| Linkdump again |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|06:43 pm] |
It's so much easier than actually writing something myself. Pretty tabletop RPG-heavy this time, since that's what's been on my mind since Seattle.
I've been worried lately about the evolving taste (or rather, lack of same) of the American manga audience, and it looks like I'm not alone.
Jonathan Tweet muses on the evolution of magical visuals and the weird things that happen at the RPG table. Speaking of Tweet, how did I miss the subtext of Freedom City?
Greg Stolze reminisces what went on behind the scenes of two of my old favorites, Feng Shui and Unknown Armies.
Some amusing RPG reinterpretations.
Hmm, a strategy RPG for iPod? Yeah, I bought this already. Not quite through the tutorial yet...
Edit: Oh, thank god I finally found this again. The necessary companion piece to The Backstroke of the West.
EDIT EDIT: Oh, this just sounds delightful, the blend of roguelike dungeon crawl and paranoid schizophrenia I've been waiting my whole life for. I mean, Hard Gay is a random encounter. Which I suppose he always was. |
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| OK guys |
[Jul. 4th, 2008|09:13 pm] |
Fortified with a quarter bottle of plum wine, I think I'm finally ready to tackle Streets of Fire. The fact that I had to fix numerous typos in these two sentences is an enouraging sign. Wish me luck!
Regular service will continue at some point after I am fully free of the devil virus ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gothfather foisted on me. |
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| Seattle snapshots |
[Jun. 25th, 2008|07:15 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | resurrection of dark dragon | ] |
Got much of the old BU crew back together, and it was good. Highlights:
Learned how to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance in Korean.
joshroby's Sons of Liberty is billed as an RPG, but it's really more an elaborate variation of Once Upon a Time. OUAT has much weaker rules, but its cards are easier to spin a coherent narrative out of since they have specific words like "princess" or "witch" on them, as opposed to "I have a bunch of Hearts in my hand so I guess I do something patriotic." Playing the Tories, I found it particularly hard to concentrate on advancing the story AND the preconditions for my special powers AND the actual circumstances under which I could even play a card. Still, fun was had.
Baccano! fansubs suddenly insulting our choice of software.
The Seattle Underground tour is pretty cool, packed with more neat anecdotes about the town's founding than I can easily relate.
Played No More Heroes, and shuddered in awe at Guder's Boom Blox griefing technique.
The Fratellis are not a particularly good live band. They certainly weren't bad, but the drummer was the only one with enough showmanship to offer something I wouldn't get just by listening to the album they're touring. Which I forgot to get. Damn!
This season of Doctor Who improved pretty sharply after the meh-ish opening few. Hope the finale doesn't end as damply as last season's.
They just don't make movies like Royal Tramp any more. Dragon Dynasty's DVD release still uses the old HKgrish translation, but I can't quite decide if that's a plus or a minus.
On the other hand, Southland Tales is the best bad movie I've seen in a long time. The Machine Girl is a close second (Sword of Alexander doesn't even compare), but not as endlessly quotable as the Rock's tour-de-force.
But on the gripping hand, our dark pact to get drunk and watch Streets of Fire came to naught.
Someday I'll run that giant robot combat game powered by Nobilis, but not today. Nor did I get to run a game based on this post and this map. Someday. |
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| Another thing I always meant to mention |
[Jun. 10th, 2008|09:51 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | game | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | opening the salmon gate | ] |
"Dungeons & Dragons asks players to make up characters and then gamble with them." The essential weirdness of this suddenly hit me a couple years back, but I think I forgot to write anything about it. It deserves thinking about, though. Also, that is a damn near quintessential robin_d_laws answer on page three.
Low power blogging mode will continue for a while. Work is just taking too much out of me to bang together any cohesive posts, and I'm going out of town soon anyways. More content when I come up with something worth reading. Amuse yourselves with this in the meantime. |
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| Media Diary 48: Procrastination Nation |
[May. 31st, 2008|12:27 am] |
Been giving P3 a rest lately. Actually I've been giving a lot of things a rest, just chilling and abusing internet privileges.
Let's see what I have lying around unfinished exactly. Kind of a return to the old days when I actually updated my Pile of Shame.
