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catsnestt · 3 years ago

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Who can be the winner in a game full of disadvantages? (CONTAINS SPOILERS!)

Who can be a winner in a game full of hidden disadvantages? Netflix’s hit show, Squid Game, hones in on some ideas related to this question while mirroring problems with unfairness in our own reality. We are introduced to the main character, Gi-hun, and are left disappointed multiple times by his actions. Gi-hun gambles whatever money he can scavenge, sometimes even taking from his own mother. What kind of son is that?

Gi-hun bets on horses and plans to use this money for his daughter’s birthday gift. To his dismay, the loan sharks he owes money to catch up with him and threaten him for repayment. Instead, he settles on getting his daughter a claw machine prize… My first impressions of Gi-hun were that he’s very irresponsible and not someone I would be proud to call my son. I was frustrated watching him gamble his (and his mother’s!!!) rent money over and over like it was some game. We start to realize that Gi-hun is merely relying on hope and luck to change his fate, and many people would be inclined to make the same choices. When life becomes so miserable and almost unlivable, it is understandable why a person would push their luck, hoping for a miracle. One day, Gi-hun is approached by a mysterious man, a recruiter for Squid Game. He asks Gi-hun if he would like to play ddakji — “a traditional South Korean game played using folded paper tiles” — for money. If the recruiter wins, he gets to slap Gi-hun; if Gi-hun wins, he gets the money. Gi-hun is slapped several times before winning the money. This is all a test to see who is desperate enough to win the smaller prize of money so they can be persuaded to play an even bigger game with higher stakes.

Some of the other significant characters also have their backstories explained. Sang-Woo, aka player 218 and Gi-hun’s childhood friend, is known for graduating from a prestigious university. However, what everyone else doesn’t know is that he is in unimaginable debt and running from the police for investing his clients’ money in the stock market. Sae-Byeok, player 067, is a North Korean defector who spends her days pit-pocketing, trying to gather enough money to get the rest of her family out of North Korea. Ali, player 199, is a Pakistani immigrant who is trying to provide a future for his wife, child, and family back home. He struggles due to his irresponsible and unsympathetic boss who is unwilling to give Ali his compensation for a factory accident. All of these characters have something in common: desperation to acquire money without a dependable source to actually get it. We are thrown into their lives and can understand why simply “getting a job” or “working more/harder” is not a quick and easy solution for the characters. The recruiter gives each player a card with a number to call. If they decide to join the games, they are taken far away to an island off the coast of Seoul. With this context given, we can start to dive into the secret messages regarding capitalism which are prevalent throughout Squid Game.

Individuality + Factory Jobs

In the first episode, we see a distinct division between two groups: guards and players. The guards wear pink hazmat suits and a mask, marked with one of three possible shapes (circle, triangle, or square). They are confined to small rooms, with only a bed, toilet, and sink. A note posted beside the mirror reminds the guards of three important rules they must follow. The guards may not (1) remove their masks outside the room, (2) converse with other guards (without permission), and (3) leave their rooms without permission. They are called and dismissed with a buzzer, watched closely with cameras, and must follow strict orders or they may face punishment. The main purpose the circle masks serve is to carry out mundane (and sometimes risky) jobs, then return to their rooms. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, the players are stripped of their individuality in a similar way. Instead of hazmat suits, the contestants sport green tracksuits which are labeled with their individual numbers. The players are identified by their number, and all of their information is stored in a database. This too sounds familiar... doesn’t it?! I have only had one real corporate job in my life as a barista at Starbucks and thinking back on it now, I realize how my own job at the staple coffee shop could be put in comparison to some aspects of Squid Game. Each worker at Starbucks has a unique number to identify them, we all wear the same apron with a dull dress code, and we must submit information to the company before we are considered for the job. This is how most big corporations are run since capitalism has a high prioritization on profit. Keeping things consistent and repetitive allows for efficiency and higher production, so individuality is often seen as something that should be avoided. It is a way to keep away from mistakes.

Hierarchy, Roles of Players + Guards

Deception and Betrayal

The hierarchy in Squid Game from bottom to top is as follows: players, circle guards, triangle guards, square guards, the Front Man, and the VIPS (the super-rich weird dudes). The players themselves have somewhat of a hierarchy going on since some players have advantages over others. Byeong-gi was a doctor, prior to joining the competition. He made some connections with the guards and helped them dissect the losing players’ corpses to sell their organs on the black market (so gruesome). Deok-su is a buff and menacing gang member who is always trying to intimidate the other plays to let them know who’s boss. When the tug-of-war game is presented, Deok-su chooses only the strongest-looking men for his team. Remember how I mentioned Byeong-gi’s connection? He is handed secret notes inside his food, hinting about what games are coming next so he can prepare for them. When he tells Deok-su this, he wins himself a spot on the team, providing brains to the brawns. Deok-su also betrays his alliance with Mi-nyeo (even though he promised they would stay together) simply because she’s a woman and he doesn’t think she’ll benefit the team. Gross misogyny... I really hated that guy. Anyway!! Mi-nyeo ends up joining the main character, Gi-hun, and his team.

Gi-hun’s team faces another group in a fight-to-the-death game of tug-of-war. At first glance, Gi-hun’s team does not look too promising. Il-nam, the oldest player in the game, does not appear to be a very desirable teammate to have for tug-of-war… Although the physical strength of Gi-hun’s team does not compare to their opposers, their quick thinking is what ultimately saves them in the end. Sang-woo comes up with an idea. He tells his teammates to let go of their grip on the rope so the other team jerks backward. Once they lose control and start to stumble, Gi-hun’s team can pull back, dragging their opposers off the ledge in victory.

Throughout the games they play, there always seems to be somewhat of a disadvantage for some of the players. One skill may be valued more than another, or choices the players make can greatly determine their fate. The Front Man tries to equate “randomness” with fairness, but the games are actually the furthest thing from fair. Over and over, players betray and deceive each other in order to survive. Everyone tries to figure out how to obtain advantages so they can survive and win the grand prize money.

We’re about to get emotional now... And this is a major spoiler. This scene had me crying violently. Bottom lip quivering and everything. If you’ve watched Squid Game, I’m pretty sure you remember Ali. The whole scene with the marble game... Yeah. That was rough. Ali was known for his kindness, but this positive trait ended up getting him killed. Ali trusted Sang-woo and believed they were starting a friendship. The two were pitted against each other for a deathly game of marbles. Ali is heartbroken, realizing that either he or his new friend will be sacrificed to the game. Sang-woo doesn’t seem to have the same sympathy though. He betrays Ali, stealing his marbles and replacing them with rocks while Ali is not looking. The two split up and this is when Ali realizes that he has been betrayed and literally lost all of his marbles, losing the game. I think I was just as shocked as Ali during this scene...

Squid Game mirrors capitalism in the way that workers are sometimes persuaded to betray and compete against their fellow coworkers for positions, raises, and bonuses. If people are desperate enough to emerge on top, who knows what they will do to get there? Capitalism also supports an “every-man-for-himself” mindset, which is seen in the marble scene between Ali and Sang-woo. In Squid Game, Ali’s selflessness is punished and exploited. Capitalism often sends the message that anyone can be successful with hard work, but in reality, this is not true. If you are too kind to others, you will be taken advantage of. In order to truly be “successful” (aka make money and live more comfortably), you have to betray some of your morals and be selfless. On top of that, is it really even possible for everyone to end up successful in a capitalist society? The short answer is no.

Keeping Hierarchy in Place

I mentioned before that the Front Man of the games tries justifying them using randomness as a fair tactic. I’ll say it again. In the games, there are clear disadvantages for certain groups of players. You would think this would persuade the contestants to leave the game... At the beginning of the show, the players hold a vote to end the game. The score for yes and no were at a 50/50 vote until the guards brought this glamourous yellow biggy bank down from the ceiling.

Once the players saw the physical cash drop into the bank, a lot of them had changed their minds about putting an end to the game. Using “propaganda” like this to manipulate the players into roughing it out through harsh conditions is also a common practice in a capitalist society. Capitalism motivates people to endure terrible conditions for the promise of possible financial stability. Amazon, one of the biggest companies in the world is known for having undesirable working conditions for its employees. Amazon taped posters in bathroom stalls and all-around their warehouses, attempting to persuade their workers not to unionize.

