#Hi Square Enix currently owns my ass but what's new

[killscreencinema]

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)

We all have a precious work of art in our lives that made a profound impact on who we eventually grew up to be, whether it be an album, a painting, a movie, or especially nowadays, a video game.  Final Fantasy VII was that for me, and when it came out in 1997, it would go on to define my high school years.

Which would go a long way towards explaining why I never got laid during those said years.  Le sigh....

All kidding aside, I never got laid in high school mostly because I was a mess when it came to the social scene.  I had trouble connecting with others and taking what I perceived to be “big risks” like going to parties, joining after school clubs, or -GULP- asking out a girl I liked!  I was very withdrawn socially, but I did have friends, and one of them, whom I’d consider my best friend, managed to get his hands on the original Final Fantasy VII before I even owned a PlayStation (I had foolishly bought a Nintendo 64, believing the next Final Fantasy was going to be released on that). 

My friend and I were already very close, but we bonded even more as we experienced this new adventure together.  He had his own save file that he was pecking away at, but he created a new one for us both to play whenever I’d spend the night or vice versa.  The both of us were completely immersed in this world and these characters.  It was one of a few positive experiences I can remember from my high school years.

The reason for this preamble is to make you understand how much this game means to me on an emotional level.  So when the remake was announced years ago, I was extremely apprehensive.  First of all, Square Enix is a pale shadow of its former glory as Squaresoft.  Final Fantasy XIII was a goddamn mess and Final Fantasy XV was a step in the right direction, but hardly the stuff of legends like its PSone and SNES predecessors.  The Kingdom Hearts games... well, I’ll eventually talk about the rest of those in my blog.  Suffice it to say, I had completely lost faith in Square Enix as a company, whereas there was a day I’d play ANYTHING they released because I knew it would be quality.

So lets get to point - did they fuck up Final Fantasy VII Remake as well or is it an absolute masterpiece? 

Well... that’s kind of a hard question to answer right now as this is only “Part 1″ of what I assume will be a trilogy of releases that comprise the actual FULL game.  However, judging this game alone, I’m going to lean towards masterpiece... with huge “but”.  I’ll talk more about that below and warn of spoilers before I get to it.

Make no mistake about it, though, Final Fantasy VII Remake (part 1) is a goddamn masterpiece.  The care put into the game by the development team is evident from top-to-bottom, with even the most minute details from the original faithfully adapted.  However, this isn’t a strict beat-for-beat retread of FFVII, nor did I expect it to be.  While the game follows the basic story almost exactly, some tweaks have been made here or there to better pad out both the gameplay and the story as a whole.  I had no issue with any of these changes, until the final chapter revealed the implications of them, which I guess I’ll discuss next to get it off my chest...

SPOILERS

During the last chapter, your party is confronted by Sephiroth outside of Midgar, who then goads you into entering the “Singularity”, where you finally fight the ghostly “Whispers” who have been stalking you throughout the whole game.  These Whispers are a significant part of the new story “tweaks” that have been added, which I found annoying at first, but didn’t really mind so much as the story went on until now, because it is revealed that they are “arbiters of destiny”, whose jobs are to ensure fate plays out like its supposed to.  During your fight with them at the end of the game, after defeating each Whisper boss, the characters experience “flash forwards” to important story points in the future, such as Aerith’s death and the summoning of meteor, implying that they have more or less nullified these events now as a result of defeating “destiny”... I think.  Part of my problem with this portion of the game is Square Enix’s current “naval gazey, head-up-their-asses” story telling style is in full effect here, and I began to get Vietnam flashbacks to the completely incoherent plot of Final Fantasy XIII. 

Square Enix, it’s so simple - part of why Final Fantasy VII endures is because it’s a great story ALREADY.  By all means, give it a tweak here and there to give the characters more depth or make the story more dramatically impactful, but for the love of Jenova, please don’t tell me it’s going to turn into a philosophical shit show about the nature of destiny and fighting fate.  More importantly, Square Enix, please don’t tell me you are going to change CRITICAL plot points for shits n’ giggles or to “swerve” the audience.

For one, Aerith has to die. I love Aerith, especially his incarnation of Aerith in the Remake.  She’s so sweet and yet has a delightfully mischievous personality.  She’s absolutely perfect.  But the reason why her death still haunts fans of the game to this day is because THAT was the point in the story when shit got REAL.  The stakes were raised and Sephiroth cements himself as an evil son-of-a-bitch that must be stopped.  He doesn’t kill her just to be evil either - he kills her because she’s actively trying to foil his plans by using her white materia.  However, unbeknownst to Sephiroth, her death is what ultimately triggers the white materia to work when it needs to most.  It’s kind of like how Obi-Wan Kenobit warns Darth Vader “If you strike me down, I’ll become more powerful than you an imagine”, but in this instance it actually makes sense.