Manga
Hellsing, vol 8: I waited a year for this to come out, then decided to reread the entire series when it did. I think I stalled out halfway through the second or third book, the one with the cardfighter. Maybe trying to read that much heavily rendered ultraviolence in one go was a bit much, but reading Princess Resurrection may have put me back in the mood.
Welcome to the NHK, vols ?-6: I don't even remember the volume I stopped at, but it was the one where he starts playing a very thinly disguised Final Fantasy 11, just after the island sequence whose moral Gonzo somehow managed to completely reverse in the otherwise pretty well-done anime version. I picked up the novel somewhere in there too. I've been wanting to do some kind of contrast and compare with this, Genshiken, and Dramacon for Eastern Standard, but more on that later.
xxxHolic, vols 7-11: Gah, so far behind on this one. I was always pretty much just in it for the gothic Art Deco art anyway. I am deliberately not bothering to read Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles because I don't care about CLAMP fanfic even when they do it.
RPGs
Dark Heresy: This is pretty egregious considering I'm supposed to be running a game of it now that all the players are back in-country. I think I have a couple weeks until Shadowrun finishes.
Weapons of the Gods: Ugh, been a while. I did get through pretty much all the rules text though. I find it hard to read an RPG book I won't actually be using any time soon. Unlike my massive videogame backlog, this also means I usually don't bother buying many RPG books. It took me something like 3-4 years just to decide if I wanted WotG. I am enjoying it though, and hopefully will get to run it sometime. Even picked up the Companion.
Videogames
Blood Will Tell: God, this game is so bad. Back when the zine was a going concern for anyone but me and honyakunoteki I had some kind of weird idea about writing it up, because it was just so compellingly bad, practically a parody of the stylish combo-driven style of action game Devil May Cry begat, but then DMC3 came out and I really couldn't justify playing through this (or the much more interesting Bujingai) before it. And, uh, DMC3 still lies unfinished. It's perhaps more relevant now that the Dororo manga it's based on is finally out here, but taking such a long break and the steady dissolution of the zine's staff has kinda killed my enthusiasm.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7: I really burned out on this one. I tend to do that, playing something for dozens of hours over a couple weeks and then not wanting to look at it ever again. I'll go back sometime, but I also said that about:
Disgaea 2 and Dragon Quest 8: Both of these have the same problem; I spent so long playing them (at least thirty hours each, but I don't feel like checking the saves) that it almost feels like I should have beaten them already, and I just don't want to go back in. I do get the itch to restart every now and again (and I do like them), but have yet to act on it. I'm more likely to replay Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, actually.
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer: This is the only one I don't really feel bad about; the way Roguelikes basically reset when you die makes them perfect to mess around with off and on. I did play a little more recently; I think I figured out that the random "Bam!" message that occasionally crops up is your sidekick Oryu blinding a monster. The lack of any useful documentation is definitely Shiren's most engaging and frustrating feature.
Of course, I could have spent some of the time totting up this list to actually make some progress on these things. Eh. |
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| straight-up link bloggin' |
[May. 28th, 2008|05:24 pm] |
I've seen at least two of these circulating already, but I don't care.
Jaded aesthetes chemically rewire their palates. That's some real Adam Warren shit, but somehow this also makes me think of Saya no Uta. I mean, “I like oysters with some lemon juice,” he said. “Usually you just swallow them, but I just chew like it was chewing gum” sounds kind of nightmarish.
"Darth Vader! Jedis!" Hughes shouted as he approached.
Apparently Tokyopop's old contracts weren't exploitative enough and too full of fancy French ideas. The new one looks to be another in their series of corporate oopsies, but at least the commentary on it has provided some bleak laughs, especially Bryan Lee "Scott Pilgrim" O'Malley's.
I know honyakunoteki is working on Faust, and it sounds kinda promising, but DAMN: In another published interview, Ota described his anthology as escapist reading for young men without jobs, money, or girlfriends. |
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| Media Diary 47: Shocking non-Persona content |
[May. 22nd, 2008|05:19 pm] |
Took a break from P3 and took a nap to get ready for the midnight screening (GOD I FEEL OLD) of:
Movies
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: I liked this, but the Indiana Jones die-hards I went with didn't. I suppose I can see the disappointment if you're expecting another classic (and this isn't a classic, but it's no Temple of Doom either), but I don't think Spielberg and Lucas have it in them any more. It was a lot better than George Lucas' last movie, and I had fun all the way through, so thumbs up.