Opposition

questioning the game itself

amount of money the spectators have could help the people who are in need

Squid Games are completely unnecessary and pointless

is seeing everyone (including those you are about) die around you for money worth it?

struggling with life after winning Squid Games

the main character is an example of this

doesn’t even want to spend his prize money

completely changed from the beginning

used to gamble his own mother’s money, now he has all this money and it has no value to him bc of what it took to get it

Gi-hun keeps his humanity, refuses to accept that anyone is disposable, ironically this authentic human element he retains make him the best player

sources:

How Amazon Crushes Unions

How Squid Game Critiques Capitalism (spoilers)

Netflix: Squid Game

Squid Game Cast & Character Guide

Squid Game’s Real Message about Capitalism, Explained

The Guards of Squid Game Explained | Squid Game Explained

#squid game #squidgame #capitalism #netflix #gihun

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breegullbeakreviews · 7 years ago

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The following review was written back in 2015 but I never got around to posting it. I believe I was waiting for the 10 year anniversary to post it, but I clearly forgot to do that. I’ve tweaked it a little here and there, but decided I should probably post it now with the remastered trilogy on the way.

Summary: Ripto comes seeking vengeance on Spyro. While trying to steal all the Dragonflies he accidentally scatterers the bugs all over the Dragon Realms. Now it’s up to Spyro to rescue them in Spyro’s first ever PS2 adventure: “Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly”. Is it as bad as people say? Let’s take a look.

Overall: Despite being critically panned for all of its faults due to its rushed development, I still think this is a good game. Not great by any means, but still good. I still say the game looks great and has plenty of strong elements that warrant experiencing. It understands what a Spyro game is even if it’s worse than anything from the original trilogy. Even with clipped wings, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is one game I’d recommend. Just try and get a newer copy and don’t spend too much.

Controls: Spyro brings back just about every move. He jumps and glides with X, breathes breaths with Circle, charges with Square, and looks around with Triangle. He can switch between breath’s he’s unlocked by tapping L1 and can look at a pointless inventory with R1. The camera is now tied to the right stick and movement stays with the d-pad and left stick. The camera is actually a pain to control and I kind of miss the shoulder based control.

Gameplay:

Platforming: Spyro controls pretty much the same. You’ll explore each of the worlds with your abilities which haven’t seen an update until this entry in the series. Spyro now get’s Ice breath, Electric breath, and Bubble breathe. These breaths rarely see much use outside of the occasional puzzle. In fact the only time they are related to enemies at all is in the final bout and the final level.

Controls feel as off as ever, but that’s the price you pay with playing a quadruped. Many complain that the gliding and jumping are a pain and I’d have to agree. I got used to them, but they are pretty annoying.

Worlds: As opposed to the original plan of having 25 worlds and multiple hub worlds, Enter the Dragonfly unfortunately has only one stupidly large hub and 8 levels. That being said themes don’t really ever cross which is nice. You can draw parallels between Monkey Monastery and Dragon Dojo or Jurassic Jungle and Luau Island, but they mange to keep themselves pretty distinct. Some of my biggest problems with some of the previous titles is the repeated themes. Each title will have its own level to fill in every cliché in gaming with a few original ideas. Here it may lack endless originality, but at least it’s not Winter Tundra repetitive. Here no Fodder or type of Riptoc repeats.

3 of the worlds have built in Speedways to help trim down the repeating themes and also keep them in the game. They only feature the time attack and race modes, but both are well designed and the races are really fun and much faster paced than in Year of the Dragon. Some of the worlds feature returning characters like Money Bags who charges Spyro a small fee and Bartholomew (Bentley’s Brother) who has Spyro rescue some Yetis who sadly don’t include Bentley. These character only appear once due to the games rushed development. It’s particularly odd with Money Bags as after the first world he disappears making Gems pointless outside of getting 100% completion.

Now while I’ve mostly been trying to just pull positives out of negatives there are some really solid parts of this game. One of the final levels sees Spyro aiding the thieves whose treasure has been cursed and his come to life. The whole level feels like something out of the original game but with the full power of the next generation of games behind it. Also I really love the slides in this game. While in Year of the dragon they were built into the stages and were a pain to control, here they are massive in size and full of obstacles. In fact the levels in general tend to feel massive in scale with a few minor exceptions.

Boss: The game has one boss battle in the final fight with Ripto. Depending on how much of the game you’ve completed this can range from 1 round to 3. It’s not a very creative boss. Round 1 you chase him down and flame him when he throws crystals at you. Round 2 is the same, but this time you switch to ice breath to deal with his fire shield, and finally you use electric breath to over charge his scepter in round 3. It’s a shame this is all we got as Crush and Gulp both appear in cut scenes and Nasty Norc was slated to be working with Ripto before deadlines kicked in. More cut content sadly. The oddest thing about this final boss battle is that it is shorter the less you’ve completed. Get there with the bare minimum and it’s just the one round. To get all 3 you need to 100% the game.

Bugs/Glitches: This game has a lot of bug problems beneath its gameplay. First off the game is pretty poorly optimized. The game often runs with an incredibly slow frame rate. Also the loading screens are pretty bad. I bought a brand new factory sealed greatest hits copy off of Amazon which means this is the most likely the most updated version out there meaning they either couldn’t fix these problems or they just didn’t care at that point.

While on the Dragonfly Dojo Speed-way the Riptocs had their polygons stretch out to what I assume is the center point in which they rotate about. Not only did it look bad, but this dropped the frame rate significantly. A similar bug occurred in Crop Circle Country when running towards one of the larger foes. This however only occurred the one time. I’m not sure what caused it but on one occasion the Atlas Model didn’t load when I pulled it up leaving the text displaying over a black screen.

Cloud 9 saw some of the Fodder not load in one of the tunnels between areas. The glow effect did though. In Monkey Monastery Sparx stopped working at one point. He wouldn’t collect gems or eat butterflies. In Jurassic Jungle an entire area’s textures failed to load leaving a giant invisible segment of the level. Also when Spyro spawned by an invincibility gate and charged through it, it would fail to activate.

The most hilarious big though was Super Spyro. I charged and jumped up a ledge and must have landed just right so that Spyro’s feet didn’t go back until the normal sprint animation and remained in the jump and charge pose. He moved along the ground at his normal height as if he was charging, but his feet were off the ground. It was wonderful.

There is a reason for the bugs, the game was rushed out the door after the two inexperienced teams working on this title in tandem were taking to long on this ambitious game. It doesn’t excuse the quality, but it does explain why at the very least.

#video games #review #spyro #spyro enter the dragonfly

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sueboohscorner · 7 years ago

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#WynonnaEarp Season 2 Episode 1 "Steel Bars and Stone Walls" aka Saving Mr. Dolls

Season 2 picks up literally seconds after Season 1 ended and Waves and Doc are on the move, running from whatever she shot at in the last moments of the S1 finale. The creature gets Doc’s hat (RIP) but thankfully, Wynonna was right behind them and was able to gleefully Ty Cobb him…it?…into next Tuesday before blowing it away.

Her plan is simple: use the creepy mouth thing she just blew away to get Dolls back. Somehow. It’s a not fully fleshed out plan okay?

Speaking of Dolls, he used his time wisely and with the cell phone he had on him, called off the missile strike on Purgatory. Lucado, continuing to prove what a massive biatch she really is, throws a temper tantrum about this and the fact that Wynonna offed BoBo by zapping Dolls and gleefully telling him he’s gonna be shipped to a dark site somewhere.

Back in Purgatory, Wynonna walks in on Sheriff Nedley spinning a yarn that paints Wynonna Earp as the cause of all that went wrong at the end of last season with Bobo. Thanks for your continued support, Randy! At least he tells her in his own Nedley way that he appreciates what she did for everyone…right before telling her Black Badge has swooped in and removed everything from the site.

Then Nedley asks what we all have asked at one point or another: Where on earth did Dolls live?? Because maybe that’s where he stashed all his important info. Wynonna takes off searching for his digs to find what she can find and finally breaks into the right place. She realizes quickly it’s not quite as vacant as she was expecting as she’s attacked by a half naked blonde bombshell with an attitude. They realize soon enough though they’re both…ahem…friends with Xavier and the guns are holstered.

Back at Casa del Earp, Waverly is busy patching up Nicole from the booboo she got at the end of last season (what’s a gunshot wound tempered by a bullet proof vest between more than friends?) Kissing ensues but Haught has to put a stop to it due to her injuries. She does note though that Waves tastes differently. Just then Doc shows up and breaks up the party to check in on Waverly and how she’s doing after losing Willa.

Meanwhile Wynonna and the blonde chick…whose name we learn to be Eliza…are circling each other figuratively speaking then Wynnona blurts out that Black Badge took Dolls. Eliza tells her she needs her if they’re gonna get Dolls back since he’ll be taken to Black Rock if they don’t rescue him in time. Either that or he’ll be dead, or worse than dead. Well that sounds ominous.