So that has to happen.  It can’t be Tifa, or Yuffie, or Cid, or Marlene, or some other swervy “gotcha” bullshit - it has to be Aerith. 

Secondly, Sephiroth must successfully summon the meteor - it’s in the fucking logo for crying out loud!  I can’t imagine what “imminent threat” for the whole world they could do instead.  Fat Chocobo gains a massive amount of weight and jumps on Midgar?  It’s baffling to imagine the developers would even *flirt* with the idea of changing these important story elements of the game, so hopefully we’ve all just hysterically misinterpreted the meaning of the last chapter.

Oh, one more thing - the final boss fight with Sephiroth was dumb too, if only because it cheapens the eventual actual final boss fight with him at the end of the game.  I liked how in the original he was basically a phantom that kept evading your party, leaving behind Jenova pieces for you to fight instead.  It’s like how in wrestling, a heel character talks tough, but then runs away when the “baby face” comes out to confront him.  Fighting Sephiroth now, not to mention beating him, kind of makes him look weak sauce.  Ohh legendary SOLDIER, my ass - I beat him at the beginning of the whole story.  To borrow from Star Wars again, it would be like Luke fighting Darth Vader in A New Hope and kicking his ass immediately.  Vader sure wouldn’t seem like much of a threat after that.

Anyway..

SPOILERS OVER

God, sorry, this review is out of control and much too long, but I have a lot to say!

Okay, so my worries above aside, the game itself is very well done.  The graphics are beautiful, despite the environment being a constant barrage of grey, industrial imagery (hey, that’s Midgar for ya).  They find ways to change things up visually, depending on what part of Midgar you’re in, such as Sector 5 having more greenery than usual (cause, you know, it’s Aerith’s home, so that makes sense!).  Wall Market, the “red light district” of Midgar, is a treat for the senses, especially at night, what with all the lights and the music playing everywhere.  It really feels like a lively, party town. 

One major change that had me, and probably a lot of FFVII purists, concerned is the combat system.  Gone is the turn based combat of old, replaced now with a more fast paced hack-n-slash style reminiscent of a From Software game than Final Fantasy (though not even as remotely as sophisticated).  However, I enjoyed the change, as this makes the battles much more engaging and fun, as opposed to the tedium that can come with turn-based combat, not to mention random encounters.  You can still use magic, items, and Limit Breaks like in the old days, so it still feels like the original, but with tweaks that make it better.

And you know, that pretty much sums up my super long review nicely - the game feels like the original but with tweaks that make it better.  Even the soundtrack is improved, which is a feat I didn’t think possible considering the original FFVII’s soundtrack is some of the best video game movie ever composed.  The Remake does a superb job of weaving in certain themes and remixing themes at appropriate points in the story.  “Aerith’s Theme” is more tear jerking than ever, while “One Chosen by the Planet” (otherwise known as Sephiroth’s theme) is even more chilling and fearsome than ever before. 

So overall, I fucking loved this game.  I rarely get emotional while playing video games, unless you consider cursing and screaming “emotional”, but damned if this one didn’t constantly give me warm and fuzzy feelings (especially whenever Tifa was onscreen - *growl*).  I’m eager to play the next part and explore more of this “new” world, despite my concern it might be “too new” in the worst ways.

[lyllyan-weiss]

LONG Character Survey: Lyllyan Weiss

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Lyllyan Aster Weiss

NICKNAME: Lyl, Lily, Lil' Lily.

AGE: 21

BIRTHDAY: 11th Sun of the 6th Astral Moon (November 10th)

ETHNIC GROUP: Auri|Xaela (In Eorzea)/ Human (Out of World)

NATIONALITY: Eorzean (In Eorzea)/American (Out of World)

LANGUAGES: Eorzean, Draconic, basically anything due to the echo.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: She is Bi. Swings both ways. She loves all.

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: Biromantic

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Depending on the different routes on the story, she will be either single or taken.

CLASS: Jack-of-all-trades

•Knows everything and knows how to play everything.

• Favors caster classes above everything else.