RPGs
Shadowrun 4th Edition, character creation: Good lord, this is like torture. I may have had enthusiasm for endless shopping lists of gear and powers back in the '90s, but that ship has sailed, then rammed an iceberg and exploded. I have Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics if I crave pure number-juggling. |
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| Media Diary 46: Yeah, More Persona |
[May. 19th, 2008|09:20 pm] |
Videogames
Persona 3 FES, June 30: Boy, maxing out Social Links is easy when you don't have to spend time becoming studious, charming, or brave. On the other hand, I failed to treat Tartarus with the proper respect and got wiped out three times running in this block. On the other other hand, I found some fire-resistant gear for Mitsuru, so I think I came out ahead.
Best Persona: Probably Death Ghoul, just for being the first one that's immune to Wind damage. That and the Tarunda I fused on let me beat the barrier boss on floor 59 without too much trouble. Also farming Lovers Narcissus for his item, in advance prep for my least favorite fight in the game.
Social Links: Fool 3/Magician MAX/Emperor 5/Hierophant 5/Chariot MAX/Justice 2/Hermit 6/Fortune 1/Strength MAX/Hanged Man 1/Death 1/Devil MAX/Tower 7/Moon 3 |
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| Media Diary 45: Time To Put On My Thinking Cap |
[May. 16th, 2008|05:27 pm] |
I've done forty-five of these? Damn!
Videogames
Persona 3 FES: Haven't actually played in a couple days, but it's never far from my mind. I could probably stand to collect my thoughts on the general symbolism and subtext... particularly, how successful the Social Links are at embodying their Arcana, and how the suicide imagery does and doesn't contribute to the story. Massive endgame spoilers cut for those who haven't played yet:
( The game is ultimately about mortality, in that especially Japanese way that fixates on transience )
So, the gunshot-to-the-head imagery isn't all that gratuitous, although it could have been used better. It's a really striking image at first, and the opening cutscene presents it with all the gravity of a suicide attempt, but after seeing it at least once every fight, over dozens of hours of random encounters, it loses its sting. It's easy to dismiss it as a cheap shock, but I think by that point its meant to just become part of the general subtext.
Whether or not it succeeds, I couldn't tell you; I found it far too easy to get caught up in the mostly goofy high school hijinks and didn't really consider the memento mori background noise until I started writing this entry. Yeah, they talk about the last boss being the death of hope and all manner of Lovecraftian foofaraw, but a decade plus after Final Fantasy 7 pretty much every RPG ends with the fate of the world in the balance. P3's attempt to up the stakes is especially flat after predecessors that either BEGIN with the apocalypse or take place after it!
Persona 4 looks like it's ditching the death theme in favor of perception vs reality (I especially like the bit near the end where we see the characters being videotaped or photographed), so the switch from guns to eyeglasses makes sense. If Hulk Hogan can be in P3, Roddy Piper can be P4's patron saint. Either him or Phil K. Dick.
Hmm... think I'll save the Social Links for another day. |
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| I did name him Shinji Ikari on my first playthrough |
[May. 14th, 2008|07:30 pm] |
What would the internet be without people with too much time on their hands? |
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| Persona 3, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Self-Inflicted Head Wounds |
[May. 14th, 2008|05:44 pm] |
You know, it occurs to me that I never did put up that P3 wrapup post I mentioned back when honyakunoteki displayed his gift for prophecy. I already had most of it written, so I figure it'll serve as a decent intro for anyone who hasn't already been driven off by my jargon-heavy nattering about the rerelease.
Persona 3 is a fascinating game. It's a long, intricate RPG that can be played in installments of fifteen minutes or less, and so immersed in Japanese culture (pop and otherwise) that we'd never have seen it translated (properly) back in the day.