Team Earp plus one gather to discuss their plan to infiltrate a Black Badge safe house at the Earp household. Nicole..now Agent Haught…will help keep the peace with the 62 remaining revnants with Waverly while the others go all in.

Wynonna, Doc and Eliza head back to Dolls old office (dealing with any problem Black Badge agents as they find them) and open Dolls’ safe. Bad news. Dolls doesn’t have his dose and hasn’t taken anything in 30 hours or so. Wynonna of course has no idea what they’re talking about. Doc clues her in: Dolls isn’t entirely a man. And by that, he means Dolls isn’t a man at all.

Wynonna takes the news quite well, I think.

Unsurprisingly the BB agent gives up the goods and Team Earp is on the move to an old bread factory, where Dolls is. They arrive armed with a dead possum, stinking, and dressed in protective gear. The guard quickly motions them through, not interested in suffering the horrible stench for any longer than necessary.

Once inside, Eliza, fresh from the vents (she had to cut the security cam wires), meets up with them and they’re off, down a stairway and trapped. Eliza’s ID isn’t working for them anymore. Ruh roh. So much for Plan A.

Back home, Nicole and Waverly prepare for battle. Except things aren’t what they seem (Waverly’s weird black glowy eye thing aside) and Waverly confesses Wynonna had a secondary agenda for them in mind. Let’s call it Plan B. She shows up at the Black Badge site in disguise as some chick from Scotland Yard just in time, carting part of the weird mouth creature (“Johnny Big Mouth” demon) from the start of the episode. Meanwhile, Nicole waits for everyone in the getaway car as the guard, who is apparently a blithering idiot who can’t tell Waverly’s lying through her teeth lets her through.

Lucado is with Dolls, taunting him that Eliza’s there and that she’ll stick with him till he’s carted off to Black Rock. She hates him, you see, because he chose to save Eliza over her husband on some op in Kabul back in the day and doesn’t care when Dolls tells her that her husband told him to leave with Eliza since he was bleeding out and wasn’t going to make it. Instead she lets him know Wynonna and Doc are with Eliza and they’ll pay for what he did. What a vindictive %#^@*^#… well, you get my drift.

Waverly arrives in the Black Badge laboratory which is stocked with all sorts of critters, including another Johnny Big Mouth demon. Wynonna calls her and tells her that it’s in fact time for Plan C. While she waits for Waverly to get to…whatever it is she’s gonna do…she and Eliza have a heart to heart. Eliza clears up that she and Dolls are just friends but that she’s there in Purgatory to find out what Black Badge did to Dolls, and to her. To find out what they were changed into. Eliza warns her though that it might be too late to save Dolls and that they might have to end him if he’s too far gone.

Meanwhile Waverly, in full on Plan C mode, is trying to distract? woo? flirt with? manipulate? the lab technician to get him to open the security doors so her sister and friends can escape. He unwittingly gives her the answer as to what she needs and she clobbers the poor guy, but not enough to actually knock him out, just make him bleed. Which is bad as one of the creatures in captivity…a Bulgarian devourer of souls…breaks free.

They escape and Waverly comes clean. She’s there for her sister and Dolls…a good friend. And for some reason he helps her out and unlocks the doors for her. But before Wynonna can get out, Doc does and shuts the door behind him. He’ll get Dolls. She’ll go with Eliza to save Waverly.

Doc finds Dolls in a cage and Lucado in front of said cage with a gun. But Doc’s prepared for this eventuality.

Doc wants her to apologize to Xavier but before she can, Dolls grabs her from behind and knocks her clean out and Doc gets Dolls out of the cage and the room.

Waverly and her technician friend decide it’s safe to go back inside the lab, THOUGH WHY THEY’D WANT TO I HAVE NO IDEA. Except it isn’t safe and the soul devourer is ticked off in the worse way. Testy little things, ain’t they? Waverly steps forward though and goes all black eyes on the soul devourer, and he…it? backs down. Which begs the question on all of our minds: HUH? Wynonna shows up and grabs Peacemaker, who has been hidden in the Johnny Big Mouth demon head Waverly brought in there and she “peacemakes” the soul devourer before dragging Waves out of there.

Meanwhile Doc is having a tough time dragging Dolls and he offloads the dynamite near the opening of some box…which I’m sure certainly is not going to come up again in the future *WINK*… before giving Dolls a dose of his meds. Dolls eyes go all glowy before he whispers something in Doc’s ears. Whatever it is, Doc isn’t happy about it at all. I’m guessing it’s pertaining to the fact he has to leave on his own because that’s what Doc pushes him to do right as Black Badge agents fall on Doc’s position.

Eliza, Wynonna, Waverly and the lab tech who we now know is named Jeremy (‘sup!) run into a very unhappy Lucado who’s ready to kill pretty much anyone in range right now. She’s stopped before she can by a Black Badge superior as other BB agents drag in Doc.

The big bad Black Badge boss (the B.B.B.B.B? Yikes what an acronym!) wants Wynonna and team to keep taking out revnants and also all the other new creatures popping up in the Ghost River Triangle but Doc is a hard no and Eliza warns her not to sign anything. Lucado adds her tuppence and insists someone pay for what’s happened so the B.B.B.B.B. *smirk* picks up Lucado’s gun and kills Eliza right in front of them. LE GASP!

Team Earp are then all forced to sign the contract in their own blood and the BB boss promises to help Wynonna break her family’s curse as part of the package.

The Black Badge boss asks a final question: does anyone else knows about your mission? And Waves and Wynonna lie their asses off not wanting her to end up as poor Eliza did. Thankfully, Nicole has been listening in the whole time and is able to escape before being spotted.

Back at the Earp homestead, a visibly deflated Nicole apologizes for leaving and Waves insists it was necessary. Wynonna cuddles in Willa’s bed and finally allows herself to grieve. But her moment is interrupted with a light shining in her eyes and she goes to investigate and finds her key necklace hanging on a branch and a teary eyed yet smiling Xavier Dolls looking down from a cliff above.

Wynonna and Waverly share a tender sister bonding moment at the homestead before we switch over to the Black Badge facility where we see a hand stretch out from a box and igniting the dynamite left by Doc.

Told ya that would come back into play.

Steel Bars and Stone Walls was a fun start for Season 2 and really sets the stage for the season. I give it 9.5 peacemakers out of a possible 10.

#WynonnaEarp #Wynonna Earp

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hearts-lover · 6 years ago

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My opinion about Kingdom hearts 3

This post contains Spoliar to the Kingdom Hearts 3, if you haven’t played or beaten the game, I recommended you just move on the next post. I also will be talking about the Character, the Game, and the Fandom(mostly about the people who dislike Kairi role in this game) in this post, so if anything I said offended you by any meaning, I’m sorry, but this is ‘Merica where I’m at, so I can’t feel bad about hurting someone feeling even if I just speak a specific group of them or dissing their favorite character. Wow, I haven’t upload a thing in my account for years and now today is the day. oh, as for Kingdom hearts 3; love it. but I do wanna speak my opinion about this So just to get this out of the way, Kingdom hearts 3 have a pacing problem, and I'm pretty sure everyone knows that but I really don’t have any issues with it, granted this is a very annoying issues because as a Kingdom hearts fan, we never had any issues with this kind of stuff, even the previous KH game like Kingdom hearts 0.2 and DDD, but as someone who watches anime being dub and that dub being out of pace is a very common thing and most of the times, the Series Dragon ball Super have suffered the same thing, people simply talking too fast and most of the time they get cut off, making their sentences seem like a waste of breaths, but in Kingdom hearts 3 The pace in there seem so slow until we move away from the Disney and Pixar worlds, the pacing seems okay in my opinion. well besides the “character bring back to life” pacing, but I’ll speak about that soon enough.

but, let talk about the worlds; Olympus - I really didn’t enjoy this world, but that doesn’t mean I hate it. I really like how Sora and the other interact with Herc and Hades and I like how you get to explore and literally goes up to heaven to help Herc and save Zeus. (though I am a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t able to meet the other gods, like Herc Mom)the reason why I didn’t enjoy these worlds it so Empty, even in Zeus home, where if you revisit Olympus and you enter the gate, the first area doesn’t have any heartless until you progress through the area, but that first area is so big, perfect to fight those groups of heartless again like when we first get to that area to help Herc.