HOMETOWN / AREA: N/A

CURRENT HOMETOWN / AREA: Shirogane is where her apartment is, but she sees Ishgard as her home that she spends her time in, and then the Crystarium had became home to her as well.

PROFESSION: Scion, Adventurer, Full time hero in both her world and Eorzea. In her world she is a waitress and an artist/animator.

PHYSICAL.

HAIR: Right now it is Brown with Light brown Highlights

EYES: Purple (Right), Green (Left)

NOSE: Small and Sharp

LIPS: Small and full

COMPLEXION: Pale but fair.

BLEMISHES: None.

SCARS: In Eorzea, her scars are battle scars that is more aligned on her back. They do not show up when she is in her world.

TATOOS: The Scion Tatoo on the part where the neck and back meet.

HEIGHT: 5'0

WEIGHT: 130lb (Eorzea)/ 150lb (Her World)

BUILD: Short, Thin and fit.

FEATURES: None really.

ALLERGIES: Rolanberries in Eorzea, Strawberries in her world.

USUAL HAIRSTYLE: Long hair with a half braid in the back in Eorzea. In her world she has short hair that stops in the middle of her neck.

USUAL FACE LOOK: Warm color Eye shadow applied lightly to the eyes and a very nude color for lipstick in Eorzea. In her world, she hardly puts make up on, but usually has dark circles due to being tired all the time.

USUAL CLOTHING: Depending on her mood, she'll go very modest, or wearing a bikini with thigh boots. In her world, she is always modest with usually a t-shirt and sweats.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEARS: Bugs (Mainly Arachnids, spiders are the worst.) Antilions that hide in the sands. Losing her love ones. Becoming Sin Eater. Being alone. Falling.

ASPIRATIONS: Explore all of the worlds she could go to, but also to make animations that can change the world.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Stubborn, happy go lucky, Compassionate, tries to take care of everyone, protective, loving, friendly, trusting.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Stubborn enough to push past her limits, usually getting her hurt. She so selfless that she tends to forget about taking care of herself. She can be too trusting of others that she often gets hurt in the end. She usually bottles her problems with the worry of being a burden to others. Very emotional driven (Just ask Ser Zephirin).

ZODIAC: Scorpio.

TEMPERAMENT: Artistic and Motherly

SOUL TYPE(S): The Priest, The Artisan, The Server.

ANIMALS: Cat

VICE HABIT(S): From the definition that I read, her faults are that she feels like anything bad that happens to her or her friends are her fault, and that she sometimes Envy others. But her hobbies that she enjoys are reading, triple triad, drawing, and writing.

FAITH: The Twelve. Even in her world she believes in the Twelve.

GHOSTS?: Definitely

AFTERLIFE?: I hope there is one.

REINCARNATION?: Well so far that we know, reincarnation is a thing, right?

ALIENS?: I doubt the world was made for one type of civilization, plus multiple worlds. Yes.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: Uh...Alphinaud does politics for me.

ECONOMIC PREFERENCE: Just trying to survive, man. Stable, I guess.

SOCIO POLITICAL POSITION: Uh... Alphinaud???

EDUCATION LEVEL: Lyllyan herself has had up to some college in her own world. In Eorzea, she has an understanding of Aether and well has learned all the classes, so being able to pick up something new, she can learn fairly quick.

FAMILY.

FATHER: Captain Carebear (Mykel Weiss)

MOTHER: She doesn't have the ability to go to Eorzea so her name is Lynn Weiss.

Siblings: Lucas Weiss(Rafien Dalarain(Deactivated)), Nathaniel Weiss(Random Guy (deactivated)), Olivia Weiss (Never been to Eorzea).

EXTENDED FAMILY: Grandmother(Nana)(Deceased), Granfather(Poppy), Fortemps Family (Rest in Peace Haucherfaunt).

NAME MEANING(S): Lyllyan is based off of the Lily flower. Aster is based off of the Aster flower, and then Weiss is a name given to those with white hair or pale complexion.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION: Um...Ascian? Amourotine?

FAVORITES.

BOOK: If its Manga, It's Rurouni Kenshin. Books would be the 'Septimus Heap' series by Angie Sage.

MOVIE/PLAY: Movie would be 'Wizard of Oz'. Favorite Play would be 'Hamilton'.

