Man After Midnight Snips protecting Skyguy Halloween cover of Battle of Heroes Come to the Dark Side... The Youngliest Youngling of Them All Hello, Sheev the OoOoOoOoOne! this looks better on mobile EU joke attempt (rough draft) Luke x Lando song! “Legacy Characters” Vivid Dream + Another One “Bill it to the Republic!” Maul and Ezra But They’re Cats Anakin vs Lancelot at Being Problematic Ongoing Poll grumble grumble Quinlan feelings Uncle Oni Blogging Part 1 - Part 2 Christmas OT3 How to Make ANY Sci-fi Good Subtweet How I’m Feeling So Intellectual Give in to your cringe! Prepositions Stretched Past their Limit Panicking Skywalker It’s called “art,” Kolara + Part 2 It’s no Seagulls, but still good My Favorite Trope + More Trope Stuff Underrated Joke imo My Demands! Spoonerism Wifeless Wife Guys 3 Guesses

#my thoughts

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scripting-life · 4 years

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FFVII: returning to my first love

*peeks out of the corner of my lurking spot*

Hello? Anybody out there? It’s only been, oh you know, four-ish years since the last time I’ve posted anything here. I apologize in advance for anybody who’s still following me from my Castle days. If you couldn’t tell from my extended absence, I’ve mostly moved on. Castle and Beckett were fantastic characters that let me to play with some deep-dive analyses, and Castle will always hold a special place in my heart as my comfort show and my first real and extended experience with online fandom. I’ll always be grateful to the community I’ve had the joy of interacting with (or, the community with which I’ve had the joy of interacting, as Castle would correct me my dangling preposition).

I honestly didn’t think I would ever have reason to come back to Tumblr after Castle ended. But the FF7 Remake has returned me to my very first love--when I was young and innocent and before I knew anything about OTPs or ship wars. I’ve been back lurking for several months now and seeing all the fanart/fanfics and fun theories and analyses has reignited my enthusiasm for the FF7 franchise. It’s also fun coming back to this franchise with a more mature understanding of the themes/concepts that completely flew over my head as a young preteen.

(This ended up being super long, so the rest is below the cut to spare everyone the pain of scrolling. Apparently, my rambling tendencies have not changed at all. lol.)

When FF7R was officially announced (five freaking years ago!), I was filled with apprehension. FF7 was my first taste of a “grown-up” game. I was 11 and played my brother’s copy of the OG on PC in 1-2 hours spurts on the weekends when I visited his apartment. It took me months, if not years, to finish the game (I ended up stealing his copy to play on our computer at home...lol), and I was so blown away by it. I remember the exact moment I finished it and how I was literally shaking as I watched the ending FMV.

Later, when I found out my brother had a copy of FF8 (my poor brother was so accommodating to his annoying little sister...haha), I was so excited to play, in large part because I thought it would continue the story of FF7. Young, naive me didn’t understand the numbering conventions of Final Fantasy titles. I was madly theorizing and breaking my brain trying to find connections between the two games’ plots and had literally played through more than half the game before I finally realized the storyline of FF8 had absolutely nothing to do with FF7. I was sorely disappointed, and I think that has somewhat tainted my appreciation of future titles. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed the subsequent FF titles, but I think a little part of me is always comparing them to that first experience of wonder and awe that I had with FF7.

I discovered fanfiction in my teens and starting writing FF7/Cloti fics in college. Aside from interacting with a few fic writers at the time, I was not involved in any online communities, so I kept myself pretty free of any ship war drama and the like. When I did research for my fics, I’d sometimes see shipping sites and theories where I didn’t always understand the logic of how certain conclusions were reached, but frankly, I didn’t much care and didn’t realize that Clerith vs. Cloti was such a touchy subject. I was peripherally aware that some sort great LTD war was waging, of course, but it didn’t really touch me. I stayed in my Cloti shipping/fic-writing lane and was probably a lot happier for it. And, to be honest, based on FFN’s listings for FF7, I felt like I always saw a bunch of Sephiroth/Cloud fics and thought that was just as popular as the more conventional ships.

Graduating college and entering “real life” pretty much ended my FF7 fanfic-writing journey. In the intervening years between college and the release of FF7R, I haven’t gone back to the OG too much. I’ve played almost all the Final Fantasy games since then, and I always enjoy getting my FF7 crew fix when I play the non-canon mobile games or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. But FF7 was a happy part of my teenage years, and I was content to think on it with sweet nostalgia.

Remakes, in recent experience (*cough cough* Disney, why?), have been hit or miss, with a lot of misses. It’s hard to strike a good balance between catering to nostalgia and delivering a fresh product, never mind the change in social mores through the decades. I was so afraid FF7R would screw up my memories, especially since I wasn’t the biggest fan of Advent Children. The graphics were great and the action scenes were fun, but the story felt like a let-down. Cloud, in particular, felt so different (and yes, moody) from where we left him after the OG. I understand now that a lot of his character motivation was better explained in the On The Way to a Smile novels, but back then, I just felt like AC came out of nowhere.

Btw, because I see this question a lot on other blogs when I’m lurking, I’ve ALWAYS thought that it was very clear in AC--even without reading anything else--that the reason for Cloud’s depression was due to guilt and not because he was pining for Aerith. The only reason I didn’t like his characterization in AC was because it felt like it came out of nowhere since AC is set 2 years after OG and by the end of the OG, he seemed to be in a pretty decent place mentally and emotionally. That being said, I can absolutely understand why some traumas resurface years after the originating incident and how times of peace might actually be worse because he is no longer solely focused on saving the world, but I was just surprised and a little bummed that this was the direction the devs chose to take AC at the time. Now that I’m older, I do better appreciate the complexities of Cloud’s mental state and the fact that they depicted a hero with lingering mental health issues is actually pretty awesome. I’m drawn to characters that have flaws--sometimes serious ones--but try their best anyway. Hence, why why Tifa Lockhart and Kate Beckett are some of my all-time favorites.

Anyhow, that didn’t stop me from pre-ordering FF7R, of course. I avoided reading any reviews as I didn’t want my first impressions to be swayed, and boy, was I happy that I went in mostly blind. That sense of awe really almost felt like playing the OG for the first time again, but somehow more. The combat system is incredibly fun and the world-building is nothing short of incredible. The variety and abundance of NPCs gives the game so much flavor and the locations have been rendered so well. As I’m going through areas like the Sector 7 train station and Wall Market and Aerith’s house, I can almost superimpose the layout from the OG in my head, but now it’s in 3D and so rich and full. It’s obvious that a lot of attention was paid to details, and I love all the head-nods and homages to the OG.

And oh, the characters!

This is the Cloud I’ve been wanting to see in glorious HD and the Cloud I remember from the original game: all awkward, dorky trying to be cool, socially inept, mentally unstable, abrasive-at-times, reluctant to act depending on who’s asking, wannabe hard-ass who’s actually a big softie inside Cloud. I remember reading an article a few years back about how the devs basically redid Cloud for the Remake because they wanted him to go back to his dorky roots--which ends up making him closest to his personality in the OG than his appearances in other franchises--and I was SOOOO incredibly happy to hear that. I was so sick of the way Cloud was constantly depicted as this cool, broody McBrood in his cameos when he was a pretty big dork in the OG. (Anybody remember him doing squats in the Highwind when Tifa says it’ll be lonely with just the two of them and Cloud responds that he’ll make enough noise to make up for it? Like I said: cute, but a dork.)

I WAS surprised by how comfortable and sweet and touchy (so very very touchy) the devs made him with Tifa from the beginning. That initial scene of Cloud being such a smooth operator giving Tifa the flower had my jaw-dropping and every single flirty interaction after that (and there are many) had my Cloti heart overflowing in shock and bliss. Throughout most of my years as a Cloti shipper, even though I believed Cloti was supported by canon and pretty clearly together, I was also under the impression--mistakenly or not--that Cloti was the minority ship. So for Square Enix to make it so blatantly obvious that Cloud is really into Tifa at such an early stage has been an unexpected gift.

Also, they’re just really hot together. (Clotiscrew tunnel--be still my heart!)

As for Tifa...oh, what wonderful character development we’ve already gotten for Tifa. Tifa has always been one of my all-time favorite characters ever since reading her character blurb in the OG game manual. Initially, as a child, it was because I saw so much of myself in her. She was outwardly bright and optimistic, but tended to hide all of her stronger feelings inside. She fought with her fists, and for someone who was a tomboy growing up who liked playing contact sports with the boys, I connected with her in a way that I had never been able to connect with other female protagonists who were primarily back-row specialists. (I also aspired to grow to her listed height of 5′4″, which alas, did not happen...lol).

I love how the Remake delves into more of Tifa’s moral conflict between the destruction that she causes as part of Avalanche and needing to do something to stop Shinra, and yes, even seeking revenge. They touched on this in the OG lightly, but the Remake really hammers it home. She’s perhaps the most conflicted character in terms of motivation in Part 1. That scene with the Shinra manager on the train is actually one of my favorite scenes of her because it highlights that tension. The elevator scene, if you opted for it instead of the stairs (or if you did one, saved, and reloaded to do the other one, like me), is also underrated in terms of how much it reveals about Tifa’s inner struggle.

On this point, I also appreciate that the Remake has the characters reflecting on the damage they’ve both indirectly and directly inflicted--the Avalanche team all do this to a certain degree. In particular, Jessie’s constant inability to figure out what she’d done wrong with the bomb to cause such a massive explosion and her remaining feelings of guilt during her death scene (”they were my victims” ouch!) were heart-breaking.

Aerith’s depiction was another pleasant surprise. I’ll be honest; I didn’t much like her in the OG. She was too pushy and willfully oblivious to the point of being mean at times. In the Remake, much of her sometimes too in-your-face playfulness was kept--perhaps still a little too much--but I appreciate the nuance that they gave her. The train graveyard scene tells the player that she didn’t have friends growing up, and I think that partially contributes to her lack of social tact at times. The other factor that gives her personality more nuance is the hint of special knowledge that affects how she interacts with the rest of the group. It gives her additional hidden motivation and adds to her mystery for new players while simultaneously pulling at the heartstrings for old players who get the impression that Aerith is somehow aware--to a certain, unknown extent--of her own fate.

I also appreciate that Aerith is more grounded as a real person than as some sort of revered being. I do blame AC for some of that. When you have the power to cure a fatal disease from the afterlife and send the dead back to life, it gets into some godlike territory. Maybe it’s a fair depiction of her powers as a Cetra, but I just get the feeling that Aerith herself wouldn’t really appreciate being made into this goddess-like figure. Remember that her character blurb in the original game manual implied that she was more interested in earthly things (i.e. the love triangle) than in exploring her own powers. I personally think that Aerith used the “love triangle” in the OG as a form of escapism from the weight of her burdens rather than genuine interest, and I just think she’d want to be thought of as a person rather than as a god. One of my favorite scenes for Aerith is when she and Cloud are traversing the rooftops and she slips on the ladder, letting out a simple, “Shit.” It humanizes her in a way that combats some of the ways she’s sort of been deified in the last 23 years. Also, Aerith wielding a folding chair like it’s WWE never fails to make me laugh. Overall, she just comes off as a more reasonably flawed and--as a result, to me--a more likeable character in the Remake, and I do very much like her now.

Barret is pretty much the exact larger than life character I imagined in my head, only somehow even better, and I really love how expressive and emotional his eyes and facial expressions are. His scenes with Marlene are truly the cutest thing ever. Red XIII is a big, furry ball of sass, and I need so much more of him in the coming parts (Cosmo Canyon still wrecks me to this day). The interactions between the Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie are incredible, and they really feel like people who’ve been friends and basically each other’s family for years. The Turks and Rufus are pretty much as cool as I imagined them in the OG.

There’s still so much more I haven’t even started touching on about the Remake, and I think that’s why I’m finally posting this now. I just can’t contain my love for this game any more, and I really really need a place to express myself. I don’t know if anybody is still reading, but I appreciate having the opportunity to finally gush about this game and franchise that I’ve loved so much for pretty much two-thirds of my life.