Toy Box - One of my favorite world so far, as a fan of the Toy Story series, its really good to see Woody and Buzz interact with Sora and the other, and I like how Buzz choose to keep an eye on Sora, Donald, and Goofy, even though he can be stupid, like the fact he doesn’t believe he is in another world despite the fact he was able to shoot real Lazer, the fact there was no human ANYWHERE even the newest Toy story that was having their grand opening thus there should be Kids and Adults in there EVERYWHERE and the fact that the heartless appear as soon you couldn’t find the other toy or Andy. Idk I just feel like he did all this and be controlled by the darkness, just so Woody can roast Young Xehanort and Sora saying “heart are everywhere” for the 10th times lol

Kingdom Of Corona- My least favorite world, While I do enjoy the interaction between Sora and Rapunzel (make me surprise that nobody in the community ships them since she and Eugene never have like a romance development beside her and Sora. I also hate that when Rapunzel wanted you to swing with her into another area, you locked up into a slow walking and controlling Sora is so annoying, even the festival is confusing, even if I read the tutorial I still mess it all up until I realize that I have to button depend on what color of the circles, but even then when the dancer group up, how are they expect me to hit the Circles, let alone get a perfect in there if the beat doesn’t even sync (in my opinion that is) plus the world seems a bit too big for me, even with a map, maybe its because the tree and grass look the same thing, but eh.

Monstropolis - once again, one of my favorite world, Mike and Sully even Boo (despite they reuse her voice from the movie) is enjoyable to see and the interact make it seen like their one big family just trying to protect boo, and I wish we get more of that in the Kingdom Hearts series, for now, Sora Donald and Goofy, as well as Sora Riku and Kairi, will have to do. It's also cool to go through the monster factory and see some new stuff we haven’t seen before in the movie, I think that bits are pretty cool alone itself.

The Caribbean - My all times favorite world, as a fan of The Pirate of Caribbean this was a win for me, the Graphic, the world, even chasing the Black Pearl inside the Davy Jone Locker Kept me smiling throughout of the game. I thought the Crab collection is gonna be annoying, but I actually enjoy it, because it's everywhere, so you won’t be lost and worry about trying to find that last one crab. I am dissappointed about the water fight style, I know that we grow up in the previous game that we were able to use 3 combos in the beginning and the waterfight style shouldn’t be different, but I feel like they could’ve done more other than “Bubble, Swing, Swing, Whirlwind” combos

Arendelle - I really don’t understand why many people hate this world, I do understand that Sora doesn’t have NO purpose to be in there beside without realizing that when Sora Compare Elsa and Riku and realize Riku have been pushing him away just to keep him safe (where that is pretty cute.) and half the cutscene doesn’t help you what is going on what happened where its basically forces you to watch the movie, (similar what of Corona dealt with) to understand what is the relationship between Elsa and Anna, and why Elsa think that shes dangerous (Granted, Frozen is the 13th Grossed movie of all times so everyone with their mother must watch the movie, including Tangle) But other than that I enjoy the World, everytime when I see Sora run and able to see the snow actually move unlike what Halloween Town was able to do in KH2 when you get to see Santa, and able to find Olaf Body and his reaction to each body (and the fact that Sora literally grab a ball of poo) was great in my opinion. Also, you guys are very bold to expect “let it go” NOT to be in the game. that like Playing Kingdom hearts and know all of the character and story and expected Master Xehanort to NOT be the main antagonist.

San Fransokyo - Easily, one of the most boring world I had to go through. Sure you get to meet the Big Hero 6 and Sora making up the team names thus acting like a dumb puppy and the boss was interesting, but...that pretty much its. San Fransokyo wasn’t even that interesting until you beat the world, basically, the world is “talk to the person to progress” kind of thing, cause most of the time, once you finish what you had to do, and you have an option to save or buy some stuff, and that it. if you want to move on to the story, talk to Hiro, making me think that they rushed this world mostly than Arendelle and Corona, and when they say this world to be in the game? 2015? to be honest, what a waste of a world.

Now we have done with that, let talk about the Pro and Cons

Pros:

I really enjoy the interaction between Vexen and Demyx, even though it was a one-time thing (sadly) it's really good to see Nobodies from Kh2 talking to the Nobodies from CoM, Kinda remind me of Pinky and the Brain from The Animaniacs

Goofy is still Smarter than anyone in this Universe and I LOVE IT.

I’m glad that in Monstropolis, it takes place after the event of Monster Inc., so we can have more interact between Sully and Mike, I even like when sully say “its time to bring the scare out” I think that alone is a good line.

I have the same ps4 that was announced back on 2012 and I used it when I played KH3, thus I never had a Ps4 pro, but even then, the game feel and look beautiful and I couldn’t stop playing it.

I like the Gummiship section, I like how it gave you a choice if you should go and collect some items, but also give you a choice if you wanna annoyed them, then again, you do have to face the giant boss in that section, but you only get to face 3 of them and depend on how well you are, you’ll be leveling up like crazy at the end of the day, I mean the ship was able Lvl. 26 when I reach to the Keyblade Graveyard.

The magic is powerful and useful to use.

Sora’s Smile special. That's all.

CAPTAIN MOTHER FUCKING JACK SPARROW

Cons:

I didn’t enjoy the reaction command, sure the Keyblade Transformation is useful by itself, but when you have another command that you wanna use but if you hit Triangle before you hit R2 to switch, you’ll waste your finisher just like that. and it also doesn’t help if you just wanna get the treasure but wasted a useful command you been saving.

Master Yin sid alone. I hated him when he claimed Riku as a Keyblade Master, and I hated him just as much. because here a thing he has stated that Sora can’t go with Riku or Mickey until he has the power of awakening, where he didn’t use that until he follows Aqua to find Ventus, this man have the nerve to say that Sora isn��t ready despite the fact that he was able to save 10+ world when he was just 14, granted he did lose his power thank to Xehanort in the events of DDD, but in KH3, he was able to turn into his second form and play similar as his full power as KH2 (when you unlock all his abilities) summon a Pirate ship, A blaster, was able to do his first Keyblade transform after he finishes with Olympus. and Yin sid, have the nerve to say that he needs the power of awakening to support Riku and the King, and yet he was able to save Aqua WHILE NOT BEING A KEYBLADE MASTER AS RIKU AND MICKEY IS ONE and wake up Ventus to after seeing aqua getting hurt without even learning how to even use the power. and uses the same power he doesn’t know how to use to save his friends. Master Yin Sid is a horrible master and nothing will change my mind.

Donald being a bully, I never have seen Donald abuse Sora like this before, maybe it's having to do with Goofy being smarter than anyone in this universe, and I know that Donald personality was supposed to be annoying and him acting annoyed. But remember when Master Yin Sid and Pete stated that Sora was weaker than he was in the previous game, and how its really got into him, and remember Sora was able to save Aqua and Ventus without being a Keyblade master, since Yin Sid is basically saying that Riku was able to learn the Power of awakening thus that what make him Master, similar to Mickey. did you also remember Donald say “Sora needs work” and he says this AFTER he saves Aqua and Ventus, yeah, this Donald isn’t the Donald I know and love in the KH universe?

This game gives us a lot more question than an answer. Like why did Roxas came from the sky where his Vessel suppose to be with Ienzo, how did they able to create Xion if she was a Clone of Sora, why did the old princess heart move on and seek a new princess heart (plus does that mean Kairi isn’t a princess anymore), Shouldn’t Elsa heart be more stronger than a Princess heart since she's a queen. and some that I can’t even word it out.

The pacing, pretty sure you knew about that

The Final boss was...a little disappointed compared to the 1st 2 games of KH

Power level is bullsh*t (I'll be talking about that later)

Now I GOTTA speak my opinion about the Fandom reaction of the game and BOY there is a lot:

Regarding to Kairi:

I have seen a lot of people both Kairi fan and non-fan usually say about how Kairi character have been downgraded to be a typical Love-interest to Sora (despite the fact that has always been a thing in KH1 and KH2, there literally can’t be any more to hint to these two together) and how she basically basically the Damsel in distress, where I could say the same thing to these “would-be-master” No hates on Riku Mickey or Aqua, but lemme recap, Riku earned the title ”Keyblade Master” after he finished with his Mark of Mastery, after that and him learning more about Aqua, he contain and use an uniform where Yin sid say that it’ll help him when he faces the heartless in realm of darkness, and Mickey confirm that even the weakest heartless can be dangerous in the realm of darkness. and His keyblade was destroyed and mickey’s was badly damaged and wished Yin sid to upgrade the keyblade and make Riku a new one since he left the old one in the darkness, they return there only for mickey to be captured by the heartless, and Riku had to face Aqua and the heartless, (he even working together with his dark self), but even after all of that “HE STILL NEED SORA” I understand that Sora is basically a golden child and have been fighting heartless more time than Riku since he worked with the darkness in KH1, but that doesn’t mean he useless, he can fight, Both Sora and Riku have a Rival and it could be hint that they were using the wooden sword since they were kids, so they must’ve have SOME experience, and since this is the same dude who entitles a Keyblade master, and I know that some of you will say “but you just say that Mickey confirm that the hearless is stronger in the Realm of Darkness” and you’re would be right, if we didn’t have Yin sid and Sora.