5 SONGS:

•'Seasonal Feathers' by Len and Rin Kagamine

•'Drakkar' by Distrion and Electro-Light

•'Light it Up' by Robin Hustin and TobiMorrow (feat. Jex)

•'Stitches' by Shawn Mendes

•'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran

DEITY: Thaliak

HOLIDAY: Valentione

MONTH: November/ 6th Astral Moon

SEASON: Spring

PLACE: Rak'Tika Greatwoods

WEATHER: Rain

SOUND: Ocean waves.

SCENT(S): Cherry Blossom, sweet.

TASTE(S): Favorite food is Bacon so....also likes sweet things.

FEEL(S): Fuzzy blankets, warm cloth, soft.

ANIMALS: She loves all animals! If she had to narrow it down, it would be Cats, Pandas, and Chocobos. Does Pokemon count?

NUMBER: 8 but screw Construct 8

COLORS: Purple, light green, light blue.

EXTRA.

TALENTS: Drawing.

BAD AT: Math. She used to bring her homework to Eorzea to have Alphinaud and Urianger help her.

TURN ONS: Oooo. Funny, kind, calm, generous, but also romantic.

TURN OFFS: Selfish, rude ass hoe, and killing my friends.

HOBBIES: Singing, Drawing, Reading, Exploring, Triple Triad.

TROPES: Mother Hen.

AESTHETIC TAGS: Chocolate and Caramel. Honey. Lavender and Leaves. I think that's how this works???

FC INFO.

MAIN FC(S): Scions of the Dawn. It consist of Dad and myself.

ALT FC(S): None.

OLDER FC(S): We did have an FC on Gilgamesh called Lionheart with the Tag FF8. It was one that we had started the game when we got out of beta, but moved to different server/data center.

YOUNGER FC(S): *Confused Au Ra noises*

VOICE CLAIM(S): ??????

GENDERBENT FC(S): *Even more confused Au Ra noises*

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1: IF YOU COULD WRITE YOUR CHARACTER YOUR WAY IN THEIR OWN MOVIE, WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED, WHAT STYLE WOULD IT BE FILMED IN, AND WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?

•So, I'm already making a comic that I want to make as an animation for the story of FFXIV with my character and her friends. This character was specifically built for FFXIV, but it has a twist. Kinda like a Sword Art Online ordeal, but instead of Millions of people playing are stuck in the world, it's just like 100, but they aren't stuck, in fact they are just chosen to go between their world and Eorzea. If they die, they don't actually die, but respawn, even in their own world, but they feel how they die and the only way for them to die in any shape or form is by natural cause like old age or sickness. This would be a 2D animation in the anime style and be a multi episode series with multiple seasons. I even though about branching out to go certain routes so that Lyllyan can end up with all my favorite characters. I would call it Final Fantasy XIV: A World Reborn.

Q2: WHAT WOULD THEIR SOUNDTRACK/SCORE SOUND LIKE?

•With it being a Final Fantasy story, it would have Final Fantasy Music.

Q3: WHY DID YOU START WRITING THIS CHARACTER?

•Lyllyan Weiss was made to represent me and she still does, but also inspires me to be more like my courageous heroic self. Because of this, I have been able to do things like crossing a bridge that's in bad shape to get to the other side without the fear of falling, just to get back to my mom who went to the other side on a trip we had.

Q4: WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO THIS CHARACTER?

•She is literally me.

Q5: DESCRIBE THE BIGGEST THING YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR MUSE.

•Just like me, she is stubborn and hard working, but there are times she pushes herself way too much. She hesitates to ask for help, not because she doesn't trust the people around her, but more of trying to not burden them. Others wish she would open up to them and also rest when she can. Raha has to literally force her to rest, and she nearly gets herself killed against the first battle with Rahjit because she kept getting back up to fight even when the others beg her to stop.

Q6: WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN COMMON WITH YOUR MUSE?

•Almost everything. Major thing is that she doesn't look like me, but also I know when to quit.

Q7: HOW DOES YOUR MUSE FEEL ABOUT YOU?

• I feel like if Lyllyan and I were to meet in person, we'd get along just fine. We would play video games all day long if we could.

Q8: WHAT CHARACTERS DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE INTERESTING INTERACTIONS WITH?

•OH BOI HERE WE GOOO

- Leveilleur Twins: Alphinaud and Alisaie are very close to Lyllyan. Alphinaud used to pull Lyllyan out of class to have her hurry up and go through the story, now its chill and play ace attorney. Alphinaud, depending on what route is taken, is definitely in love with Lyllyan and is constantly teased about it by everyone. Alisaie is like a sister to Lyllyan. They have had many nights where the pulled 24 hours playing Sims. Alisaie is who Lyllyan tries to protect the most between the two. She's also the reason why Lyllyan is now Bi. Lyllyan absolutely adores her and if the route is taken, they end up being the cutest couple.