#ff7r #final fantasy 7: remake #cloti #cloud x tifa #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #aerith gainsborough #jessie rasberry #barret wallace #red xiii #for the love of the game #personal experience #not sure i'm ready to wade back into fandom life #but i really needed to gush #oh man i forgot to mention the cats #how could i forget the cats?!?!?

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botonbots · 5 years

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Bring Arts: Fei Fong Wong

Story time! When I was a wee tot, my parents said they would buy me a game system for my birthday. My brother suggested we get a PS1 because there was a game for it that he was interested in. And that’s the story of how I was introduced to Xenogears when I was eight years old. Xenogears would go on to ruin my life and curse my interests for the next the rest of my life.

My first non-transformable toy review! Let’s get in to it after a quick criticism of my photography skills! I should know how to block reflective light better than this!

One side of the box shows us a picture of Fei with his name running across.

The other side of the box has a hefty bit of text.

The year is 9999. On the continent of Ignas, the Aveh and Kislev nations have been fighting a war for 300 years. The mainstay of their armies are “Gears,” giant mechanical battle suits excavated from ancient ruins.

Far removed from the war, a young man named Fei Fong Wong lives in the peaceful village of Lahan. Three years prior, at the age of 15, he was left in the care of the village leader by a mysterious stranger. Although Fei had no memory of his own past, he was quickly accepted by the villagers as one of their own.

One day, unknown forces attack Lahan. During the fighting, Fei climbs into the cockpit of a mysterious Gear named “Weltall” to fend off the attackers. However, he loses control of Weltall and accidentally lays waste to the village he had hoped to save. As a result, a devastated Fei is banished by the surviving villagers. So begins Fei’s journey to find his past, and a place to call home.

And now you know the first like, ten minutes of the game. Twenty if you’re bad at Rock-Paper-Scissors.

The back shows us cool action poses Fei can do and says some things in Japanese that are probably important to the care of this figure. Of course, Square was certain to put “Collect all figures in this series!” in English because that’s the real import thing. This series of cool action poses some how neglects Fei’s famous “sit in a chair and exposit” action pose.

Fei comes with himself, an angry head, three pairs of hands and one lonely right hand, and a can.

He also comes with a very nice stand. Fei is capable of standing on his own, but it’s nice to have the stand for more dynamic poses.

OH MY GOD THE DETAIL ON THIS THING! His face! His shirt tie! His tummy armor! His stupid sandals!!!

They did a great job painting on his face details. My brother wished that his forelock was on a joint, but alas, it stays in place.

His shoulders are actually attached a bit lower than they should on the torso. However, the bulk from the shirt makes up for this gap and allows his shoulders more rang of motion than if there was a flush attachment

His ponytail is on a ball-joint so we can move that out of the way to get more look at those shirt details.

Actually, let’s just take off his entire head and look at this tiny design on the back of his shirt that I never knew about.

Look at the details on the bottoms of the sandals!!! Were those always there??? More seriously, that looks like a poor grip and Fei should have been sliding everywhere in the game.

The sculpted his hair tie prong things!!!!

He is very posable and the stand lets us recreate his fighting stance without worrying about how, being a figure, he can’t alter how he distributes his weight.

High kicks!!! He’s read to martial arts!!!

And with the hair mobility, he can look like he’s falling. Even though the forelock kinda ruins the image. Sorry, bro.

And he can yawn, while lamenting that it sure is boring in Lahan.

His head switches out easily and sits in his neck snuggly. Thus letting you recreate Old Man Yells at Cloud (for stealing his budget).

Along with an alternate head, he has three sets of hands...

Actually, let’s talk about his can first. I love the stupid can he comes with.

In the PS1 game, they had limited polygons and couldn’t make a round can. Rather than go “Oh, clearly the can was supposed to be round” the designers said “NOPE HEXAGONAL CAN!” No wonder this can has a pull tab, you couldn’t use a can opener on it.

For added detail, the bottom of the can doesn’t have the pull tab! And what is it a can of?

WHO KNOWS! IT’S A MYSTERY! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE IN THIS CAN FROM THE SOYLENT SYSTEM?

Anyway, hands. He has grabby hands so he can hangrily grip his can and try to just bite through the tin. There’s a pull tab on top, Fei.

He also has these knuckle strike hands that probably aren’t for making him say “Nya” but fuck the rules.

Then he has open hands for saluting or palm strikes. Or Sailor Moon poses. Whatever you want!

Now, at the time of taking these pictures, I didn’t have Elly. I have her now as I write the review but, well, I’m not taking kissing photos of them now, especially when I’d have to reuse the images for Elly’s review. So, bereft of Elly, I had to make due. Had to make Yon-due!

THEY’RE SO CLOSE! ALMOST PREFORMING A KISS! Yondu can kiss Fei’s nose I guess...

OVERALL: I could not be happier! I’m so glad to see merchandise for my favorite game even if I had to wait TWENTY YEARS for it. Normally I’d say whether I recommend purchasing him or not but really, if you wanted him you probably already got him. And yes, he’s very much worth owning.

#xenogears #toys #toy reviews #fei fong wong #bring arts #you know fei had to do it to lahan

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casualarsonist · 6 years

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Matty G’s Quick AF Video Game Review Rundown

Hi there! My name’s Matt, and I’ve played a whole shitload of games recently - some for a little bit, some for a long while - and while I have opinions about each and every one of them, I’ve worked 13 days on and 1 day off and haven’t the energy or inspiration to write a full review for all of them. So zip your pants up and strap yourselves in for a rapid-fire short-form series of random reviews!

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER (PC)

Let’s start on a high: Total War: Warhammer is the best Total War game I’ve ever played. That’s not to detract from series greats such as Rome, or Shogun, or others, but this game has something in particular that, in my opinion, every other game in the series lacks, and that’s a roster of factions that each have their own incredibly detailed personalities. I played a long campaign as the Dwarfs, and every victory against the Greenskins felt like something to celebrate, whilst every loss felt like a moment of mourning. My plucky little soldiers didn’t have anything by the way of cavalry, but were like a stone wall when engaged in single combat against other units, so I had to adapt to playing defensively, which allowed for some wonderfully cinematic gameplay as the enemy warriors marched slowly towards my stubborn line of beardy-boys wedged strategically into the corners of the gameplay map in order to avoid being flanked.

Diplomacy played a far-larger role in my game than it ever had before as I reforged alliances with human factions with whom I had diplomatic bonuses due to our long history in the lore of the series. I also befriended and confederated with other Dwarven armies, and tried to maintain an ethical balance with the armies of certain non-human tribes towards whom I felt an affinity, such as the wood elves. And all these decisions were not born of some calculated effort to manipulate the rules of the game in order to win, but an emergent and dynamic set of decisions that came from an emotional engagement with the game’s design.

In this game, diplomacy feels more necessary - your allies aren’t simply an impediment to your growing power, but a reliable support against mutual enemies. Certain factions have a trait called ‘shield of civilisation’, which means that they will become diplomatically lenient when it comes to the issue of protecting the world against greater threats such as the hordes of Chaos, and in the face of the advancing desolation, they will join you in order to fight them, even if you’ve slighted them in the past. This feeling of camaraderie is further enhanced by the existence of difference races of creatures - Orcs and Dwarves are naturally in opposition to one another, so it’s a comforting feeling to know that you are united (to a point) with others of your race against those who are united against you.

Certain gameplay changes feed the necessity of these alliances, particularly the fact that you can’t lead an army without Lord at their helm. I resented this to begin with as it meant that most of my regions were left undefended, but after a time I found that this handicap went both ways, and resulted in there being a definite benefit even to just wounding an large enemy army because they can’t simply call over a half dozen cheap units that were lying in wait to fill the gaps. Even losing a battle feels like a worthwhile endeavour if your men can do enough damage to the enemy, because they will have to retreat and lick their wounds if they wish to avoid another army crushing them in their weakened state - this meant that I took over last stand battles myself and made sure that the aggressors paid in blood for every life they took.

These small changes all result in a far more engaging and dynamic experience than I had ever played before. Whereas in Total War: Rome, for instance, you might ally with Spain knowing that there was no way to predict when they would turn their back on you and come for your land, in Warhammer you get a definite sense of just how much you can trust the factions around you. This leads to some thrilling and treacherous alliances that mimic real-world geopolitics, in which you find yourself making a concerted effort to befriend factions whose culture is clearly at odds with yours, in order to maintain stability along your borders. I had to forge an uneasy truce with the vampire families that bordered my lands, if for no other reason than I didn’t have the strength, men, or money to open up a war on two fronts. I always knew that our inherent opposition to one another would eventually lead to a confrontation, and so it was that they eventually made the mistake of breaking our non-aggression pact after I had closed the other front, at which point I diverted my armies and ran roughshod over them. It was almost sad when their last surviving leader sued for peace on the eve of their destruction, but they had made their bed with their continued antagonism towards me, and now they had to lie in it.

This culture clash is tangibly felt by way of provincial ‘corruption’. Vampires, Orcs, and Chaos-aligned factions spread corruption throughout their territories, and this corruption leeches into neighbouring areas, damaging armies and spreading discord amongst the people. This means that maintaining cities next to these factions becomes a constant battle against the corrosive darkness that can only be relieved by eliminating its source. Dark vs light is a far more understandable conflict that the rather vague and opaque cultural and religious differences that appear in other Total War games, and the fact that your provinces can never achieve true stability while a corrupting force is nearby (or vice versa if you’re playing as the vampires) really solidifies a genuine feeling of unrest at the existence of culturally incompatible neighbours.

The Total War series has always suffered, to varying extents, from the gameplay limitations brought on by its three-pillared combat system - infantry, cavalry, and missiles. There are only a certain amount of ways to win a battle with the various combinations of these units, and it’s my experience that once you’ve played one army you’ve played them all. Total War: Warhammer is the first game in the series in which I feel a true, measurable change in the level of individuality and character in each of the factions. You can play as one of the human factions and its rather traditional Total War unit roster, but how you combat a rock solid wall of dwarves will differ to how you fight a monster army comprised of creatures that can just smash their way through your lines. It’s not just the simple scissor-paper-rock gameplay of other games in the series, and it makes a huge difference to the game’s replayability, longevity, and sense of character.

This review wasn’t short at all. Oh well.

9/10

***

THE ROOM, THE ROOM 2, THE ROOM 3, THE ROOM: OLD SINS (PC, MOBILE)

No, it’s not what you’re thinking. Instead, The Rooms 1-4 are the best puzzle games currently available on mobile, and perhaps some of the best puzzle games ever made. Developed by a small Guildford studio ‘Fireproof Games’ on a shoestring budget, the premise is simple, and refined to perfection. the contiguous gameplay element being the unlocking of puzzle boxes: the first game involves solving a single, ever-more intricate puzzle box, the second involves completing rooms which each contain a number of puzzle boxes and requires you to move back and forth between them in order to finish the stage, the third game increases the scale even further with a number of interconnected rooms containing a number of different puzzles within them, and the fourth game features an intricate dollhouse, containing multiple rooms, containing multiple puzzles.

Throughout the series Fireproof have managed to build on the complexity and scale of each prior game whilst expertly maintaining an awareness of the game’s core hook - the second game holds the best balance of puzzles to scope, and while the third proves itself more cumbersome as you’re forced to watch tedious cutscenes when moving between different rooms again and again, they rectify this cleverly with the fourth game, which features greater intricacy than the third, but cuts down on the useless wandering back and forth by simply letting you rotate the doll’s house and choose which room you wish to view. Perhaps it sounds rather abstract when describing it this way, but in practice the execution is perfect.