Yin sid basically told Sora 2-3 times that He needs the power of Awaken in order to go and help Riku and Mickey, even when Sora/Ventus say that he’ll go and Save Aqua, what did master Yin sid say “You need the Power of awaken” but he didn’t need to, He just needs to follow his heart, and he did, and he found Aqua keyblade and use that to reach to Riku, only for him to use that power to Ventus. after he saves Aqua.

and Sora; remember what Yin sid said (where I won’t repeat myself) and remember Pete say that he is weaker than he remembers, HOW DID HE ABLE TO DEFEAT A KEYBLADE MASTER AFTER COMPLETE 7 WORLDS? Granted, there could be a development where he could be getting stronger in each world he completed, but Yin sid say that the Darkness has Stripped his power and even Pete called him weak, there is no way that he was able to catch up to Riku level where he never lose power in the first place AND able to defeat a Master Keyblader by himself with no help and with no “power of Awaken”

in fact I could even say that both Riku and Mickey is more than a Damsel than Kairi since They have to be Saved by Sora twice where Kairi was being used of being Sora motivation to fight at his fullest, and Master Xehanort stated that he needs 9 clashes between 13 darkness and 7 lights to in order to forge the X-Blade and with Kairi Death being the 9th, she was used to create the X-blade.

and the fact that no-one even comments about these make me REALLY consider for the fandom, but you know my opinion.

Overall, I think Kingdom hearts 3 is a great game with a lot of Nostalgia in it, but I feel like Nomura tried to hard to make KH3 look pretty other than answering story, where there has been other games where you can have an interesting story and Gameplay before KH3 even release.

Overall, Please play this game with a grand of salt (for the people who haven’t play KH3)

#Kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 spoilers #kairi #KH3 review

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tomb-of-ash · 8 years ago

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Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4) Review

Guest article by Wing See Li.

Another Day, Another Pirate Infestation

Figure 1: The title screen is accompanied with its theme and the theme song, “Dance Through The Danger”.

There’s nothing like a pirate attack to start the day. That’s a day in the life for the belly-dancing, hair-whipping half-genie, half-human Shantae.

One night, Shantae suddenly wakes up from her deep sleep by a peculiar, blinding bright light shining through the bedroom window of her lighthouse. Curious to know where it’s originated from, she climbs out of the comfort of her bed and exits her home. After running along the long wooden bridge to her uncle’s home, she discovers Uncle Mimic snoring even as he sits in an upright position and the same blinding light emitting from an open trapdoor. She then jumped down, entering a subterranean cavern. While running through the cavern whilst avoiding the bats that were attempting to assault her, an odd voice lures her through it until she finally arrives at the source of the light and the voice. Demanding the voice to reveal itself, it materialises in a form of a white floating sparkle hovering above the mysterious, crystal clear water and it reveal itself as the messenger from the fabled Genie Realm. Before she manages to receive answers from it about her mum, the genies, the Genie Realm and her origins, everything is abruptly enveloped in a white colour, transporting Shantae to the real world. She suddenly sits upright in her bed, taking in everything that happened in her dream. Is there more to the dream than meets the eye or is it a vision foreshadowing the events that are yet to come?

The storyline itself isn’t substantial as per se, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, but the gripping, suspenseful, dire and bone-chilling moments, plot twists, in-game jokes, innuendos, adult undertones and the outlandish, hilariously humorous script and dialogue make up for the lack of a deep plot as the story develop. To sum it all up, the game didn’t take itself too seriously. However, the fourth wall-breaking humour and the game taking the mickey out of itself, memes, pop culture references and the internet got in the way of the burning desire to know more about the lore of Shantae’s mum and dad, the genies and the Genie Realm. The aforesaid story is episodic where each level (and character) is comprised of their own mini or sub-plots.

It’s difficult to tell whether Shantae: Half-Genie Hero serves as the fourth instalment of the Shantae series or it’s a reboot/soft reboot. It’s probably both seeing as it’s not a relaunch, a remaster or a remake. It’s released for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox One, Steam etc, on both physical and digital versions. Unfortunately, the Risky Beats Edition is only released in America, which leads to my next nitpick that will be explained in the review later. Strange enough, this game comes out on the PlayStation Vita instead of the Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS this time. Later on after the initial release, a Risky Beats edition launched for these consoles, which comes with a physical CD soundtrack.

Figure 2: Just like the previous installments, this game does what it does best: break the fourth wall.

Unlike the previous Shantae video games, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is the first Shantae game to be crowd-funded. According to its Kickstarter campaign webpage, $776,084 is pledged to the game and have far exceeded the $400,000 goal thanks to 18,558 backers. Sadly, only $800k is reached, in terms of the stretch goals.

Figure 3: Risky Boots, the bodacious buccaneer, returns as the main antagonist of the Shantae series.

Figure 4: Sky and Wrench (the large bird) acts as the transportation for Shantae.

Sequin Land is divided into seven islands or rather… levels which are known as Scuttle Town Square, Scuttle Town Main Street, Mermaid Falls, Tassle Town, Cape Crustacean, Hypno Baron’s Castle and last but not least, Risky’s Hideout. In this game, Wrench (Sky’s massive bird) acts as an aerial transportation for Shantae and a means for travelling from one island to another.

Before starting the first level, Scuttle Town Main Street, Sky hands Shantae a whistle to summon Wrench whenever she needs to. The fact that the whistle can be used whenever and wherever you want (even in areas for instance, the Tinkerbat Factory) surpasses the Pirate Flare from Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse since the aforesaid Pirate Flare can only be utilised outdoors and it’s not allowed to be used in the dungeons.

Figure 5: Pressing the Touchpad brings up the Subscreen (as mentioned by Sky and the other non-playable characters).

The gameplay at its core plays like a traditional old-school platformer: a 2D side-scrolling platformer with precision in terms of platforming and it’s jam packed with secret collectibles that are hidden from view, which encourages the player to search for them in every nook and cranny at your own pace. Hopping from one platform to another without grabbing on to platform ledges requires accuracy, concentration, eye-coordination and timing. Failure to do so will result in you falling to your death and you losing a tiny fragment of one of your hearts, which resembles your health.

Occasionally, the gameplay change depends on where you are in Sequin Land. The ever-changing gameplay can range from a 2D side-scrolling shooter before arriving at the Tinkerbat Factory to sliding down the diagonal slides outside of the factory in Mermaid Falls and escaping Risky’s Hideout.

Here are the game controls:

· Touchpad – Subscreen/Pause Screen

· Left control stick – Move, choose options or decide on a transformation dance from any set included in the dance menu

· D-Pad – Move, pick options or select a transformation dance from any set included in the dance menu

· Right control stick – Unused

· Square button – Elephant Dash/Charge

· X button and Down – Elephant Stomp

· X button – jump, press the X button twice to double jump in the spider form to stick to underneath the platforms using her spider web, confirm options or fly in the harpy form

· Circle button/R2 – Use weapon/magic/item or transformation capability and cancel option

· L1 or R2 – Cycle through weapons/magic/items

· L2 - Backdash

· Square button – Hairwhip, use transformation ability or speak to non-playable characters

· Down D-Pad/direction – Crouch

· Down D-Pad and Control stick – Crawl

· Options button – Unused

· Share button – Upload video, video clip or screenshot

· PlayStation Logo button – Return to home screen

· Triangle button – Cycle through transformation modes or cancel transformation

Aside from Shantae’s monster whipper (her signature attack), her attacks are utilising magic that are named as Fireball, Triple Fireball and Flamethrower and weapons which are known as Scimitar (a pirate sword that first appeared in Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse), Pike Ball, Super Pike Ball, Storm Puff, Mega Puff and Super Mega Puff. Not to mention, her dancing in order to transform into an array of animals ranging from a monkey to a harpy, each with their own abilities, skills, strengths and weaknesses. In addition to her possessing a large number of animal dance transformations which she’ll take full advantage of at her disposal, there are other novelty dance transformations such as the Blobfish Dance, Gemjug Dance, Dryad Dance, Revive Dance, Super Revive Dance, Obliterate and Warp Dance, some are more useful than others. The Blobfish Dance, Gemjug Dance, Dryad Dance, Revive Dance, Super Revive Dance, Obliterate and Warp Dance are available to buy from a female snake merchant called Tuki who hides in a little purple pot or container.