-Leon D'hart: An Alt character that I made that depending on the story and route, he is also Lyllyan's Lover. He is a character made by Square Enix to be the Warrior of Light replacement if Lyllyan did not succeed in preventing herself becoming a light warden. His story with her is a bunch of trial and tribulations, but in the end they do end up married.

-G'raha Tia/Crystal Exarch: The main story Lyllyan's Lover. Great friend to start out and tears were shed when he sealed himself into the tower. He really kept Lyllyan guessing when he was Exarch. When Emet-Selch kidnapped him, Lyllyan was hellbent on getting him back. Now she visits him at the first everyday bring stuff from Eorzea for him, and even occasionally stuff from her world. He is her world as she is to him.

-The Scions: Thancred and Lyllyan are like Big brother, Little sister. He protects her, and scolds her as such. They may act like they hate each other, but the moment either gets hurt, the other is at their sides. Though rumor has it that Thancred had feelings for Lyllyan. Y'shtola is close to Lyllyan, but is usually not around often. Shtola usually is often around to keep an eye on Lyllyan's aether since her amount is quite high compared to the others and her fellow Warriors of Light. Urianger is someone who used to hardly talk to Lyllyan, but started opening up more after the years. He had watched her grow from 15 moons to now 21 as the others, but they seem to be more special to him. Lyllyan swore to protect him if anything ever happened especially after he asked her her thoughts on his new attire. Tataru is a precious angel and if anyone was to hurt her, Lyllyan would kill everyone and then herself. Ryne, even though she is not a scion, she is a scion. Ryne worries about Lyllyan, but is often in awe of her. Lyllyan and Thancred adopted her, and she's ended up calling Lyllyan mom on many occasions.

-Ser Aymeric: Depending on the route, he would be Lyllyan's Lover and he tries to protect her when he can, be it politics or in war. He has a dream to journey with her, and though he can't do so with Lylyan Weiss the Au Ra, there is nothing saying he can't make a character and become a Warrior of Light himself and travel with Sakura Yue(Lyllyan's Alt).

-Zenos Yae Galvus: So this guy commits Seppuku and then shows up at Lyllyan's job as her new Bartender. They end up becoming friends through the job, and the fact that Zenos is bored out of his mind that he can't go kill people,but finding out later that he is back makes Square Enix themselves worried about this guy.

-Estinien: Lyllyan had adopted him as her Edgy Son. He hates it. He reminds her that he is older than him, and she retorts about beating him as a Lalafel. He usually starts brooding after that on a high building that usually takes Alphinaud and Ser Aymeric to get him down.

•I'm only stopping this cause there are so many more characters!!!

Q9:WHAT GIVES YOU INSPIRATION TO WRITE YOUR MUSE?

•Music and Playing Final Fantasy. Mainly XIV, but others do count too, but also reading all the other fanfiction and comics about final fantasy XIV.

Q10: HOW LONG DID THIS TAKE YOU TO COMPLETE?

About...4 hours? Maybe more? My hands definitely hurt from all the typing! XD

============

Tagged by @amandafullmetal

Tagging @ladyramora @ranier-layarte @scholarlostintime @fabledtactician

[mysterious-prophetess]

Opinion Piece: Where Adaptation Original Content can fall flat or be seen as something creative

This is a personal opinion Essay. That means what follows will be all from my perspective and reflective of my tastes. Don’t like it? Fine. Because it’s just an opinion from one person.

So, now for the essay:

Adaptation Extension: Where it’s failed and where it’s succeeded and why.

There’s no avoiding it sometimes whenever a hot new intellectual property takes the world by storm and there is a clamoring to get it adapted into another form ASAP. Only there’s one problem: they don’t have enough material from the source to go for as long as they need it, which leaves those adapting it with one choice: time to make up their own stories. This used to happen a lot with manga-into-anime adaptations hastily commissioned after a manga sudden boomed into popularity with, usually, awful results. It’s happened with western materials from time to time as well. In this instance I will be comparing two cases where there was a very solid base but the speed of publishing and the speed of adaptation varied. One is the Fullmetal Alchemist series from 2003, and the other is the current HBO smash hit Game of Thrones. Both are adaptations of a source material that was still in progress when they started and both ended before their sources ever wrapped but and both changed and omitted things as they were forced to grow without the guidance of the source. Yet one of these will definitely be more fondly remembered by its fans than the other in the long run and that all comes down to the execution of the alterations to the adaptation and consistency of the characters within both.