The games look gorgeous, especially 1 and 2, which are also available on PC. 3 and Old Sins are only sold on mobile stores, and you lose some of the glorious and realistic detail they’ve put into it, however, each and every one of these games stands among the top 10 mobile games available for purchase. There is no better time waster when commuting, because playing these games doesn’t feel like a waste of time - the puzzles are exceptionally well-balanced, and it’s a rare occasion when you feel like like you’re struggling because the game is unfair; it’s far more common that you simply realise that you haven’t been paying close-enough attention, or that you’ve ignored previously established rules, or that the answer is just sitting there in front of you in the periphery of your vision and you’ve haven’t looked hard enough.

And one of the most important features of the game, in my opinion at least, is that all this fantastic gameplay is nestled amongst a light, creepy narrative that carries over from game to game. While the concept and puzzles are standout on their own, the spooky story allows these titles to transcend the expectations of a mobile game and become something singularly excellent.

You’ll be played each game for between 2 and 7 hours depending on which one you buy, and won’t feel cheated in purchasing any of them, however I advise that you begin at the start and move onwards from there, as they logically progress in complexity. I highly recommend these games to literally anyone (other than babies, obviously - fuck ‘em); they’re actual gems, buried beneath a sea of free-to-wait shit on the app stores, and have single-handedly demonstrated to me the great potential of a mobile game done right.

THE ROOM: 8/10

THE ROOM 2: 9.5/10

THE ROOM 3: 7.5/10

THE ROOM: OLD SINS: 8.5/10

***

EVERSPACE (PC)

Everspace is the rogue-like space-shooter baby of Elite: Dangerous, Rogue Legacy, and FTL, taking the visual beauty, inching progression, and randomly generated, zone-based scenarios from each game respectively. The Steam reviews are a litany of players complaining about the rogue-like aspects and the flight controls as if they’ve never encountered either, but honestly, it manages to combine the best of both genres into one tight, unassuming package, gorgeously rendered in the Unreal 4 engine.

After a short while playing I was ready to palm the game off as a cheap thrill and a distraction, but after persevering for a little while longer I began to see Everspace with fresh eyes. The general point is to accumulate enough cash during a run to upgrade your abilities for the next, and while initial progress is slow and the repetition in your first few runs can be a bit of hurdle to overcome, there’s a point where the small gains you’re making between playthroughs begin to make a distinct and measurable difference to your success. Small groups of fighters aren’t so scary any longer, and as you start to venture deeper into each sector, the actions you previously avoided taking for fear of being destroyed start to look like the kind of thing you could get away with now. You’ll begin to meet in-game characters who give you missions that expand the scope of the goals you’re looking to achieve, and the story unfolds as the game reveals itself to you as a reward for your persistence.

And don’t get me wrong, being easy to pick up and play, Everspace IS a cheap thrill at times, and a great distraction, but it’s also deeper and more rewarding than my initial impressions suspected. As you progress, your runs will stretch longer and longer, with my last one clocking in at nearly an hour before I was killed. And since each sector, and each area in each sector, is somewhat randomised in its make-up and content, yet cohesive in design and often genuinely breathtaking visually, beginning a new session becoming increasingly enjoyable as the game opens up.

In short, Everspace could have easily been a throw-away piece of fluff, and while there are aspects of its design that are exceedingly simplistic when compared to other, more genre-committed space games, it’s a beautiful and fun game that rewards the player the more they invest themselves in the experience. Don’t enter expecting to be completely immersed as you would in something like Elite: Dangerous, but if you’re looking for a fun, accessible space-shooter that doesn’t demand you give up your day job in order to get the most out of it, Everspace is a good place to start.

8/10

***

PLANET COASTER (PC)

Planet Coaster is the Cities: Skylines of theme park simulators - the best modern attempt at resurrecting a genre you haven’t looked twice at since your childhood. I might not be the best person to review it (which is why it’s here) because I tend to devalue games that you can dominate in one playthrough, but the mark of quality in a sim title like this is in how many times one can come back to it and do something different with the mechanics we’ve been provided.

I’m perhaps not the most creative of individuals when it comes to this genre, and have little of the vision or patience required to bring a particular style of park to life, especially when you have to fight against the financial and logistical realities of running of the park at the same time. This is further exacerbated by the fact that, much like Cities: Skylines, Planet Coaster only lets you use certain rides after getting the population of your park to a certain size, meaning that you might want to build, say, a pirate park, and yet only have one pirate-themed ride available for a long time. This system works far better in Cities, because you don’t start having fires until you unlock the fire station, but here, if you want to craft a park to a particular style, you’re often simply hampered by the lack of available choices.

Somewhat offsetting this is the ability to make your own buildings using pre-made assets. Blank, box-like confectionery stands can be modified to your heart’s content, and the ability to design and stylise the landscape helps balance the lack of control you have over the type of rides you can put down; this kind of creative freedom greatly compliments this type of gameplay, and it’s in this mechanic that the true builders among us will find shine.

There is also a surprising amount of depth in the characterisation of your attendees. Hordes of sweaty guests could quite easily be rendered with little thought for the details, but almost every feeling and expression is available to the player, to view either through their actions, or through their little character bubbles which give you all their details. If a piece of park property has been vandalised you can hover over the nearby people and see if any of their thoughts reveal their guilt. These kinds of actions are rarely unjustified, and the urge to smash is usually brought on by frustration at certain aspects of your park, as well as being more common in teenagers that others, so once you’ve nabbed them you can order your park security to kick them out and watch as the guard chases them down and ejects them from the premises. It’s great fun, and gives you a real feeling of personal ownership over the people, places, and things in your business.

Unfortunately the game also runs like hot garbage at its highest settings, and even powerful computers will start to slow down once your population stretches into the multiples of thousands. With the simplicity of its visual design, it’s hard to understand why it chugs so much, but I suppose that it’s as much to do with the cost of computing the actions of thousands of characters as it does with the actual visual detail of the park itself.

However, if Theme Park or Roller Coaster Tycoon were ever your thing, then I think you’ll feel right at home here. Planet Coaster is easy to pick up and play, and while it’s not exactly the most flexible sim in terms of where you can build and adjust your paths and building, it’s about as detailed as games like this come, and rides a nice balance between accessibility and micromanagement with a hell of a cute veneer over the top of it.

7.5/10

***

FAR CRY: PRIMAL (PS4)

Whenever I try to write ‘PS4′ I always end up holding the shift key down and writing ‘PS$’, which is an hilariously apt, if accidental commentary on just how fucking expensive PS4 games are despite almost invariably being inferior to their PC counterparts.

Big-budget first-person shooters are an excellent example of this.

I’d been eyeing Far Cry: Primal one for a long time after release, as I love the potential of the Far Cry series, if not Ubisoft’s actual execution of the property. As a die-hard fan of the second game, Far Cry 3 and 4 were profoundly underwhelming to me, and yet, despite the fact that Far Cry: Primal was ostensibly cut from the same cloth, the idea of playing a game set twelve thousand years in the past isn’t something that comes along every day. For a long time, though, that alone wasn’t enough for me to take the leap, especially as the paltry discounts on the game always left it hovering at or above a price that I felt was unreasonable for something that I knew would ultimately be a copy-and-paste job.

So when I spotted it on sale for £10 on the Playstation store I decided that that was fair enough, and I finally decided to see what the deal was here. The first thing I noticed was that it ran at 30 fps - not a deal-breaker, but being a member of the god-like PC elite, it’s a hard thing to unsee. The second thing I noticed was that playing with a controller made targeting the game’s primitive bows and spears a challenge, and this triggered a third revelation - that this challenge made the game scary. Holy shit, a Far Cry game in which the enemies are actually a threat?! Am I dreaming? No, friend. You are not. And this small but impactful distinction makes all the difference in the world. While it might be the same-old Far Cry game for all intents and purposes, fighting with cumbersome weapons and against cumbersome controls as a screaming prehistoric man rushes at you with his club raised is genuinely tense, and it was the first time I’d felt tense playing a Far Cry game since I last heard the revving of a 4x4′s engine as I hid in the long grass of the African savannah. For the same reason, this also transforms the game’s animals from a pointless nuisance into an actual hazard, and coupled with the beautiful, sun-dappled overgrowth and enormous trees that litter the landscape, Far Cry: Primal leans into the brutal and wild nature of its setting.

I’ll also commend the developers as well for the fact that there isn’t a word of English spoken in the game either - each faction speaks a different dialect of the same ‘reconstructed Proto-Indo-European’ language, which seems like a really laborious length to go to, and an effort that Ubisoft haven’t made since…well, since Far Cry 2 (detecting a theme here?).

Yet for all the good these details do, they’re not enough to completely distinguish the game from the typical tropes and flaws of the series, nor from the internal anachronism of Ubisoft’s ‘THIS IS A VIDEO GAME’ design vying for influence with the ancient setting. Things are at their best when the player is under-powered, and so the typical Far Cry power-fantasy actively works against the strengths of the premise. It also has some of the worst DLC I have ever seen - Legend of the Mammoth in particular is ugly, broken, repetitive, tedious, and unfathomably un-fun. So despite the novel setting and certain laudable aspects of its design, Primal remains (like so many of the ‘better’ Ubisoft games) in the ‘yeah, it’s one of those Far Cry games’ pile. Had they taken the risk of maintaining a level of moderate difficulty and removed much of the audio-visual guidance garbage that litters the HUD, Primal might have remained interesting for the length of its playtime, but a Tyrannosaurus Rex painted on a wall does not Jurassic Park make, nor do simple stylistic changes make this anything other than the same old wander-y collect-a-thon at heart. At least it doesn’t have guns. Get it cheap and on PC, play with a controller, and/or crank the difficulty to maximum.

7.5/10

***

That wasn’t the slightest bit quick af. Sorry about that. But I got these reviews out of my system at least. There’s probably about half a dozen more games I could put here, but let’s not drag this along any further than we have already.

Until next time!

Peace xx

‘and yet’ count: 4

‘in any case’ count: 0

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dustybunny · 7 years

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ramble bramble

So I know people have already said this before and stuff but I kinda wanted to put in my quarter and see what happens lol

OH before you keep reading, I’m on mobile as I write this and cannot add a read more break so!! IF YOU HAVENT PLAYED/ARE DODGING SPOILERS FOR EPISODE IGNIS IM SO SORRY I CANT HIDE THEM AT THE MOMENT////

I’ll be tagging this as well so please don’t get mad at me ; ~ ;

So here we go!

After thinking about it and comparing the bros dlcs it’s more then blatantly obvious that Gladio got jipped. Ok yea fighting and beating a giant one armed samurai dude to prove your worth was pretty cool, but it feels like there should’ve been more.

Prompto was able to not only come to terms with being a clone, but also start becoming independent and not so needing of the others just to prove himself.

Ignis bends over backwards to save the one person he cares about the most, not because it’s his job, but because he’s his brother. And not only that, but insuring he won’t lose him to some shitty god logic.

But then there’s Gladio— undergoing a trial to prove his worthiness of being a Shield despite facing death as the moderately high likely outcome if he fails. That’s it.

With the other two bro dlcs, they’re structured around the respective bro, with both also being a way to work on something in the future. Kinda like a emotional bankrupting gaming experience of a Dr Phil episode, but somehow worse. (I’m still crying please send help)

So with that in mind, Episode Gladio is seemingly out of place and not quite the same quality as the others. You could argue the later dlcs were merely buffed up in an attempt to win back the players and fan base.

But what if that’s exactly how it was supposed to be...?

Quickly, I re-evaluated Gladio’s character— strong, intelligent resourceful guy who is a survivalist and is pretty headstrong. He tends to analyze, and seeming to be lacking in empathy in certain events (cue the train scene) Moreover, he is the King’s sworn Shield, a job he trained for his whole life and takes very seriously.

And that last part makes his episode make that much more sense. While temporarily, he leaves the group to prove himself after being ragdolled by Ravus. Not only does he succeed, but also is able to retrieve the sword Cor lost when he attempted the trials.

It makes sense... but still feels off.

Let’s fast forward a bit.