Speaking of items, if you explore and uncover enough as the game progresses and the story unfolds, you’ll eventually come across the game-breaking collectibles such as the Magical Tiara and the Invincibility bubble. With those combined, practically no one and nothing will touch you (not even lasers) with the exception of bottomless pits, deadly lava and one-hit kill spikes and these aforementioned items will render the game to an easy difficulty.

During the adventure you stumble across relics such as Shampoo, Super Shampoo, Mega Shampoo, Silky Cream, Super Silky Cream, Mega Silky Cream, Red Stone, Green Stone, Magic Bracelet, Bikini Armour, Metronome, Attract, Super Attract, Max Attract, Backdash, Monkey Bullet, Elephant Stomp, Crab Claw, Mouse Bite, Harpy Talon, Bat Sonar, Waterfall Relic, Spider Venom, Mermaid Bubble and so on which can either upgrade your hair and moveset, boost your defence or help you to advance. Thankfully, you can toggle on and off these relics at your own free will if you presume the game is deprived of a sense of challenge.

Besides the relics, you also come upon the whistle, Mega Potion, Roast, Orange, Gator Steak and Monster Egg which make up your inventory. Nearly all of these items are used to replenish your health and your adversaries drop them if you char them to a crisp or make use of a different attack. The quantity of these items you can carry with you is nine at maximum. If I’m short on oranges, I’m inclined to transform into Dryad form to harvest them without having to repetitively revisit Mermaid Falls to ride down the slide.

Along the way you happen upon Heart Holders you can uncover from treasure chests located in the secret areas, through the portals and a female, tall, but blonde, non-playable character you encounter in Scuttle Town Main Square who you have to take on a fetch quest for. Every time you obtain a Heart Holder, your health will increase by one heart. Think of these as Heart Containers from The Legend of Zelda series. If you want a real challenge, refrain yourself from collecting them.

On the subject of dance transformations, these can be acquired after defeating a boss, uncovering them in hidden locations via portals or searching for them in secret areas. Sometimes, animal abilities are found in these locations and just like the transformations, they are locked in treasure chests. Every animal have only one ability and these skills will help Shantae enter areas she couldn’t gain access to previously because she didn’t have the right transformation.

Another shortcoming this game had is there are certain transformation dances that I don’t use frequently. WayForward should’ve gone for the “less is more” approach given that the Crab Dance, Spider Dance, Mouse Dance, Bat Dance, Blobfish Dance, Gemjug Dance and Dryad Dance are redundant. They are either pointless, useless, I almost never bring them into play, a complete waste of my time or they’re cluttering up my dance menu. I appreciate the game developing company for introducing new things or being a tad bit ambitious but I just wish it didn’t bother, otherwise these aforementioned new aptitudes end up unused.

If you’re not exploring, most of the time you’re fighting. The combat is simple and not complicated for novices and veterans alike, in addition to tight and responsive controls. If you mess up, it’s not the game’s fault but it’s rather your fault.

Although, this is not the case when the game throws a few curve balls at me, in terms of the difficulty. There are times when the difficulty catches me off guard and bite me in the rear like for example, when I’m scaling up the Tassle Tower while running for my life from the screen-filling, memory-consuming worm, Wilbur. I ran like my life depended on it! Good gravy… who knows how many times I kept dying which results in me resorting to using profanity. Luckily for me, there are no lives to lose.

Animation and presentation wise, for the first time Shantae, her friends, her enemies and the other non-playable characters are in HD, hand-drawn art. It took me a while to get used to the new art style since I’m used to seeing them in pixels which WayForward is known for but the new art style instantly grew on me. The animation is fluid, streamlined and smooth and how well detailed the animations and the artwork were such as the way Shantae swayed her body and arms on the spot in rhythm to the music if she’s left idle for a while to her feeling exhausted when she’s low on health. It’s the littlest of things such as this makes me appreciate the animation more. It felt like watching a Flash animation, a Saturday morning cartoon or an anime. The old style marries with the modern style incredibly well as both the 2D background and 3D foreground blends beautifully with each other. But if I have to be honest with myself, I actually miss the pixelated art style.

In light of character development, it’s somewhat lacking on account of how some of the characters are portrayed. For instance, Risky Boots is depicted as a stereotypical villain who is heartless, ruthless and selfish as well as completely void of any emotions, remorse and regret and she doesn’t care who she hurts as long as she gets what she wants, even if it means causing mass destruction and ruining people’s lives in the process. Not to mention, she didn’t acknowledge the events that ensued in Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. It’s like as if she isn’t human. In the third Shantae game, at first she’s unwilling to cooperate with Shantae but as you progress through the game, she begins to open herself up to the former half-genie and enlightens her with her account of her past and spoilers alert! She, Twitch and Vinegar assists Shantae in dealing out the final blows to the Pirate Master during the final showdown.

One of the minor issues I’ve come across is while I’m playing the game, the framerate takes a dive or it stutters sometimes. Normally, it’s not noticeable because I’m so immersed in the game but it occasionally dips whenever lots of things are going on at the same time, all on one screen. Take the side-scrolling shooting section prior to infiltrating the Tinkerbat Factory for instance, while I’m repeatedly launching my Mermaid bubbles at the underwater enemies, sending them to their graves, shooting at the breakable blocks which are obstructing my pathway and temporarily recruiting more starfish creatures to my “swim team”, wave after wave of foes kept entering my line of vision and this is when things start to become frantically crazy. As a result, the framerate decreases as the game couldn’t take any more.

But in between levels, you’re constantly backtracking which is to be expected in a Shantae or a platforming game and you’re embarking on countless fetch quests more than you can shake your belly and bum at. They’re mandatory since you need these items to progress. For example, you come across Twitch and Vinegar (the two girls who work for the Ammo Baron and first appeared in Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse) at Scuttle Town Square and they ask you to revisit the factory in Mermaid Falls to reduce the gators to smouldering ashes before you give the gator steaks to them. In return, they hand you a red-coloured race ticket. It’s kind of like doing a chore unless you don’t mind retracing your steps to the same levels over and over. It’s tricky to estimate the amount of fetch quests you have to undertake but the total might be roughly the same as the total of fetch quests there are in Jak 2: Renegade and Jak 3.

Throughout the game, I’ve noticed this game ditches the dungeons to make way for a linear structure that I find jarring. Thereby, eliminating the Metroidvania genre this game is supposed to be attached to. In nearly every level, you’re going from point A to point B that I’ve seen a lot in modern, bog-standard Mario games. To be honest, it can get very old quickly and this is coming from a person who hates change with a burning passion. At least, Scuttle Town Square serves as the main hub area. At the end of each level there is a boss, which put your platforming and manoeuvring skills to the test in contrast to the repetitive modern Mario games. Each boss have their own weaknesses and weak spots and every battle can be just like puzzles as you figure out how to inflict damage to them.

Similar to the past instalments of the series, Scuttle Town function as the main hub place which contains Uncle Mimic’s workshop, Sky’s Hatchery, a shop, a Bath House, the Art Gallery etc along with the green-hued save guy who this time around doesn’t have his own room or building. Instead, he is spotted at the far left side of the town near the workshop. The workshop is where Mimic lives and work on his groundbreaking inventions and technological devices, Sky’s Hatchery is where Shantae can hitch a ride on Sky’s bird, Wrench, to distant locales, the shop is where the half-genie protagonist can purchase important essentials for her escapade, a Bath House is where she can relax to recover her health and ask the bath house lady for hints and advice, an Art Gallery is where the main heroine can observe a lot of the artwork and concept art that goes into creating the game as well as fanart from the loyal fanbase and the backers of the aforementioned game’s Kickstarter campaign. Conversely, some of the fanart aren’t professionally done and are up to an amateur standard at best but most of them are the cream of the crop. In my opinion, the art gallery reminds me of the Insomniac Museum from the Ratchet & Clank series.

The other differences I’ve spotted are there are slide segments that kind of remind me of the slides from Super Mario 64 (sans the enemies, hazards and obstacles), the options menu is bare-bones in terms of how much content there are to toggle with and the save system is different. The save guy who seems to be fatter than usual tends to appear whenever I enter a new level, after I finish the level, before I confront a boss and after I emerged victorious from a boss fight. Basically, I’ve been prompted every five minutes if I want to save my progress or not which can get annoying and bothersome. It’s like as if the aforesaid save guy is holding my hand. I prefer the old save system from Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge where I can find him in the numerous save rooms in Scuttle Town, the levels and the dungeons. In this day and age, I still find it strange none of the Shantae games feature an auto-save system.