Like most of the other games in the Persona subseries of Shin Megami Tensei, it focuses on spirit-summoning high schoolers, kinda like a less glam Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, by way of The Invisibles. This game is actually sort of a choose-your-own adventure; the overarching plot usually only progresses on a handful of days out of the month, so the rest is taken up by your choice of what spots to hang out at and NPC subplots to pursue, as well as the ever-present option of clearing out the local monster-infested dungeon. This is pretty nifty, and allows for a lot of replay value, but it can make the game feel a little barren near the end, when you've done most everything you can.
And as Ar Tonelico taught us what sex did for our stats, P3 trains the player to manage various relationships-- meeting with friends after class, macking on cute chicks, joining the track team-- not because they make you a better person, but because they help your magical thoughtgoblins kick more ass via sympathetic magic.
It's a very Japanese game (I loved praying at the shrine for good grades), and some random cultural issues crop up while dating the girls-- public displays of affection are less of a moment of truth over here, so what we think of as a fairly innocuous hug is probably supposed to be a far more intimate gesture.
One of the odder things is that you're only ever in full control of the lead character-- the other PCs have a set progression of skills, and act pretty much freely during combat. Their AI is just good enough to make you wish it were a little bit better... they don't make any totally irrational moves and are smart enough to take known weaknesses and immunities into account without prompting, but they're not quite sharp enough to exploit the system the way a meat player can. You can issue orders like "concentrate on healing" or "knock everyone down", but towards the end I was wishing for "stop casting debuffs instead of finishing the wounded guys off" and "stop using those shitty HP-draining skills".
And if you obsess about getting every Persona you possibly can (cough), you're rewarded with a combo that is far, far too good, making the endgame possibly the easiest part of all. I guess I should have been careful what I wished for, though the rebalancing in the FES version puts that particular carrot a little farther out of reach.
( Spoilery endgame musings follow )
There are two different endings, and the game makes it very clear what to do to avoid the bad one, but weirdly, you kind of need to see both to get the proper impact from either. I also wonder just how effective it is to set up plot points in hour one that may not pay off until hour three dozen. One of these days I'll finally do up that post on the up- and downsides of interactive storytelling. I know my recall of SMT Nocturne's plot wouldn't be too sharp if I hadn't been blogging most of it.
Speaking of which... Nocturne is better paced than Persona 3 overall, and its lows aren't as low, but P3's high points are higher than anything in that game, and it absolutely destroys both Digital Devil Sagas. It's also worth pointing out that P3 is easier than any of those games, generally speaking (boy, am I not looking forward to redoing that in FES). I never became especially attached to any character but Mitsuru, but the party interactions in general really sold me. And that's what the game is about-- the bonds of friendship. Plus, you know, BOOM HEADSHOT.
Looking back on it, I'm actually a little glad I played vanilla P3 before FES came out. Little things like rare monsters always dropping cash and praying for grades not taking up time made it a bit more enjoyable as a first playthrough. I think it'd actually be much harder to max all the social links in FES first time out, even though they actually added a reward for it... |
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| Media Diary 44: Begging for Akihiko-sempai's protein |
[May. 14th, 2008|05:35 pm] |
Videogames
Persona 3 FES, June 16: Yes, Atlus made me go find one of my sidekicks after dark and ask for whatever protein he could spare. I'm surprised the reward wasn't this nightmarishly work-unsafe Persona. By the by, would you believe I spent over 150 hours in the original P3 without noticing you can hit the shoulder buttons in the police station to show your party's equipment, or that holding down the Triangle button skips dialogue? Another thing I never did in Normal mode: sic the rest of the party on enemies in the field, instead of fighting them normally. They'll hog all the experience and won't get any items or anything, but it's still good for dealing with Shadows that notice you, since Hard mode puts anything but a rear assault (hur hur) at risk of ambush and total party kill.
Best Persona: Magician Hua Po (I've decided to try and keep Auto-Tarukaja on everything, and she kept Shikome's Mudo and Tarunda too), but Emperor Oberon and Fortune Fortuna are a lot handier than I recall them being.