During Episode Ignis, if you play along with Ardyn and risk your life to defeat him, the trash man leaves, thanking his immortality and lovingly telling Ignis he’s gonna die while Noctis finds him. Thankfully the group does and just in time, but one thing about the scene just ripped my heart out.

Gladio, in an attempt to hold back tears, watching over a tired and fading Ignis, gives a ferocious, emotional roar, “What were you thinking?!!”

Granted I was already sobbing my eyes out and was also exhausted from trying to make Swiss cheese out of the resident garbage lord numerous times, I seriously cannot tell you how badly that one line wrecked me.

And then it suddenly got me thinking.

Just how often does Gladio allow himself to be himself?

To review, Gladio spent his whole life training to protect a future king. He descends from a heavily militarized background, and for gods sake his own father fought in a war alongside his king to help bring peace. He’s got a pair of ginormous shoes he has to fill.

So when the bros are faced with difficult decisions, what does Gladio do?

Exactly what he tells Noctis on the way to commune with Titan.

His job. There’s not much else he knows.

It’s that one line during Episode Ignis that solidified it for me—

Gladiolus Amicitia, sworn Shield to Chosen King Noctis, is shit for luck at his own emotional control.

During the whole game, Gladio doesn’t break. Won’t even allow himself to. He’s constantly working, putting all his years of training into overdrive, trying to do what he spent his entire life on.

Everyone else in the group breaks at least a little. Even Ignis, when he has to tell Noctis what’s happened to Insomnia at the beginning of the game, is clearly heartbroken and not his normal sturdy self.

But Gladio doesn’t. Not in the way everyone else does.

His breaks are seldom, and sometimes really hard to pick up on when you aren’t looking for them.

His general hatred toward Niflheim, his snaps at Noctis during the Titan climb and on the train, his sudden distress when separated from the prince in the keep after defeating the daemon that ambushed him and his recently blinded friend. His line when he finds a nearly dead Ignis.

The only thing he seems to do for selfish reason is fighting. Hunting and taking down daemons, MTs, whatever. It’s the only way for him to release his emotions, turning it all into rage to destroy whatever he’s in front of that’s trying to kill him or his king.

It’s his only way to cope with what the fuck is going on.

His dad is murdered, his home destroyed, everything he knew turned on its head. And he doesn’t even flinch. Just keeps going, pushing onwards, focusing on being a worthy Shield. Analyzing and tactically moving forward. It’s what he knows. Buries everything else, even his own emotions to march on.

It what he has to do. It’s what he was trained for.

Gladio reacting to Noctis grieving Luna’s death was a mix of trying to do the thinking for the prince and himself. He couldn’t let his own building pain beat him. So he did his job. Keep moving forward. It’s when he lashes out that he breaks, and quickly tries to catch himself, choking down his feelings to keep going.

Keep. Fucking. Going.

That’s why Episode Gladiolus is so different. Instead of conquering some inner demon, he’s focused on the trial. To prove himself as a Shield. Swallowing down and shoving away his emotions, refusing to let them even touch the surface. It’s not that he couldn’t win, but rather forces himself to bury it away. Focus on the job. The only thing he’s known his whole life.

As much as I love all the boys, Gladio is by far the one I worry about the most. In future dlcs, I’m scared to see what’ll happen to him. If one focuses on him again, what are we gonna see? If it’s in the ten year skip, will we finally see him snap? All that time, bottling up everything, will he finally let it burst?

Ughh as much as I love this game it makes me think so much about all the poor kids involved in it # ~ #

And tbh I just want gladio to be happy. Lemme spoil me good boi, god damn it. There’s a very good reason I have an embarrassing surplus of ramen on my game and it’s so I can at least make my poor tol a little happy.

Hhhhh but that’s all my thoughts ;w;

Hopefully it makes sense. Mobile app is making it dangerously hard to revise and review //orz

And if you got this far, thank you for reading !! ;w;<33

hope you have a lovely day !! <33

#gladiolus amicitia #final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #ffxv #ff15 #episode ignis #episode ignis spoilers #dusty thoughts #hhhh

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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The Trial of the Chicago 7 Review: The World is Still Watching 50 Years On

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People stand gathered around a federal building, outraged at the violent treatment of fellow peaceful demonstrators; counter-protestors are also standing by, waving signs which bemoan the lack of focus on all civil rights; and an exceedingly politicized Justice Department gathers trumped up charges intended to demonize those they deemed “radical,” “subversive,” and “the far left.” No this isn’t the nightly news, it’s the opening moments of Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, a movie about a grotesque miscarriage of justice from 50 years ago.

Premiering on Netflix just before the U.S. presidential election, but months after a summer of civil unrest, The Trial of the Chicago 7 feels both tailored for our moment and almost transported from another universe. The irony of the timeliness is not lost on Sorkin, who filmed Chicago 7 a year before the death of George Floyd ignited a new wave of protests across the country (Sorkin also began writing the movie during the Bush administration). However, the picture is likewise rooted in Sorkin’s general optimism for a legal system that led him to pen some of the most sterling courtroom dramas of the last 30 years, including the heroic A Few Good Men. That optimism leads him still, causing him to frequently write about the renewal of the American experiment.

But perhaps more than any other film he’s authored to date, Chicago 7 is a Sorkin experiment. Here is a movie where the characters the writer-director clearly most identifies with are the ones late to the party in understanding they’re trapped in a sham political trial, and what’s at stake is every character’s (and presumably viewer’s) faith in the judicial system. In this way, it might be Sorkin’s most interrogative screenplay of the ideals he so reveres.

Centered around the infamous conspiracy trial of the “Chicago Eight” (soon reduced to “Seven”), the film is essentially Sorkin using a singular intimate event to explore the social unrest of the 1960s—and, whether by accident or design, also today. Prior to the movie’s 1969 trial, the Democratic National Convention of 1968 devolved into a riot outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago. A multitude of factors contributed to this, but at its root Mayor Richard Daley’s government refused to provide permits for the more than 10,000 anti-Vietnam War protestors who gathered in the city to vocally reject the war escalated by the Democratic Party’s current president. Daley did, however, call in more than 23,000 state and city police officers, and Illinois National Guardsmen.

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s own administration would ultimately define what followed as a “police riot,” where law enforcement provoked the violence of the night and began indiscriminately beating protestors, journalists, and almost any passerby on the streets. Nonetheless, the film opens with young federal prosecutor Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) being given an uneasy task by the new Nixon administration to charge eight leaders of various political factions with conspiracy to incite a riot across state lines. This prosecution is all the more difficult since many of the accused have never met. Hell, Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) was only in Chicago for four hours, flying in to give a speech and then returning home to Chicago well before the violence erupted.

And yet, sure enough, a motley crew of supposed political subversives are rounded up to make an example of “the far left.” In addition to Seale, they include Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong), leaders of the Youth International Party (Yippies), and David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), the conscientious objector leader of the Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (the Mobe). There are also two random kids thrown in so the jury can feel guilt-free about absolving two protestors while condemning the other six. Because rest assured that’s the expected outcome despite the protests of liberal lawyer William Kunstler (Mark Rylance). The legal counsel of the seven white defendants may believe the system is impartial, but he hasn’t yet met Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella), who makes his biases plain the moment he refuses to hear Seale’s demands to have his own lawyer present.

Sorkin is a writer so distinct that his last name has become an adjective for a singular form of brisk dialogue. But while his penchant for “Sorkinese” language is abundantly familiar, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is only his second feature as a director. And like Molly’s Game before it, Chicago 7 hints at a visual storyteller every bit as blistering as his rapid-fire dialogue. Seemingly looking to turn his features into full-length versions of what David Fincher achieved in the Harvard-Yale boat race in The Social Network, Sorkin’s direction pulsates with a breathless pace and tactically precise editing by Alan Baumgarten.

Despite being set mostly in a courtroom or the law offices orbiting it, the movie’s often thrilling use of linguistic momentum, with the cuts hanging by their fingernails to the characters’ words, is what keeps The Trial of the Chicago 7 from feeling stagey or like a play. Well that and flashbacks to the actual riots, which are appropriately chilling as actual footage of the carnage is interspersed with smash cuts of Sorkin’s recreations. A black and white wide shot of tear gas in the park gets juxtaposed with an extreme close-up of a baton smashing in the face of a girl in pigtails.

Additionally, the energy is quickened by Sorkin’s deep bench of acting talent. While every actor stands out, including Michael Keaton in a short, pivotal cameo, the film truly belongs to the performers that are the most antagonistic. Baron Cohen has made a career of confrontational, and often uncomfortable, comedy. So he’s a natural fit for the type of big-haired political dissident who thinks being on trial for dubious charges is the spotlight he’s always craved. Yet that perfect casting almost pales alongside the fireworks discharged by Abdul-Mateen and Rylance’s independent sparring matches with Langella.

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A perfect personification of how even the American justice system can turn into a kangaroo court, Langella plays the villain of the piece with an aloofness which suggests he lacks the mental acuity to realize his hypocrisies. Oozing condescension, he patronizes Seale like a 19th century plantation owner who is flummoxed to hear complaints from the slave quarters. And that subtext becomes text in the movie’s most harrowing and heinous moment, one steeped in the cold facts of the trial. Abdul-Mateen’s waning patience with having to jump through the judge’s chained hoops is only matched by Rylance’s dawning despair at the crookedness of the situation.

Yet that might be The Trial of the Chicago 7’s one substantial stumble: The film and its storyteller is obviously more comfortable in the shoes of Rylance’s lawyer than most of the defendants in its title. While Sorkin gives plenty of floor space for Abdul-Mateen, Baron Cohen, and Strong, to embody political perspectives that are far more cynical and extreme than the American mainstream, the movie they’re in cannot help but look at them with the incredulous disbelief of Kunstler or from Hayden’s relatively more centrist vantage points.

These shortcomings manifest in an ending that feels a little pat, attempting to squeeze the ugly reality of the situation into a neat finale akin to, well, the type of 1990s Hollywood legal dramas that Sorkin cut his teeth on. These concessions to Sorkin’s impulses prevent Chicago 7 from being quite the masterpiece it almost is. Yet they don’t seriously detract from what is one of the most thrilling and propulsive movies of the year—one where a little Sorkinese fairy dust might be necessary given the perfect moment the film finds itself in. For here is a film that looks back with a weary sense of optimism at a moment of American darkness, while premiering in the grim days before November’s abyss.

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The Trial of the Chicago 7 opens on Friday, Oct. 16.

The post The Trial of the Chicago 7 Review: The World is Still Watching 50 Years On appeared first on Den of Geek.

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crossout-hack-download · 4 years

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Crossout

Crossout Review Game

Crossout is a post-apocalyptic MMO Action game by Targem Gamings (published by Gaijin Entertainment) where players need to construct their one-of-a-kind developments from a wide variety of parts to produce the best killing machine. Crossout, the upcoming free-to-play car battle game from the makers of War Thunder (2012 ), is coming to VR, as well as while there isn't a verifiable timeline for public release on the table just yet, we got a very first look at an early version of the game's Virtual Reality mode, which incorporates Oculus Touch, at this year's Gamescom in Fragrance, Germany.

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Crossout is a free-to-play MMO Lorry Shooter with a hefty focus on a crafting system. Crossout is an MMO shooter set in a post-apocalyptic scenario where you can construct your own vehicles to fight in PvP versus various other gamers or PvE where you partner with various other gamers against Crossout AI managed challengers. Crossout is worth a play, it is cost-free to play so you have nothing to shed and you will definitely get a lot of pleasure from it so to play the structure and also pve elements.

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Computer Game Information, Reviews, Walkthroughs As Well As Guides.

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Imagination is typically not something that is heavily marketed in action games, however Crossout is looking to alter that. Winning Clan Battles will certainly currently yield even more of the beneficial resource Uranium ore", which is needed to acquire Relics", Crossout's most effective tools, which have doubled in numbers with this update. 4 Events of Crossout take place in the very same world as Ex-spouse Machina's (also known as Hard Truck: Apocalypse in the North American market), which is also a Targem -created video game released by Buka in 2005.