Aside from the savepoints are checkpoints that are littered all over the place in each level in random spots. You’ll know if a spot is a checkpoint if you accidentally freefall into bottomless pits or if you touched one hit-kill spikes and you’ll instantly respawn at the previous checkpoint you went past.

Another nitpick I’d point out is the lack of a map. Without a map, there is little to no direction of where to go or what to do next. When I’m not exploring the levels, the majority of the time I find myself wondering what to do and figuring out where to travel to next which caused me to read the guides on the GameFAQs website, which is something I normally wouldn’t do when I’m playing a Shantae game or a platformer. If you end up reading a guide, then there’s something wrong.

On the subject of the map, whenever you’re at the level selection screen, said map shows which collectibles and animal transformation abilities are in your possession or what you’re missing underneath the name of the chosen area. This is extremely helpful for backtracking to previous levels, fetch quests and completing the game 100%.

It’s hard to believe this video game originated from the Kickstarter website and how far WayForward have come, from the cartoon tie-in games such as American Dragon: Jake Long – Rise of the Huntsclan which is released on Game Boy Advance and American Dragon: Jake Long – Attack of the Dark Dragon which have come out on Nintendo DS to recent video games such as Ducktales Remastered and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, to name a few. This is definitely a Kickstarter game done right. The game may be successfully funded but it’s a shame not all of the stretch goals were met.

Just like the Ratchet & Clank (2016) and Ratchet & Clank Movie soundtracks, I have mixed feelings with the Shantae: Half-Genie Hero soundtrack. Once again, Jake Kaufman reprises his role as the composer and he really knocked it out of the park! With a soundtrack like this, he could do no wrong! This time around he gives the aforementioned soundtrack a modernized touch in terms of the heart-pounding bass of the beats and how the music sounds overall which keeps me pumped up and motivated to complete the levels or handing the bosses humiliating defeats. Don’t get me wrong, I love listening to the soundtrack but most of it is unmemorable, the majority of the music tracks are nothing to write home about and it falls short compared to the previous Shantae soundtracks such as Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge to be honest. At the end of the day, will you remember the soundtrack of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero in many years to come? Will you be able to hum all or most of the music tracks? In my opinion, I feel this is the game’s lowest point. The reason why I feel this is the weakest soundtrack is most likely Jake have set the bar so high. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have favourite music tracks. Some of my favourites from said soundtrack are, “Dance Through The Danger”, “A Mysterious Fountain”, “Scuttle Town”, “Neo Burning Town”, “Mermaid Falls”, “Tassle Town”, “The Sky Bridge”, “Cape Crustacean” and “Tinkerbat Factory” in no particular order. On the other hand, I still reckon some or most of the music tracks don’t match well with their respective locations. Take the “Tassle Town” music for example, it doesn’t complement well with Tassle Town itself due to the jazziness and funkiness of the music, which are music I normally don’t associate with video game desert locales.

Once again, Cristina Vee made a comeback to provide her voice for Shantae and Risky Boots for the fourth time. Originally, the game would have full English voice acting but alas, it isn’t meant to be when the stretch goal isn’t reached. In spite of this, the game containing some voice work is better than nothing.

I can’t stress this enough (constantly in my mind) but the Shantae series have many things such as a colourful cast of characters and personalities, exciting, exotic locales and rich environments to explore which are exploding with various cultures and well-written, laugh-out-loud dialogues and scripts that the modern Paper Mario games (Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Colour Splash) clearly lacked these days. Therefore, I jumped ship. In other words, for the first time ever I bought a PlayStation console first before any other video game console. In the past, naturally I buy a Nintendo console first before any other video game console. As sad as it is to say, Nintendo isn’t “wowing” me last year due to the lack of variety when it comes to 2D and 3D platforming games. It’s all well and good to play as Mario or Kirby but what I really want is to play as other platforming mascots. The Shantae series might as well replace the Paper Mario series the way things are going.

Similar to the previous three Shantae games, there are good and bad endings. Your actions determine which kind of ending you’ll unlock. If you strived for 100% completion, you’re most likely obtain the good ending. For example, spoilers alert! If you go out of your way to embark on fetch quests for the previous bosses (Techno Baron, Ammo Baron, Squid Baron and Hypno Baron) you engaged in battle, they’ll each hand over a piece of Risky’s belongings (there are four altogether) in return for the items they requested. When you give Uncle Mimic all of the clues when you return to his workshop, he hands over the Magical Polarizer to you.

By the time I knew about the Shantae series, I’m too late to back the game on Kickstarter. If only I knew about the series earlier, I would’ve backed the abovementioned game in a heartbeat! I still regret not backing this game to this day.

Along with the main storyline mode/campaign is the Shantae Hero Mode where you start the game at the beginning from scratch but your dance transformations remains intact and the level designs, structures and layouts are varied. It’s also usually reserved for speedruns. There isn’t much known about the Risky Boots mode and the other character modes other than Rottytops, Bolo, Sky etc have their own stories, abilities and endings and these aforesaid modes might be paid downloadable content. However, the Risky Boots mode will or might coincide with the main storyline mode and Shantae Hero Mode. Sure, I loathe speedruns but this aforementioned mode and the character modes provide the game with replayability and replay value.

Most arguably my biggest issue or gripe with this game is the fact the physical version of the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Xbox One etc ports are released only in America is inexcusable, unforgivable and a sin. I can’t justify myself importing the game at an expensive price; despite it comes with the soundtrack. There’s more to the world than bloomin’ America, you know. Although the digital version of the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita ports cost £15.99 in the PlayStation Store but that’s nothing compared to how much it costs on the Amazon and Ebay websites. The Risky Beats edition costs £39.95 on the UK Amazon website and £25.90 (and £14.64 postage) on the UK Ebay website for instance. It depends on which price you’re looking at. To make matters worse, if there are downloadable content, I have no choice but to set up another PlayStation Store account on the US PlayStation Store if I imported the Risky Beats edition of the abovementioned game. I hope there will be a UK physical version of the console ports in the future. I still find it exasperatingly irritating I have to resort to importing games from other countries outside of the UK.

As much as I enjoyed playing the game immensely, it didn’t have what it takes to win the coveted “Game of 2016” title or trophy. In fact, my pessimistic criticisms prevented it from topping Ratchet & Clank (2016) as “My Game of 2016”.

As it stands, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is inferior to Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (which is deemed to be the best of the series) due to the criticisms I outlined earlier. Regarding the series as a whole, I’d reckon Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse tops the list, followed by Shantae: Half-Genie Hero in second place. As for third place, it’s either Shantae: Risky’s Revenge or Shantae. Concerning the soundtracks, it’s Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge and finally, Shantae, in ascending order.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is a retro-inspired platforming wish come true and a hidden gem among the ever-increasing line-up of platforming video games filled to the brim with nearly everything a platforming game fan ever wanted and it’s a breath of fresh air from the samey Mario and Kirby platforming antics. It introduced newcomers and a new generation of Shantae fans to the series while at the same time it stayed true to its nearly perfected gameplay and formula of what made the Shantae games insanely addictive, bundles and oodles of fun and extremely entertaining in the first place whilst the characters returned to form only to be let down by the slightly underwhelming, forgettable soundtrack, the short length of the game, fairly easy difficulty, the small dips in framerate whenever things become frantic and a ton of action takes up a lot of the screen, the absence of physical PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One and Wii U copies and the physical Risky Beats edition soundtrack being released in my country and Europe, the price of the game which is £15.99 in the PlayStation Store, the incorrect localisation (British English should’ve been used instead of American English), typos and spelling and grammar mistakes, the lack of a map that result in little to no direction of where to go and what to do next, the non-existence of dungeons, the game-breaking items and the list goes on. Despite the negative criticisms, this game is worth every penny and I never regretted purchasing it from the PlayStation store. Unlike Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, Activision and Toys For Bob, WayForward didn’t stray away from the phrase, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. To end this review on a positive note, I’m delighted to say Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is one of the few reboots that’s not abysmal and doesn’t deter both sides of the Shantae fanbase. Intelligent Systems, Nintendo, Activision, Toys For Bob etc should take notes from WayForward of how not to screw up a winning formula and to stick to the status quo.

By Wing See Li for Tomb of Ash

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rudiunit5unit13 · 6 years ago

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Aaron Draplin is a graphic designer and author that runs his own design business called draplin design co and he was born in Michigan on October 15 in 1973. He has worked with big clients like ford and is well known for minimalism and more of a retro style.