Social Links: Fool 3/Magician 6/Emperor 2/Hierophant 5/Chariot MAX/Justice 2/Hermit 5/Strength 7/Hanged Man 1/Death 1/Devil 7/Tower 5/Moon 3 |
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| Media Diary 43: Ecstatic Deer Humping and Terrible Voice Acting |
[May. 12th, 2008|05:25 pm] |
Manga
Yakitate!! JAPAN, volume 11: OK, this was a return to form after the somewhat enh last volume. Kawachi has definitely outlived his comedic usefulness, though.
Videogames
Persona 3 FES, June 9: Got that bat, beat the sinfully easy full moon boss, and finally earned the essential Knock Down tactic. On the down side, Fuuka will now be tormenting me with her terrible voice acting. C'est la vie. The antique shop's open, but going in will apparently change the gold monsters' treasure from mad cash to weapon components. If I were still playing on Normal I'd probably say damn the torpedoes, but with the sky-high compendium prices I need every yen I can get. This does block me from the other stuff they sell, but it's nothing I can't survive without. I hope.
EDIT: Dammit, they stop dropping money regardless of whether you open up crafting or not. This is going to be a pain in the ass.
Best Persona: Hermit Yomotsu-Shikome (still)
Social Links: Fool 3/Magician 4/Emperor 2/Hierophant 5/Chariot MAX/Justice 2/Hermit 5/Strength 5/Hanged Man 1/Devil 6/Tower 3/Moon 2 |
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| Media Diary 42: Back In The Grind |
[May. 9th, 2008|05:19 pm] |
Videogames
Persona 3 FES, May 23: Finished with exams, beat Block 2's first midboss (thank god it had a weakness, and couldn't strike any of mine), got the "joke" bow (and skanky outfit too), and working on the matching katana. I've always thought the joke with those weapons was that they're actually much better than anything else you can get this early. It also saves me some money at the store, but it's not like I can use it for much else; the massive price increase on the Persona registry means I'm pretty much just fusing together Personae I win from fights. On the other hand, I hear The Answer doesn't even HAVE a registry, so I guess this is good practice.
Best Persona: Hermit Yomotsu-Shikome (Bufu, Agi, Zio, and Auto-Tarukaja is hard to beat)
Social Links: Fool 3/Magician 3/Emperor 2/Hierophant 5/Chariot 4/Justice 1/Hermit 4/Strength 2/Hanged Man 1/Devil 3 |
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| Media Diary 41: Poor Frank Sobotka |
[May. 7th, 2008|10:15 pm] |
TV
The Wire, Season 2 eps 5-7: Dammit. Dammit. Dammit! What a great show.
Videogames
Persona 3 FES, May 13: It's looking like the main difference between Normal and Hard is that there's basically no margin for error. If one of your attacks misses, or an enemy gets a lucky crit, you're in trouble. I beat the floor 14 boss, but basically by just dying and retrying until it didn't feel like spamming Mazio indefinitely (debuffing its dex and/or buffing Yukari's was absolutely no help). Hopefully the rest of the bosses won't be like that; I had a lot less trouble with the full moon boss. Block 2 is pretty exciting, what with the return of death spells; Yukari keeps getting one-shotted like nobody's business. I'm actually learning to avoid encounters, something I never had to do on Normal... |
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| Media Diary 40: Rakunda Rakunda Cadenza |
[May. 5th, 2008|05:30 pm] |
Anime
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, episodes 1-3: I know this is like Neil Nadelman's favorite series, but it's not doing a whole lot for me. It ain't bad or anything, but I was expecting more after all the UC-fan hype. It's no Band of Brothers, but I guess it's silly to expect it to be. "It's that Tomino-esque thing to say that it's Gundam, but basically it's a giant robot anime, right?" Well, it may pick up later on; I've got all the discs on hand so I may as well finish it. I did enjoy hearing Keiji Fujiwara in the cast... I've dug that guy since Jubei-chan.
Videogames
Persona 3 FES, April 30: The careful habits I learned in my Normal playthrough are serving me well in Hard so far (though I have to unlearn some bad ones, like fighting tired or sick), but the damage bump is making bosses a real problem. I'm not sure if I can beat the one on the 14th floor without tediously grinding XP to learn some more debuffs. And thanks again for nerfing Rakunda et al to be only single-target, Atlus. |
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