Crossout is a free-to-play video game. Crossout is the MMO craft video game resembling players of 2 prominent titles. The new unique occasion Stay at House" will certainly last up until 9th April and is rather straightforward: gamers ought to literally just stay at home and play Crossout. Crossout is a video game based within an article apocalyptic world where culture survives the edges and also where Mad Max-esque people live and deal with in the greatest as well as baddest cars you can envision.

#Crossout Hack #Crossout Hack Download #Crossout Hack Tool #Crossout Cheat #Crossout Cheat Engine #Crossout

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armeniaitn · 4 years

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Monthly Review June 2020

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/politics/monthly-review-june-2020-28620-01-07-2020/

Monthly Review June 2020

Europe

France vs. Turkey and Russia

On June 22, French President Emmanuelle Macron declared at a joint press conference with Tunisian President Kais Said that “Turkey plays a dangerous game in Libya”. Later Macron also accused Russia of interference in the Libyan conflict. On June 29, French President said he was concerned about the presence of PMC Wagner in the region.

Earlier, the French Ministry of Defense reported that a Turkish warship off the coast of Libya refused to carry out an order to inspect the cargo from a French ship participating in the NATO operation. The French military suspected that the ship was transporting weapons to Libya. In response, the Turkish ship took aim of the French ship using a missile guidance radar system, which Paris assessed as “extremely aggressive”.

Franco-Turkish conflict as a symptom of NATO’s death

France supports Khalifa Haftar in Libya. However, it is now actively opposing both Turkey (which supports the internationally recognized Government of National Accord, or GNA) and Russia, which is also more sympathetic to Haftar, and Paris. Obviously, the French leader is concerned about the growing influence of both countries in Libya and hopes to drive them out of the region altogether. However, Turkey is still the main target, as Paris and Ankara have a variety of problems with one another, including France’s ousting Turkey from the Eastern Mediterranean and Paris’ support for the PKK.

Alliance of contradictions: Turkey has no place in NATO

Prosecution of the President of Kosovo

On June 24, the Kosovo War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague accused the President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, of war crimes, including one hundred murders and numerous instances of torture, kidnappings and rape. In addition, nine of his former fighters were indicted.

Hashim Thaçi is the founder of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought for independence from Serbia. In early 2016, he became president of the partially recognised Republic of Kosovo. As a result of the prosecution, a summit in Washington involving Thaçi and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was disrupted. Negotiations and a possible agreement between Thaçi and Vucic could have opened the doors to Serbia to the EU and NATO, but the process is currently at an impasse.

Withdrawal of American troops from Germany

The number of American military personnel in Germany will be reduced to 25,000, US President Donald Trump said on Monday. According to him, the decision was made because Germany has not fulfilled its obligations on financing NATO. He specified that about 52,000 US servicemen are currently in Germany.

On June 24, during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump said that some troops from Germany will be redeployed to Poland.

The issue of the American troops in Germany demonstrates the duality of the Trump administration’s policy. On the one hand, it operates within the paradigm of American isolationism demanded by its electorate, reducing military presence in Germany, believing that the US is not obliged to ensure the security of Germany.

On the other hand, troops will likely just be moved to other zones around the world, including Poland, closer to Russia’s borders. It is not excluded that part of the troops will be in the Middle East or the Pacific region. This means that the US is only restructuring its hegemony, but will not abandon it completely.

Eurasia

Armenia: Repression and Soros

On June 16, the Parliament of Armenia granted the Prosecutor General’s petition to deprive the head of the largest opposition party “Prosperous Armenia” Gagik Tsarukyan of parliamentary immunity and to initiate criminal proceedings against him on charges of bribery in the 2017 parliamentary elections.

The parliamentary session was held against the background of mass actions in support of Tsarukyan organized by his supporters in Yerevan, despite the state of emergency operating due to the coronavirus. During these actions, at least 154 people were detained in the Armenian capital. Gagik Tsarukyan considers the initiation of a criminal case against him political persecution. On June 5, the politician announced the necessity of resignation of the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his cabinet.

Most opposition parties accused Pashinyan’s regime of political repression. At the same time, it is indicative that Pashinyan, who before coming to power on a wave of street protests in 2018 as a pro-Western activist, is oriented to support George Soros. On June 23, “Open Society Foundations-Armenia” organization founded by George Soros called Pashinyan for political purges in Armenia against supporters of the former authorities.

Middle East

Syria: war between HTS and Hurras ad-Din

In Syrian Idlib, clashes broke out in June between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, Huras al-Din. Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham successfully stormed the headquarters of Huras al-Din and arrested a number of fighters and captured three of the group’s strongholds.

It has also been reported that Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham is using tnks against its rivals in Syria. The reason for the clashes is that the terrorists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham want to whitewash the organization to make themselves appear as the country’s “moderate opposition” in the eyes of the international community.

Iraq: pro-American tilt

Iraqi security forces arrested thirteen members of Kataib Hezbollah (45th Brigade) from predominantly Shiite “Popular Mobilization Force” (“Hashd al-Shaabi”), on the night of June 26. They are accused of launching missile strikes against the American military in the Arab Republic.

The actions of Iraqi security forces can be correlated with the pro-American bias in the country’s overall politics. Counterterrorism Service commander Abdulwahab al-Saadi was appointed to the post last month by Iraq’s newly elected Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazemi. Under the new head of government, Iraq and the US began a “strategic dialogue” on a number of bilateral and regional issues. The arrests can be seen as the beginning of a new phase of the US-Iranian hybrid war in Iraq.

“Claw-Eagle” and “Claw-Tiger”

On June 15, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced the launch of Operation Claw-Tiger against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Northern Iraq. On the first day, according to official data, the Turkish Air Force in Northern Iraq destroyed more than 80 objects belonging to the formations of the Kurdistan Workers Party.

On June 17, the Turkish military deployed the second operation in northern Iraq in recent years. According to the Ministry of Defense of Turkey, the land campaign called “Claw-Tiger ” is being conducted to eliminate the facilities of the Kurdistan Workers Party. Air Force, artillery and SAMs have been used for this purpose.

The Government of Iraq has raised formal objections. However, both Iraq and Turkey are interested in fighting the Kurdish separatists.

Asia

Sino-Indian conflict

20 Indian soldiers were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in a disputed section of the border between the two countries. The conflict took place on the night of June 16 in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas. None of the soldiers used firearms – only rocks and metal rods. This is the first clash on the India-China border in 45 years that has resulted in casualties.

Blood in the Himalayas: how to stop rising tensions between India and China

After the clash, there were massive anti-Chinese demonstrations in India and calls for a boycott of Chinese goods. The aggravation of India-China relations is likely to be used by the US to undermine the multipolar world and further weaken BRICS and SCO.

Japan is giving up on US missile defense

On June 15, Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono announced that Tokyo is stopping a bid to purchase two Aegis Ashore missile defense systems from the US, which were supposed to be deployed in the north and southwest of the country. They were to cover the entire territory of Japan from a ballistic missile strike.

The closest US ally in the Pacific region for the first time denied Washington the placement of military facilities on its territory. Formally, this was explained by the desire to protect residential areas from the possible fall of parts of anti-missile units. However, possible reasons could be: the ineffectiveness of American weapons against Chinese and Russian systems, fears of deterioration of relations with China and Russia, and finally – fatigue of the local population from the American military presence.

North Korea blows up liaison office

On June 15, North Korea blew up the inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong. The explosion took place a few hours after the DPRK military announced plans to return to the demilitarized zone.

Why did North Korea blow up its joint liaisons office with the South?

In June, the North Korean leadership repeatedly criticized the South Korean authorities, promising to cut ties completely. They were motivated by the actions of South Korean ultra-right organizations that send propaganda leaflets to DPRK in balloons insulting members of Kim Jong-un’s family. However, there are other reasons for DPRK to act decisively. The main thing is the lack of progress in relations with the US and South Korea and the denial of sanctions against the DPRK, despite the coronavirus. At the same time, the DPRK renounced nuclear tests and even destroyed part of the infrastructure for conducting such tests.

North America

BLM protests in the USA

The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 triggered mass protests in the United States. While the protests originally started as peaceful protests against police violence and racism, many turned into clashes with police and the National Guard, as well as arson and shoplifting under the slogans Black Lives Matter (BLM).

The Deep State and Regime Change in the USA

Health experts warn that riots can accelerate the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19. US President Donald Trump spoke out harshly against the protesters. In Seattle, a part of the city was occupied by protesters and declared “Autonomous Zone of Capitol Hill”. The leadership of the Democratic Party, on the contrary, is using the protests in every possible way to increase Joe Biden’s chances to defeat Trump in the presidential elections in November 2020. One of the results of the protests was a sharp drop in Donald Trump’s rating.

Bolton vs. Trump.

Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton published a book in June which criticized the president’s approach to foreign policy. Immediately after that, Bolton became a guest of the liberal media such as CNN. The White House tried to discourage the publication of the book by claiming that Bolton was revealing classified information, but the court took Bolton’s side. Simultaneously with Bolton’s attack, there were questions in the American media about Trump’s weakness in relations with China, Russia and Turkey. This was all part of a coordinated attack on Trump, where liberals joined forces with neocons.

Latin America.

Sovereignty over the Malvinas (Falklands)

On June 10, Argentine President Alberto Fernández announced that three bills that referred to Argentina’s sovereignty claim over South Atlantic islands and adjoining maritime spaces would be sent to Congress.

The event was planned for June 10 because it is the Affirmation Day of Argentina’s Rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the adjoining maritime spaces. The Argentine Foreign Ministry expressed its intention to seek the return of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands by peaceful means using as a tool contradictions between the UK and EU on Brexit .

Africa

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan GERD negotiations

In June, talks resumed between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. However, Egypt and Ethiopia have interpreted its results differently:

As a result of the Ethiopia-Egypt-Sudan Summit held on June 26, 2020, the countries agreed to establish a technical committee to work out a final document on the GES Renaissance Dam;

Ethiopia has pledged not to begin filling the post-discharge GERD dam, despite its earlier announcement this month that filling would begin despite the existence of any agreement.

In its statement, Ethiopia stated that while the parties have agreed not to take unilateral action, construction of the GERD dam will continue; Ethiopia expects to reach an agreement within 2 weeks, after which the country will start filling the dam.

Is war between Ethiopia and Egypt inevitable?

On June 29 Egypt called on the UN Security Council to oblige Ethiopia to refuse from filling the reservoir of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) until a solution is found for these disputable issues. Egypt, which receives 90% of the Nile River’s water reserves, is very concerned about the construction of the HPP in Ethiopia, as it is located downstream of the Nile River and fears drought as a result of the project. The lack of compromise has led Egypt to seek other solutions, including military ones.

Libyan crisis: Egypt is threatening an invasion

On June 6, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met with Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar and head of the eastern Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) Akila Saleh in Cairo. As a result, the head of Egypt announced the “Cairo initiative”, which includes a ceasefire throughout Libya since June 8 and the terms of a political settlement. The initiative was supported by the US, Russia and a number of Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while the GNA and Turkey opposed it. The statement was made after the forces of the UN recognized government had broken the LNA with the support of Turkey and came to the city of Sirte, the center of the main oil region of Libya.

Egyptian sea power and relations with Turkey

At the same time, on June 21, the Egyptian President addressed the army, saying that Egypt could legally carry out an invasion of Libya. The House of Representatives of Libya approved the entry of Egyptian troops, if there is sufficient reason to do so. The situation in Libya leads to the danger of a clash between Egypt and Turkey, which could become a trap for Ankara.

The trap being set for Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean

Oceania

A number of political, governmental and private organizations in Australia have allegedly been subjected to cyberattacks by a “state-based cyber actor”. This was reported by Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a press conference in Canberra on Friday, June 19.