Fullmetal Alchemist the manga ran in Square Enix’s Monthly Shōnen Gangan from around 2001-2010. This slow long run was partly due to it being a monthly manga, and therefore didn’t update as frequently as the weekly stories. It was popular enough that an anime was commissioned very shortly into its run. This anime, called Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 by those who are fans of the series, was very faithful at first. It was whenever they wanted to drag out the first act by a lot that they began to add filler and then would go back to the main story. Yet they diverged with a pivotal moment: the death of Maes Hughes. From then on out, the stories had the same characters in the same country but they could have not been in more different stories. The manga had a deeply analytical and dark political intrigue story with themes around power, knowledge, and humanity. The anime instead went almost faustian with its take on the world of Amestris and leaned into more supernatural elements and brought in the idea of other worlds and questions of what is means to be human, but not too deep into that. The plot with Dante and Hoenheim of Light is very faustian to my eyes, full of strange magic, regrets over a loved one dying because of their hubris, and the desire to have more power. Yet despite it being vastly different from the manga, whose ending was more coherent than the anime, that first anime is still looked at fondly. Yes, it deviated a lot and yes, it went down many strange rabbit holes before it was all through, but they kept the characters at the core of it all consistent. The Elric Brothers were still the Elric Brothers, their values were still the same and they still acted like themselves no matter what. It was also wildly creative with its new material in a way that was actually enjoyable as well to those who like harder science fiction stories.

Then there’s HBO’s Game of Thrones. This is a case where they had a lot of source material but they burned through it faster than GRR Martin was able to write the sixth book and came to the point with the end of season five where they now had to make their own way forwards without Martin’s expert storytelling guiding them. Season 6, as far as that was concerned, was actually somewhat competent. It had a lot of Season 5’s threads to draw from and help guide their hands but there were still several missteps that they made in the eyes of the fans in how that was all handled. Seasons 7 and 8 are by far where their lack of skill is most evident. Characters who were known as smart are suddenly losing several IQ points and making blunders in such ways that is seems out of character for them to be caught up so easily. Some of it is the fact that humans are fallible but the moves they had them make were not only questionable but at times, highly controversial. While FMA 2003 kept the tone and characters similar to its source, HBO’s GoT seems to now favor flash to substance. Spectacle to careful plotting. Nowhere is this more evident than with Episode 3 of Season 8. “The Battle of Winterfell.” Firstly, the battle plans themselves were asinine. That is NOT how you mount a castle defense. You lace the ground with traps and pits and shit and keep the troops WITHIN your walls and have your best archers manning the walls and several vats of flammable shit ready to go to dump down and make an undead inferno. Civilians in the crypts still but maybe with a few more armed people.

Elite soldiers are to act as the vanguard and those less experienced at fighting in the rear guard. More people should have been on Bran. Jon should have had Rhaegal PARKED on the walls next to the God’s Wood and Dany should have been in the air if they needed someone in the skies lighting stuff up. Also, actual targeting of the white walkers. Jon knew canonically that a walker’s death would spell the death of any wights it reanimated. Instead we get a barely visible (at times) spectacle that keeps your so tense you can’t notice how terrible this battle strategy is until later. Then there’s the twist they decided to put in as of their writing of season seven: Arya gets to kill the Night King. I’m not actually against this idea. It was just executed so poorly that it takes away any impact it might have had and because of her lack of role in later episodes, it just gave Arya a premature high-point to her character arc that cannot be matched by the rest of her arc (should one call it that) for season 8. Bran for all his prophesizing, is just a lump. He’s not even trying to do anything beyond those ravens his sends up once. The books are building up to a prophecy. The show mentioned it but in the end the show runners decided to shove it for a “gotcha” moment and make all the threads from the books they’d actually maintained through the prior seasons just fall loose and flat. They did their own thing and in this case they robbed characters of moments they maybe needed or should have had as character development. They also cut a lot out of the books as they burned through them, which meant characters were cut. In one instance they cut a somewhat important character and that is now biting them in their asses as they’ve seemingly grafted his plot lines onto two other characters: Jon Snow and Danaerys Targaryen.  It’s making both act somewhat out of character at times—Danaerys more than Jon—and making things just feel out of sync with the previous characterizations.