After watching videos about his design process and analyzing some of his designs I took some notes about how he works and what he is interested in.

Uses simple shapes

Tries to create logos that are timeless

Enjoys vintage things and simplicity

He brings letter forms back to basics

Enjoys minimalism

Starts by sketching

Makes notes on texture and color

Makes sure a design will look good on things like websites and items

works with negative space

creates lots of duplication to help his idea generation and outcome of his product

Makes sure his designs work in all sizes

Experiments with shapes gradients and text

Experiments with different layout variations

3 examples of his work and my thoughts and options on them

Assembly.

This logo is a clean sleek geometric logo. You can see how he has created the icon for this as the letter A completely made out of triangles. Its clever because all of it is essentially triangles making it seem complex but really the shapes and design is minimal and the color pallet consists of different shades of blue with the bass of the design being dark shades of blue then gradienting to a lighter shade at the top. Underneath There is a nice sans serif font that’s not too bold but the weight and thickness of it is just right so you can clearly read it in a small and large size.

Peak Oil.

This logo is very minimal so it is simply a black and white logo. He has created the shape of the logo out of some sort of droplet to represent oil. He has used some techniques to add depth to this logo for example on one half of the droplet lines are taken out of it showing this negative space and it almost works as a shading affect. Another thing that he had done to make the type pop is put it in a black circle so its not lost in the shapes and negative space. For the text he has used a clean geometric sans serif font and used hierarchy with the work peak being larger than the word oil.

Nike.

His Nike logo is very text based and it look like a label. I really like this because it has a very vintage old school look to it. once again the general shapes are very basic and geometric but the lay out of all the different lines makes this logo look very strong and quick. Once again using hierarchy with his text as you can see in a more vintage looking serif nike logo at the top so you know which brand the design is for and about. One thing that I really like is the small iconic nike swoosh at the bottom which just makes a nice composition with the two nike logos being the bass and the top and then the rest of the type being centered in the middle of the box created by the geometric lines. This logo has a very simple color scheme as it just uses a nice bright teal cyan color and relies on negative space to create the back drop.

Saul bass

Saul Bass was born on may 8th in 1920 in the Bronx, New York were he was brought up by his Jewish parents. Saul Bass had a passion for art and he graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx and studied part-time at the Art Students League in Manhattan, He then went on to attending night classes with the painter György Kepes at Brooklyn College.

He started working in Hollywood in the 1940s were he worked making advertisements for print for films like Death of a salesman and The moon is Blue. A stepping stone in his career was when the director of The moon is blue asked Saul to design a film poster for the film Carmen Jones in 1954, The director called Preminger was so impressed with his work he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. After creating the title sequence he loved it and realised how it can positively enhance the film to the audience. He then went on to create many Posters and advertisements but also lots of film title sequences too.

Saul Bass enjoyed many elements of design and is mainly known for his posters and advertisements but he also did work creating logos for brands like AT&T Corporation (1969 and 1983) and Frontier Airlines (1978).

It was not just advertisements and logos he was a filmmaker for a while during the 1960s were he was asked by directors and producers to produce not only title sequences for their films, but also to visualize and storyboard key scenes and sequences within them.

I would say he is most well known for his film posters and he created some of his best known posters for films directed by Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Stanley Kubrick and more. His last commissioned film poster was created for Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in 1993 but it was never distributed.

Saul Bass won awards such as Academy Award, Best Documentary, Short Subjects and Why Man Creates. He then died in 1986.

I really like this poster by saul boss, I really like the rough shapes and I think the use of three plain colors could seem a little boring but I think the simplicity of the color scheme and shapes actually work well and looks good I also like how the background colors are not a fully saturated and are a little faded or softer making it easier on the eyes and it also allows the wording within the negative space of the body to pop. I enjoy how the poster looks like it has been cut out of bits of colored paper and then put together. One of the reasons a lot of his work is a little more simplistic is because the printing back then was not as advanced as it is today and this also applies to other elements of design like there was not digital software or it was not as advanced as it is today but I think the simplistic look comes across as a bit modern with minimalism being very popular. I think the large text in the body looks great because It stands out which makes sense because the tittle is very important, I don't like how the text is all messy and wonky but this might have been done so it fits the atmosphere of the poster with its rough cut out look.

It shows that Arron draplin takes inspiration from saul bass in his work in the way that he also works with simple shapes, colors and minimalism to help make things like logos live longer and work in all different sizes on different things.

Stefan Kanchev

Stefan was born on the 6th of august in 1915 in kalofer Bulgaria. He studied mural printing in the national art academy from 1940 to 1945. He worked in all areas of art from book covers to trade marks, advertisements and more. Kanchev participated in many galleries and exhibitions both locally and abroad from Budapest, Berlin, Moscow and much more. His work is said to be well know for his clear composition and his “fellicitiouse relation between fonts and shapes”

His work and dedication to galleries popularized his work and style which led him to wining many competitions for typefaces, posters, trademarks, postcards, telegram forms, book designs etc, and his work became famous and could be viewed in the major applied arts encyclopedias. He then went on to win the “cyril and methodius” 1st calss in 1956, 1963 and 1969 for playing a big part in the development of Bulgarian culture. He proceeded with his work and won the Bulgarian state title of national artist in 1971.

Kanchev grew up around his father that was a info graphic artist which inspired him to do art. He has progressed to become a well known artist and draws all of his logos and work free hand it is said that his last moments were spent drawing and working before he got taken to hospital where he died in on august the 22nd in 2001 aged 86.

“Sadala” — Burgas (Factory for underwater fishing equipment)

This logo is a simple black and white logo. It uses negative space and when you look at it there are only two shapes which are black and then when you add a background color which allows you too see the pattern in the negative it still only looks like there are maybe four shapes. This is a logo for something to do with fishing equipment and you can see how this is represented in the logo by the simple fish created out of negative space. The fish is surrounded by a black oval shape which creates a nice boarder which I think will help this design stand out. I Think from looking at this design you can tell that it is related to fish. I also think because of the simplicity of it with essentially just two black shapes and negative space I think this design would work very well on many things because of its simplicity it could be scaled down and still look good, one thing that I am not a huge fan of is the boarder of the fish is not a round circle its slightly stretched vertically and it might look more pleasing to the eye if it was an exact circle.

Hotel “Shipka”

This design is for a hotel. the design only consists of black rectangles with the layout being one long rectangle at the bottom and then on top of it three rows of rectangles each row consists of 9 rectangles which are individually space out by columns and rows. If you look at the design as a whole its like one large rectangle made out of rectangles. The design is meant to represent the hotel and after looking at pictures of the hotel it has a very geometric shape to it and looks like one big rectangle and then rows of rectangles making up the window. This is a very simple design using a very very limited amount of shapes and black as the only color. I think When you know what this design is for it makes total sense but on its own it might be a bit hard to see its a hotel as it could be a block of flats a chocolate bar or a calculator so I think this design could be too minimal.

“Slavyanka” (Port with fishing center)

This is a design for a fishing port. This design Uses thick line work with a circular border with lines coming off it colliding with other lines creating two fish which can be distinguished by the two small circles for eyes. Once again this design is just black but the shapes and pattern is a little more complex. I really like the flow of the pattern and the thickness of the lines as I feel if the lines were thinner it would be harder to see and if the lines were thicker and heavier the fish wouldn't look right. Just like all three designs this one also uses negative space. I think this design would work in many sizes just like the others as it uses just black and clean sharp line work with smooth curves. I think all three designs use good negative space and are able to express and represent imagery using minimal colors and shapes. But I think without any context it is tricky to understand what these designs are for.

I think his work is enjoyed and works well within the design industry because in most cases its simple but effective. The fact that its so minimal allows it to work on so many different platforms and materials, you could scale it down and enlarge it and it would still hold its form and you would still be able to recognize and identify the imagery and illustration he has created. The best type of design is a design that’s timeless, now its very tricky to create something timeless as the design industry is constantly changing but as of today I feel like his work would still work as simplicity and strong composition and structure is heavily used so I think that his work may become outdated in the future but as of now it would work fine meaning his style of design has already lasted a long time.

I think both designers share certain things in common and one of the two things that they both heavily focus on is simplicity and composition and they are both good at creating design focusing heavily on these two things because when your making a minimal design if you have bad composition or something is slightly off its very noticeable because in some cases there are not a lot of elements/parts to the design. You can definatly see similarities in there styles and work and arron draplin talks about how he loves old things and believes that design is timeless and does not need to be complex and crowded which is something that Stefan Kanchev does very well so he could possibly be taking some inspiration from Stefan Kanchev.

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