China is considered by the country’s authorities as the main suspect, sources close to the Australian government say. Hackers have been hunting for COVID-19 related files, among other things.

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Yerevan #Politics

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burnouts3s3 · 5 years

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Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Nintendo Entertainment Developer: Intelligent Systems and Koei Tecmo Games Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 59.99 USD Rated: T for Teen due to Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence. Can I play offline: Yes How long I played: 128 Hours to go through all 4 story routes while watching the (skippable) cutscenes. Microtransactions: 24.99 USD for an Expansion Pass, a digital license that allows downloading additional future content for the game. What I played on: My Nintendo Switch Dual Audio: Yes. Both English and Japanese voices are available. Notable Localization Changes: Certain lines were rewritten. Petra, a foreigner from a different land, speaks more like Borat than anything else. Dorothea used innuendos that have been written out. Performance Issues: The game runs well enough, for the most part. I noticed a lot of soft textures and pixilation when the game was in docked mode. In handheld mode, I noticed quite a few dips in framerate. In game movies tend to look choppy and stilted in docked mode. While in the Monastery, I waited at multiple loading screens, certain characters will not pop up until after a few seconds and certain doors into other areas take a couple of seconds to open. Can I play without 2 Joy-con controllers?: No, both controllers are required. My Personal Biases: I’ve been a fan of Fire Emblem since someone recommended me Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS. So far, I’ve enjoyed the modern titles for the work such as Awakening and Fates. I bought Shadows of Valentia, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it. I never played Fire Emblem: Warriors. My Verdict: Trying to make the jump from handheld to console while retaining all the key elements is a bit of an uphill battle for Fire Emblem. While the core mechanic still remains charming, the open world exploration aspect and calendar system don’t exactly mesh well. Still, give it a shot. Buy it. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, A Review

After much waiting and the inevitable spin-offs into mobile and musou territory, Fire Emblem finally releases its latest iteration. This time, it comes to the console, the Nintendo Switch. Will Fire Emblem manage to retain the charm it had on portable devices? Let’s find out in this review of “Fire Emblem: Three Houses”! You play the role of “The Professor”, child of the mercenary, Jeralt and newest member of the Church of Seiros. Under the guidance of the Archbishop, Lady Rhea, the Church of Serios guides the land of Fodlan through an age of prosperity. There you can pick between the Three Houses and will teach one of them: Future Empress Edelgard and the Black Ravens, Future King Dimitri and the Blue Lions or Future Duke Claude and the Golden Deer. However, things are far from peaceful as a new threat emerges to shake up the church. While tutoring your students, you must also uncover the mystery surrounding the land and how best to resolve it. Certain elements for previous Fire Emblem titles had to be stripped when making the jump from handheld to console that’s sort of a handheld. The extensive character customization found in Awakening and Fates is gone, as players are limited to playing a male or female avatar. The game’s key feature, support conversations, is still there. Earn enough Support with a student will unlock a conversation with them. You can either talk to them while exploring the monastery or they’ll call you on a free day to celebrate. However, you can only unlock the S Rank / Romance ending by completing the main storyline and getting an epilogue. You cannot just grind support levels and unlock the endings before completing the main campaign like in previous titles. The Three Houses have individual storylines and the leaders of each house have different goals. Edelgard has ambitions and will stop at nothing to achieve them, Dimitri has regrets about the deaths he’s witnessed and it’s changed him and Claude is trying to keep the peace while breaking down the borders. One of the cooler aspects of the game is to recruit or ‘poach’ characters from different houses. If you level up your MC with enough of a stat and Combat Skill, you can recruit another character that’s usually exclusive to another House and into your own. For example, if you have at least 15 Strength and a C rank in Bow skills, you can recruit Bernadetta, a unit usually exclusive to the Black Eagles, into any House you want. However, because of the nature of the game and the branching paths, you will not be able to poach the House Leaders and their bodyguards. For example, no matter how high your stats or combat skills, Edelgard and her loyal friend, Hubert, cannot be recruited to any House other than the Black Eagles. The unit characters themselves are basic stock types: the loyal servant, the shy girl, the loudmouth, anime Edna Krabappel, the big eater, etc. Granted, Fire Emblem always played it fast and loose with stock types but I enjoyed the batch this time around. It also helps that in conversations with other characters, the units have interesting chemistry, as in Petra realizing Caspar’s father killed her father in a previous war, but is willing to look past that or Dorothea, who was born a commoner, putting Lorenz, a snobby noble, in his place. The feature I was missing the most was the ability to have S class conversations between other members besides the Main Character. In Awakening and Fates, you could have romantic pairings and those pairings would produce new units, a child, to fight alongside them. However, since that feature is gone, you’re stuck with one person. The “A” Rank is considered the romance and will affect the ending titles. Since I achieved the A rank between multiple NPCs with one another, they’re automatically assigned with certain characters. (What’s interesting is that certain A ranks offer platonic endings. I was completely shocked to find an ending where Leonie and Shamir join up in an ending together to form a mercenary group as buddies). I miss seeing different characters romance one another and how said romance would affect a new unit. For example, I liked the Donnel and Maribelle pairing in Fire Emblem: Awakening and seeing their child, Brady, join the fray. So while NPCs romancing each other is still there, the child units are not there (or may possibly appear in a future DLC, but I doubt it). Of the Four Routes, I found the Blue Lions and Dimitri’s the most ‘complete’ or the most scripted and detailed of the bunch. The other routes are fine, (Edelgard and the Black Eagles is pretty interesting), but the Blue Lions route seems like the one done first or the one most detailed. New to the franchise are the use of battalions, troops that can be assigned to units to give benefits. Some battalions can attack without being countered and inflict status effects such as poison or no movement. Other battalions can heal nearby units or give them more mobility. Best of all, units with battalions grouped together can ‘join up’ and unleash a stronger attack. However, certain battalions can only be assigned to specific movement types. So only Pegasus troops can be assigned to Flying units. By upgrading a new combat skill, Authority, Units can access higher levels of Battalions that deal more damage. Be careful. If your unit takes too much damage, Battalions will retreat and you’ll have to replenish them with Gold. Also new to the franchise, Epic Beasts, large monsters that take up multiple squares, multiple health bars and have armor. While your troops do reduced damage, you can ‘break’ the armor, exposing a weak point and allows other characters to deal additional damage to the monster. The game introduces an open world element, in which your character runs around the Monastery and helps NPCs with quests. In the monastery, you can take up quests with award you with Renown. By using Renown, you can repair the statues which grant you bonuses in learning skills. As you complete side quests, help NPCs and complete story missions, you gain Professor Levels which in turn levels up your Activity Levels (the amount of activities you can do in a day) and Battle Levels (how many substantial battles you can do in a day). Higher Activity Levels means you can do more Faculty Training sessions, dining sessions, cooking with specific NPCs and have Tea Parties. Yes, you can have Tea Parties with NPCs to increase their support levels. You select specific topics out of 3 and if you get all three topics correct in a row, you can get a bonus question to answer. This is a great way to increase support with units if you’re tired of grinding in battles. You can also do other tasks such as fish and garden, to earn ingredients to cook with other students to deepen the bond. You can also spend time with students such as eating together, attending choir practice. In addition to teaching your students, you can also level up your own skills by talking with other teachers and getting Faculty training, spending an activity point to earn experience with a certain skill. For example, you can train the faith skill by using faculty training with Manuela and Rhea. To be honest, I found this aspect of the game most tedious. I find fetch quests boring enough without having the story need to rely on them, but running around and looking for individual students to chat up or professors to level up really got on my nerves. Yes, there is a Fast Travel system, but the open world aspect feels wasted on Fetch Quests. The game also introduces a Calendar system, meant to mark time and schedule dates in order to meet with other students. During most weeks, you will do as all professors do and lecture your students to improve their skills, such as sword or axe. You can also assign group tasks for 2 students to pair up and improve their flying, heavy armor or riding skills. By assigning tasks, the students will devote themselves to learning certain weapon or spell skills throughout the week, so you won’t have to grind skills in battle. You can assign them 2 skills to double up or have them focus on one skill to speed up the progress. As the same time, you can spend energy talking to individual students and teaching them skills. But, students must have motivation to increase their learning. Motivation can be earned by answering students’ questions correctly, giving the students correct gifts or lost items or spending time with them by eating together or cooking together. Any unit can pick up any skill and become any class, but certain units are more proficient at certain abilities than others and will level up a skill faster while leveling up other skills at a slower pace. However, some students have ‘budding skills’ where in if you give them enough personal instruction, they can become proficient in the skill. For example, it’s possible for Dorothea to become a Cleric if she puts in enough points in Faith (White Magic). However, she will level up Faith slowly while she’s more proficient in leveling up Reason (Black magic) quickly. It’s clear on the outset that the game wants to discourage grinding, or at the very least, limit it. While you could spam a low Level mission, eventually units stop gaining experience and you’ll have to take a higher level mission or quest. And since missions or quests usually require spending energy, you’ll be limited on how much you can do per day. Paralogues (side stories that flesh out individual characters) return, but because of the calendar system, they must be completed before a certain date or be lost forever. In addition, certain bonds cannot progress until the paralogue has been completed. However, completing paralogues rewards battalions and unique weapons. Even the support conversations cannot advance until past a certain story point and players will be given messages such as “It will take some time for this bond to develop”. On the same coin, should you neglect a support conversation and unlock it after a major turning point in the game, the game will inform you that “you missed the opportunity to deepen this bond”. It’s almost as though Nintendo wants to replicate the SMT: Persona formula but it feels artificial instead of organic. (If I need to spend a whole week lecturing students, why can’t I go explore the Monastery?) The game also alters promoting a unit’s class or role. In previous games, a unit with a high enough level could use an item, an Advanced Seal, to advance to a higher class and gain boosted stats and bonuses. While Seals are still available, units now must pass certification exams, which allow the chance of failure if a Unit’s skill isn’t advanced enough. For example, Dorothea can take a certification exam to become a Warlock at Level 20 with a B rank in Reason (Black Magic), but has a chance to fail because the requirements suggest an A rank. It's possible to waste a Seal on a character who isn’t ready (though anyone with enough sense will just save and reload and grind until said unit passes the exam). After you finish your 1st campaign, you can import your save into New Game Plus and import the renown you put into the Statues. Better yet, you can take the extra renown and purchase class levels, professor levels and support levels you already unlocked in previous playthroughs. You can also use Renown to lower the cost requirements by unlocking support ranks. For example, using renown to unlock the C Rank for Dorothea (that you had to have earned in a previous playthrough) will lower the cost of recruiting her into another house. In terms of Performance, the game runs alright. I noticed a lot of soft textures and pixilation when the game was in docked mode. In handheld mode, I noticed quite a few dips in framerate. In game movies tend to look choppy and stilted in docked mode. While in the Monastery, I waited at multiple loading screens, certain characters will not pop up until after a few seconds and certain doors into other areas take a couple of seconds to open. Granted, I’m willing to overlook less than stellar performance in service of compelling characters and gameplay and Fire Emblem: Three Houses has plenty of that. The English Dub in the game is top notch. Granted, a lot of localization issues occur (Fans tell me that Petra’s lines were altered to make her fit better and some of Dorothea’s innuendos aren’t in the English version), but I enjoyed it for the most part. Many professional voice actors lend a hand here: David Lodge, Erica Mendez, Veronica Taylor and so on. But it’s Tara Platt who steals the show as Edelgard. Dub watchers often accuse Platt of using the same voice in multiple roles, but she really delievers both emotion and variation between switching between an Edelgard before and after the major plot point. JAPANESE VOICES ARE AVAILABLE IF YOU PREFER IT. CAVEAT: I enjoyed Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and was having a good time rerolling characters and chatting up members of my house. However, I couldn’t help but feel the new elements padded out the game instead of adding to it. Along with the lack of avatar customization that Robin and Corrin had, as well as Romantic conversations between non-MC members and the ability to produce child units, I wasn’t as obsessed with this title as I was Fates and Awakening. (Magic feels particularly unbalanced this time around. Where in previous titles, you had to purchase magic, store it in your inventory and it was capable of breaking as all other weapons. Here, it replenishes after every battle and doesn’t even take up inventory space.) And yet, the New Game Plus import, branching paths and the ability to poach characters from opposing Houses kept me engaged much more than I expected it to. Also, I did enjoy having tea time with Edelgard and Dorothea. Verdict: Buy it!