And that’s where FMA 2003 succeeds as having people still liking it despite its far meanderings away from the canon of the manga and people are disgusted with how far off course Game of Thrones is from A Song of Ice and Fire: Consistency of characterization with the intentioned situations, and an understanding of the world they are playing in. The show runners and writers for the HBO show seem to lack these things without a book telling them explicitly. The writers had an unenviable task of attempting to live up to GRR’s skill level and fell woefully short. By no means is all of Game of Thrones’s book free run awful: Season 6 is remarkably close to competent and parts of season 7 are alright, it’s whenever we get to the final season their strain and stretching can be seen on full display and compared to the tightly plotted first five seasons, it’s glaringly obvious they were not up the task of imitating Martin. He gave them a broad outline and the writers were unable to flesh it out as complexly as he will. It does mean a few things will happen as a result. One, people will now read Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring just to see how badly fracked the show-runners made GoT and two, it’ll lead to a redo since it is a very popular franchise.

[davidmann95]

Some Kingdom Hearts future thoughts

Have to get ‘em out! Went into some thoughts with my psuedo-review of III, but I’ve got others and stuff worth expanding on. I’ll put them under the cut since it clearly goes into spoilers, except for my boldest, most controversial guess: along with being announced either this year or next (since Kingdom Hearts has never reached the end of a calendar year after a release with nothing on the horizon) I think Kingdom Hearts IV is going to be a 2022 release. I recognize that sounds like an intensely generous timeframe, but I have several reasons:

1. Above all else by far: once again, Square Enix and Disney are going to be on Nomura’s ass, nose to the grindstone, to get him to start delivering these on a consistent basis again. Do you think they’re looking at Kingdom Hearts III topping sales charts and thinking “well, it sure was worth the wait”, or do you think they’re going “gosh, these are some nice sales, sure would be nice if it came out years ago and we had a bunch more similarly-selling titles by now, let’s try and aim for something closer to that in the future”. Especially-especially since Nomura and the actors aren’t getting any younger and the series is at a point where the core fanbase for the franchise as-is is going to be the primary target rather than new audiences, which means it has to wrap up in a timeframe where that’s still a viable market. So rapid, priority development and few if any more spinoffs. I mean, not as if there’s really a handheld platform for them to be on anymore.

2. My understanding (and this is going somewhat into the technical side of things, so I’m going thirdhand here based on what I’ve heard from others) is that the lifecycle of the current console generation isn’t going to run out for quite a bit yet, so they can reuse a lot of the assets and whatnot from III.

3. A big deal was made about Dream Drop Distance coming out on the 10th anniversary of the franchise, and given 20 is a much wilder number for this series than most equivalents when it’s about a single cast of characters going through a single story, I can’t imagine they won’t want to push that as at least a similarly big deal.

4. Finally, when things don’t go as catastrophically off the rails as III did, these games seem to have a fairly consistent 3-4 year development span (even III, once they announced the beginning of development in 2013, would have come out 2017-early 2018 if not for switching from Luminous to Unreal Engine), and for the reasons I listed above I think this is going to be on the speedier end of that.

* Firstly: the main discussion I’m seeing at this point regarding IV is “it’s gonna be a Kingdom Hearts/The World Ends With You/pseudo-Final Fantasy Versus XIII crossover!”, and I really expect and hope that isn’t the case. Not that I’ll be pissed if it is, I’m sure it would still be rad, but it strikes me as both unlikely and the lesser outcome. I don’t know that I see the powers that be diverting resources in one of their biggest cash cows towards a sequel to one of their minor games - one that’s already been in Kingdom Hearts, meaning its inclusion here wouldn’t reasonably be a huge enough deal to base a lot of the full story on - and a way to reimagine another project. And for that matter it strikes me as conceptually small-scale given the setup. Nomura went with a name in Yozora that doesn’t just have the bent meaning of Sora’s name but actually literally sounds like him, went with a setting that aside from the one cameo sign mainly screams to viewers “Sora’s suddenly in the real world, holy cow”, and unless I entirely misread it Verum Rex was presented as a total self-roast in Toy Box. It doesn’t strike me as spot-the-reference (even though that’s 100% in there) nearly so much as establishing a tonal contrast to Kingdom Hearts.