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thisweekingundamwing · 7 years

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June 4th-10th, 2017

It’s Sunday again! Hope everyone has had an amazing week! Below you will find all the great things created this week for our beautiful fandom! (I grabbed stuff from AO3, deviantArt, and FF.net.)

Fanfiction:

@amberlyinviolet Knife in Hand (Ch. 18) This is--well. It's not ONLY gratuitous smut, but it's MOSTLY gratuitous smut. We're getting a nice buffer in now before the shit starts to hit the fan ^_~.

@chemicalcrush “I think I’m in love.” prompt 2X6 Fluff

@chronicwhimsy Spark Some shameless, plotless 2x3 smut. There isn’t anything redeeming about this whatsoever.

@claraxbarton Paloma After the wars, Zechs adjusts to life on Mars.For the Summer of Zechs Tumblr festival. June 4th prompt of “Beach” Retribution For the Tumblr Summer of Zechs Festival. For the June 5th prompts: Childhood and Anger Years after the war, Zechs has a chance to seek retribution. Cypress Zechs finally takes a much needed vacation and has an interesting first night in Key West. For the Summer of Zechs Festival on Tumblr. June 6th prompt: vacation Plans When Zechs received an invitation to his 15-year High School Reunion he and Trowa make plans.

@cosmostar Desire told in Colors One black night, the silver marine Zechs Merquise had a mysterious encounter with a lady whose lipstick was red as blood. She called herself Blue and let him wondering when they could meet again. A 2017 Summer of Zechs submission by yours truly and my first work in English!

DarkBluePhoenix Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legacy Gundam Invasion A Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Mobile Fighter G Gundam Crossover

@downwarddnaspiral Landing Spiral 2x3xR ficlet. Fluff. Photo prompt.

facetiousfutz Nine Pairings Involving Heero This is my bingo for the fffc mini summer bingo challenge on Dreamwidth. Each chapter is a different story with a different pairing.

@helmistress Zechs’ Teeth A small sword fight between Zechs and WuFei. Written for @rhysgalentalcernunnos and their sentence prompt of ‘You sink your teeth into the ones you depend on.’ Also for @our-summer-of-zechs for June 5th’s Anger. Excerpt from Noin’s Stationary 1 For the Summer of Zechs' June 6th Silver. A small poem by Noin. Alliance Carwash For the prompt “Stay with me forever.” from @Rhysgalentalcernunnos and the Summer of Zechs prompt of Summer Job. 6XH, Zechs Merquise, Hilde Schbeiker, Fluffy! Photo Prompt! Okay, so this may become something larger eventually… but, my Zechs OTP is totally him and Noin…so, yeah, have some fluff? Road Trip? 6X2, eventual shenanigans and criminal catching.

@kangofu-cb Mission Redacted (Ch. 6) Duo joins the team, but the past isn’t quite done haunting him yet.Warnings: canon-level violencePairings: Background 3x4, future pairings TBD Prompt Drabble Collection Random prompt responses here. Pay attention to individual drabble warnings, found at the top of each chapter. Multiple pairings. No set timeline. No set background. These have undergone some editing since they were posted on Tumblr, so expect minor changes if you read them there first.Warnings: Smut, NSFWPairings: Multiple, check individual chapters.

Kuroi Uma Kaeru (Ch. 2) Who is a soldier out of war? Who is a gundam pilot without a gundam? Heero thought he knew, but in the aftermath of the Mariemaia inccident, with Wing Zero in shambles, he's no longer sure. So he sets out in search of his origins and while the road leads him back to Japan, he meets people who will make him rethink his life and help him find his place in the world.

@la-femme-noelle Party Favors For SoftNocturne. Okay, so this is pretty much Softnocturne's fault for wanting 2x4x5 with Duo and Wufei ogling Quatre's badunkadunk and my fault I guess for being dirty-minded enough to want to write it. Lulz.No real warnings, but a head's up for rimming and double penetration, so if that squicks you, best back-button now. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this, especially you Softy! Love you, darlin'. *air kisses*

@lifeaftermeteor Snippet Saturday (AC 206) Having survived the Eve War, the Gundam pilots are left to their own devices to chart the paths their lives will take in a world that none of them expected to live long enough to see. Peace is disorienting and growing up is hard to do. 1x2, 5xR, Sx11, past 3x4

luvsanime02 Standby Heero goes in front of the Board of Professional Review, and now she has an important decision to make. This is the fifth story in Navigation, a fem!Heero series.

@miss-m-muses Bat-Dude vs Spandex Boy After the colonial wars, Duo takes a job dressing up as a superhero to promote a club. It was an easy job... until a rival superhero arrives.

@mfinlay802 Wine Red 6x1 for Summer of Zechs! Odd Company A Preventers AU 6x1 drabble that- if people like- could be extended to include a part 2 (>o<)

@morbidbirdy, @the-notorious-bhg End of Line (Ch. 8) Slash, AU, Angst, 1x3x1, 3x4 - Freeform, Post-Tron: Legacy, Action/Adventure

Myviewing Mobile Suit Gundam WING: ECLIPSE (Ch. 15) After Colony 225. The promises made by generations past have been broken. There is no path towards peace but only unimaginable destruction. The past 11 years of conflict have brought this war to its unparalleled climax. The revival of Gundam. (Rated T for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence, and language, major use of OCs and some use of ICs)

nan Overlay Duo and Heero, alone in the woods. Fluff, Mission Fic, Awkward Conversations

@rhysgalentalcernunnos June 4th Summer of Zechs Snippet Zechs and Male Mystery Mate have a picnic at the beach. Example by Rhys Some 2X6 cuteness! Road trip, Summer of Zechs

@simulacraryn Right Where It Belongs Drabble Collection for Summer of Zechs 2017 - Fourteen visions in time, some AU, others canon. See each chapter for brief summaries.

taichara Cybertriptych Trowa has work to do, and needs to goad himself into doing it; not because of disinterest, but just to keep himself on track at all. Some encounters left unseen scars. Games Heero knows a challenge when he sees one. +TLvop Value Judgements Quatre needs to rebuild many things. Oh yes.

The Manwell A Safe Good Place (Ch. 5) 2X3

@the-notorious-bhg Balboa One-Shot fic, part of Gundam Wing CAPCOM, NASA AU story arc. The guys answer questions about life on the ISS from elementary school kids.

Fanart:

@avaantares Summer of Zechs: Shades of Gray

@claraxbarton Zechs art

@downwarddnaspiral Zechs Sketch

LaRozeta Heero and Duo Jr.

@maevemauvaise Long Meilan as Wonder Woman Relena in a state function dress

@outofworkshinigami Beach time

Seraphiczero Taurus Isaac Winters

thunder1928 Relena Peacecraft - 2

Calendar Events:

@our-summer-of-zechs Summer of Zechs It’s been a great Zechsy week and there’s still one more to go! June 11th through the 17th are all that’s left!

#This week in Gundam Wing #Summer of Zechs #weekly recap #Gundam Wing #June 4th-10th 2017

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fakesam · 7 years

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Stopped Procrastinating just in time for “Games of 2017” List

The worst year most of us could’ve imagined wouldn’t have been much worse than 2017. This year gave us the following: dystopian nightmares brought into reality by sycophants and cowards. Capitalistic greed reaching its inevitable, destructive conclusion. A bigoted baby as a president and given free reign by people who chose money and power over morals. Despair is constant. Hope is scarce. Next year might be worse. But at least we had good video games?

Referring to this year’s crop of games as simply “good” is like describing Ajit Pai’s face as “slightly punchable”. This was an all-time year for the medium, with a full catalog of memorable games that will be talking about for years to come. Every type of gamer was satiated. You could explore open worlds with diverse environments and secrets to discover. You could play tiny, affecting indie games that helped the expand the notion of what games are capable of. You could play games that leave you exasperated and angry at the depths publishers will steep to in order to extract maximum profits. There were more games than anyone could ever keep up with. At this time, I’ve only played seven games released in 2017, so rather than scoop the diamonds out of the muck, I decided to just rank the games I had the chance to play over the course of the year. Overall, these games are a good mix of brilliance and profound disappointment, which is a pretty good description for 2017 as a whole. If your favorite game isn’t on my list, It’s simply because that game sucks and you have bad taste. Here's to 2018!

8. Danger Zone

I wiped this game from my memory until I wrote most of this list. I reviewed the game when it was released over the summer. Go read that if you want more detailed exploration of my disappointment. There was a rumor floating around a couple weeks back about a remastered version of Burnout: Paradise. I will pray to whatever deity makes that happen.

7. Battlefront 2

Star Wars was the first thing I chose to love. My earliest childhood memory is watching the remastered original trilogy tapes. I convinced my mom to fake a doctor’s appointment to see Episode three on release day. My first viewing of The Force Awakens is the best theater experience I’ve ever had. Star Wars means a lot to me. This backstory is why I feel Battlefront 2’s total failure so heavily. It’s almost impressive how thoroughly EA managed to poison the well for three giant franchises (Mass Effect, Need For Speed, and Star Wars). But Battlefront 2 is the Mount Everest of completely preventable fuck-ups. Enough’s been written about the predatory design of the multiplayer and the various ways that segment of the game is awful. But the single-player is even more of a letdown.

Viewing the end of Return of the Jedi from the Empire’s perspective should be fascinating, the writing ruins the plot before it has a chance. The premise collapses under the simplest questioning. It’s taken as a given that Iden Versio’s reversal is inherently meaningful, but Battlefront 2 does little to justify this. Why does the destruction of her home planet upset her to the point of defection? What was her life like there? How is this the first time Iden has seen evidence of the Empire engaging in nefarious tactics? She goes from diehard Empire defender to joining their sworn enemy in the span of about ninety minutes. The gameplay is just as dull. Sometimes a space battle gets thrown in and those are enjoyable, but those sequences aren’t prevalent enough to elevate the dreck that surrounds them.

Rather than tell an original story that earns its own space in the canon, the campaign becomes an edition of Star Wars Madlibs. Heroes from the original trilogy show up constantly, for little rhyme or reason other than EA wanted to give players the chance to demo each character before, in an ideal world, you move on to the multiplayer you don’t want to play. This overwrought deference to the past is put into even more stark relief by what Rian Johnson did with The Last Jedi. The thing that makes that movie so great is the number of chances it takes to add to the universe in surprising ways, such as the casino planet full of war profiteers, or the quad-boobed slug seal monster that provides Luke Skywalker with delicious space milk (These points are equally important in my mind). Battlefront 2 had the opportunity to really show what it’s like to be indoctrinated in the ways of the Empire from the moment a person is born, and it chooses to do the exact opposite. Bummer.

6. Nier Automata

There’s a chasm of quality between Nier and Battlefront 2, but many people might be surprised to see Nier this low on my list. I really wanted to like Nier more than I currently do. Let me explain: I loved the way the game’s experiments with form and storytelling, treating each playthrough like a season of television. The commitment to world building all the way down to the mechanics of how you save the game is impressive. The list of side characters I’ve ever met who have affected me as much as Pascal is short. Every encounter with him left me wanting more. He’s the robot stepdad of your dreams.

But after playing through the game three times, the idea of roaming through the world destroying generic machine enemies for the 800th time fills me with dread. Nier Automata needs to be open world to get its ideas across. But the environments are very drab and crossing this overly vast expanse became very tiresome very quickly. You should’ve seen my face when I unlocked the ability to fast travel. Christmas presents don’t give me that much joy. The combat would’ve been described as uninspired ten years ago. My completionist streak is urging me to see the two endings I have yet to see, but the dozens of enemy mobs I have to shoot and slash to see it through actively impede me from doing so.

And it’s all in service of a story that, while filled with cool images and presented incredibly well, isn’t really tailored to my tastes. The way the machines and androids reckon with their autonomy is fascinating at times - some of the context given to boss battles in later playthroughs is heartbreaking, but Nier is ultimately another “robots discovering they have feelings” tale. The future horror stories that interest me the most - Black Mirror, Twilight Zone, The Fallout series - are more focused on how humanity reacts to such calamities. When you remove humans from the picture altogether, it becomes more of a science experiment, and I struggle to invest in that. Sorry!

5. Portal Quest

If you’ve never heard of this game, it’s a free-to-play mobile action-RPG. Its art style could accurately be described as ‘Tearaway on a lesser budget’. There are a lot of modes, most of which use timers and daily limits to control how you play them. One of these modes comes attached with a story, but it never calls attention to itself. The gameplay mostly resembles strategy games, in the sense that the player has very little control once combat actually starts. Portal Quest is deceptively simple enough to worm its way into the slivers of boredom that accent everyday life, where mobile games are at their most seductive. I play it in line at the grocery store. I played it while waiting for my screening of The Last Jedi to start. I play it when I’m avoiding hard/meaningful work during my small time on Earth. There are guilds you can join which add a substantial multiplayer component that plays on my deep-seated displeasure at letting other people down. I’m currently in a guild named after the devil. My old guild kicked me for reasons unknown and I was sincerely annoyed when I found out. I’m not making this game sound very good, am I?It’s probably because I’m so confused by it. Mobile games tend to be non-starters for me (I actually tried to look at my phone way less this year), and the only reason I downloaded this game at the suggestion of an app that claimed that credits I earned for using certain apps could eventually be used as currency for many online marketplaces. I didn’t stick with that very long. And now we’re here. Is Portal Quest’s standing on this list a mediocre joke from an unfunny man? It might be. Did I place this above Nier Automata just to mess with that game’s passionate fanbase? Possibly. Do I feel good about placing a mobile game this high on a game of the year list? Not especially. I dunno man. It’s the one app that keeps me checking my phone more than any other. It’s free on the Android store (I assume it’s playable on iPhones, but I also don’t feel like checking?). Go check it out.

4. Fifa 18

When it comes to sports games, I don’t ask for much. The FIFA franchise has reached a baseline level of good that means that EA would have to seismically screw up to keep me from playing the newest rendition for forty hours at the minimum. Career mode dominates my time in this genre, and FIFA 18 was the year that this mode finally got the overhaul that’s been needed for years.The AI tactics still aren’t where I want them to be, and their version of Jordan Henderson continues to look more “Vegas wax figure” than man. But these details are small in the grand scheme. It’s the only reality where I can see Liverpool not shoot themselves in the feet, hands, and superfluous third nipple to win the Premier League. The Journey is also the best story in a sports game, and it’s not even close. That’s worth something.

3. Persona 5

Following Persona 4 is basically an impossible job. That game was a comet across the sky that dropped from the heavens and into my heart. I’ve watched the endurance run multiple times, played through the game twice on my PS2, and played through most of the game again on my Vita (Rest in peace.). Whatever Atlus followed that with would be a comedown. It’s definitely colored how some of the characters and the story affected me. The crew in Persona 4 was a much cooler hang than the Phantom Thieves were, and I missed some of the small-town intimacy of Inaba. But when taken on its own merits, Persona 5 is a spectacular RPG. It just plays so well. Every annoying quirk from Persona 4 was dealt with in a way that kept dungeon crawling from feeling too stale. Coercing enemies to become your persona was a surprisingly engrossing tactic. Being able to switch out team members on the fly is a game changer. I was able to capture hearts in a couple in-game days and focus on the social interactions that make this series so special. I eventually grew to love this version of Tokyo, and realized its sense of big city culture shock was a feature, not a bug. And no discussion of Persona 5 would be complete without commending the game for its impeccable style. It’s not quite Persona 4, but it never could be.

2. Horizon: Zero Dawn

Robot Dinosaurs! Is there a more attractive combination of words in the English language? No one expected Guerrilla Games, a developer who had previously been such purveyors of sludgy monochrome shooters with the Killzone franchise, to suddenly discover the entirety of the color spectrum and create a universe that pulls from the earliest parts of human civilization and far-flung science fiction pontifications. Fewer expected that such a fusion would be so successful. It’s been a while since I fell for an open world this hard. I had to see everything this world had to offer, and document it via Horizon’s photo mode. Watching these machines go through the motions of real animal behaviors became a regular past time (Although it still frustrates me that I couldn’t make the machines fight each other more easily).

Horizon is iterative more than innovative, but I enjoyed playing it much more than the recent Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed. I usually hate bow and arrows, but I loved how the weapons felt in this game. The moment to moment story about the three tribes was just okay, but uncovering the mysteries of the world and how it became this way kept me going until the end. They even made audio logs a powerful storytelling device again. One of 2017’s few pleasant surprises.

1.Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo is a company defined by reinvention. Their consoles and games refuse to follow market trends and exist in their own world, for better or worse. The last couple years had skewed towards the worse end of that dichotomy. I’ll die on “The Wii U wasn’t actually that bad” island, but the system was still a commercial disaster. Nintendo’s genius is singular and vital to the industry, but, outside of Splatoon, there had been few examples of their creativity delivering on its potential. It was fair to question whether the company could make their increasingly fleeting moments of brilliance slightly less fleeting. But Nintendo tends to show out when their backs are against the wall, and this year proved that axiom true yet again. The Switch is the great console the Wii U should’ve been, and the games released for it are good and interesting in surprising ways. I was excited for Super Mario Odyssey by the time I heard the phrase “New Donk City”, but by the time I started playing it, I was feeling full up on open-ended sandbox games with dozens of hours of side content and an overarching story that only unfolds at my pace. Over 200 hours of Persona 5, Nier, and Horizon will change a man. Nintendo showed why that sentiment was false. It wasn’t the genre. It was the imagination.

Each kingdom is an intricately designed diorama that constantly throws new things at you while continuing to be a peerless platformer we’ve come to know and love an indulging fan nostalgia along the way. There doesn’t seem to be any idea that wasn’t met with anything less than an affirmative “hell yes!” The childish exuberance that courses through most of Nintendo’s best work somehow becomes more surreal and gleefully discordant as Mario explores more and more worlds that are completely alien to him. Super Mario Odyssey has so many moments that make me smile involuntarily, from the hundreds of moons I’ve found due to blind faith in Nintendo’s design process to the NES-style levels that somehow exist in the world without a loading screen, to the objectively perfect festival scene in New Donk City. How many other games would reward you for sitting with a lonely man on a bench? This game is so damn weird, I love it. I’m not usually inclined to obsessively mine every bit of minutiae out of a game, but I definitely plan on finding every moon and purple coin that’s evaded me so far. I’m 600 moons in, and I’m still nowhere close to being sick of Super Mario Odyssey. This game is special.

#games of 2017 #writing

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distantwitness · 7 years

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Virtual Witnessing Through Video Games

Creative storytellers are turning to the gaming world to bring understanding and empathy to the complex Syrian conflict

Cross posted from my guest blogging at Lawyers, Guns And Money.

A few weeks ago, I posted about Mass Effect: Andromeda and in the comments we started talking about a piece published in The Atlantic that bemoaned the popularity of narrative structures in video games. This seems like a good opportunity to talk about the rise of story heavy games that are meant to tell us about real-life events. And also to question whether some of them really deserve the label "game" at all.

One thing I have noticed over the last few years is a rise in games about the Syrian Civil War and the refugee crisis. Mostly made by Western developers with significant reliance on Syrian testimony, these games make you a virtual witness to war and grief with a clear goal of both raising awareness and generating an empathy that will lead to humanitarian action.

As a media anthropologist, what I really want us to pay attention to is that it is not just visuals that humanitarians are using to inspire action, but making the user a character within a visual world. This is completely new field for everyone, and it could only be made possible with the ease of developing through the internet and sophisticated personal devices (not just smart phones, but tablets too).

Endgame: Syria (2012)

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British based Auroch Digital produced a mobile trading card type of game where players can act as rebels and deploy different assets and strategies in the Syrian Civil War. Wired's Game The News blog pitches it like this:

Will you choose to accept peace at any cost? What if the war goes badly and the only options left mean more extreme actions; would you agree to follow this path? Can you win the war and the peace that follows? Find out in Endgame Syria.

In case you were wondering, no it did not really go over that well. Apple rejected it. Reviewer Lucy Draper panned the creators for saying that they wanted to raise awareness while creating a game that did nothing to make anyone think about the reality of the war. I'm inclined to agree.

1000 Days Of Syria (2014)

American journalist, Mitch Swenson, received a decent amount of press when he developed the 1000 Days of Syria for the web. In the introduction, Swenson describes it as “Part electric literature; part newscast; and part choose-your-own-adventure”, but also seems to shy away from the “game” label:

Sometimes the word "game" can be misconstrued into something that seems removed and reductive in the context of real life danger and death. In that way some might say that 1000 Days of Syria should not be considered a game at all, but rather an interactive education. That is for you to decide.

Its a creative venture to be sure, but in checking it out I don’t see the “gaming” aspect that people are talking about. Categorizing it as a “game”, i.e. a piece of entertainment, is a marketing ploy. What I see is simply an interactive story. There’s no goal, there’s no prize, nothing to make anyone feel good about completion of a task and ready for the next one.

This War Of Mine (2014)

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This survival PC game is not explicitly about Syria. In fact, its based on the siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996 but set in a fictional city. With Syria making headlines at the time of its release, the connection to the real life war and a group of civilians trying to survive an urban landscape was easy to make.

11 bit studios created downloadable content (or DLC) for This War Of Mine that added the perspective of children into the mix. Proceeds for this DLC went to the UK charity War Child specifically to help Syrian refugees.

What makes this venture stand apart from the others I’ve mentioned is its financial success. The Polish produced game sold so well that the company is planning on making a triple A title that will keep with their serious themes.

Like the next game I’m going to talk about, this one makes a great success out of its illustrative visuals. Perhaps the subject matter is not “fun” or “enjoyable” to look at, but it is beautiful. It is art.

Bury Me, My Love (2017)

This one came to my attention through a Muftah article. Another journalist, this time from France, Florent Maurin and his company Pixel Hunt created a mobile game with graphic-novel like illustrations to put people in the role of a Syrian refugee. Like 1000 Days Of Syria, I also don’t feel like the “game” label is accurate. However, it is much better at offering visuals that make it feel like a game.

A Vice interview with Maurin uses the term “interactive project” to describe some of Pixel Hunt’s other products based on real-life crises. You go through and make decisions that impact what you can do next, but you’re still stuck in a linear progression of tasks that offer no reward or achievement upon completion.

Maurin insists that it is a game, but what he describes is something more in line with journalism and graphic novels:

"Games do not necessarily have to be fun and trivial," said The Pixel Hunt's Florent Maurin, in an email interview with Polygon. "On the contrary, I took examples such as documentaries and graphic novels to explain that, like every medium, games can tackle any topic. It's all about finding the good distance, with an honest methodology."

The Future Of Media Activism?

Even though I’m skeptical of the gaming label, it is there and its probably not going to go away any time soon. So what will this mean for activist story-tellers of the future looking to explain complex situations to large audiences? It can certainly cost a lot less and be produced in less time than films or documentaries. Perfect for small companies, individual artists, or large NGOs to contract for campaigns.

Can they be expected to generate a profit? Will mainstream gaming companies try their hand at it? I am reluctant to pick up games like this, because I want the escapism, but if there’s an effort to tie a fictional story line to a real-world crisis and send money from the game to relief efforts I would certainly be interested.

Let me know in the comments if you’ve come across any games like this, not just those related to Syria.

#video games #syria

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