I joked initially about this being a Flash of Two Worlds! (linking to a description for non-comics readers who are here because I tagged Kingdom Hearts)/’Kingdom Hearts goes to war with its own gritty fanfic’ setup, but...I actually suspect that’s pretty close to what’s going on here? This seems like a send up of Final Fantasy’s relative self-seriousness and over the top Super Cool characters, as a contrast to Sora’s goofy open-hearted sincerity and optimism. It’s the Secret Movie aesthetic that some want not just more prominent but as the actual main tone of the series morphed into an entire universe all its own, and Sora, out of place, has to find his way through and back home even as the real threat mounts, and probably has to save this world and get through to its heroes who aren’t likely prone to grinning through off-the-cuff monologues about the heart. That is not only entirely my kind of ridiculous meta jam, it feels like a logical next step for the series: if the first trilogy was in part about growing up, the next (and I suspect last, as the Master of Masters and his Foretellers have been set up as the primordial antagonists of the entire mythology and this is where they’re coming to the fore; my old theory of Eraqus being the big bad of an intermediary trilogy looks solidly shot to hell) could very well be about reaching adulthood, in which case it makes sense Sora would have to pass through a near literal fire of Adolescent/Adult Cynicism.

* Speaking of where Sora ends up: I kinda doubt he’s literally dead, or that if he is it’ll last past the opening of the game. They’ve already made a big theatrical production of Sora dying twice now, the second time in the most literal way possible and just a few hours prior to this, so while third time’s the charm I think there’ll be more to it than that. The again common thing I’ve been seeing is that he’ll have to play the Reaper game to win his life back (not something I’m much familiar with but I think I’ve got the basics), but again, while it’ll certainly be part of the game I don’t think TWEWY is going to be the big thing here (like they’d really make that a bigger deal than the Final Fantasy elements have been), and he just dealt with the afterlife and had to essentially play a game to win his soul back, and this wouldn’t even be a game he’s unfamiliar with. My impression is he’s incorporated back and whole - if likely powered down from the ordeal to justify him being back at level one - and the mystery is less whether or not he’s truly alive so much as how he ended up here and how to get back.

* On the other end of things - and I realize it’s a risky prospect to suggest after her getting a shockingly small role compared to everyone else in III was the damning weak aspect of its otherwise basically perfect finale - I think this is where Kairi is actually going to start to come to the forefront. She and Riku would be at the head of a search that everyone would be a part of (they were there when it happened, they know death is negotiable in their world, and they’re good people who all owe him), her especially since he’s her boyfriend - they may not declare it outright but there’s clearly no ambiguity between the two of them as to their situation anymore - and the one he sacrificed himself for, and she’s out there fighting now even if she’s inexperienced. And Riku seems like he’s going to end up lost himself on the search, leaving her behind as the sole Destiny Trio representative. So even if she isn’t a playable co-lead I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one going on a more traditional Kingdom Hearts adventure searching with the rest while Sora and later Riku deal with the genre mindfuck. On the bright side if nothing else, she’s died twice now too and they’ve both been presented as dead in a “maybe this time for real” way for a finale, so while again third time’s the charm, I figure she and Sora are relatively bulletproof from here on out.

* Speaking of Riku, while this seems more like an old-school proof of concept trailer from I and II rather than the more recent actual scenes, meaning his appearance might well change just as Kairi was different in I’s Secret Movie than she really was in II, it’s very notable that he hasn’t aged at all. So likely instead of another tragic I to II scale timeskip of Sora being lost from his friends, it looks like IV will be picking up immediately and the search for him won’t take long to succeed. Also speaking of Riku, I seem to see people thinking he’s with Namine now? Not that that seems impossible, but while the scene as a whole is romanticized in that it’s basically a princess being carried away by chariot to her happily-ever-after, it reads to me less as an actual romance than Riku fulfilling his ‘brother’s promise. Though if Square/Nomura does want to really get into romance with the next trilogy, since Sora/Kairi is locked down maybe they’ll just say fuck it and do a whole Riku/Namine/Xion/Roxas Love Square situation.

* Actual prediction rather than analysis of evidence: I suspect this is the last major time the Destiny Trio is going to be split up, at least in the searching-for-each-other, not-knowing-if-everyone’s-alive sense. I was the search for Kairi, II for Riku, and now IV for Sora - that cycle looks to be completing. Wouldn’t be surprised if V and/or the finale was finally the three of them as the adventuring party as fans have wanted for so long, with III as the grand finale to Sora/Donald/Goofy.

* It seems early to predict the main villain, but at the same time everyone was accurate in assuming a Keyblade-wielding Xehanort would be the final boss of the trilogy circa 2006, so I’m gonna go ahead and say Xigbar/Luxu is gonna be the end-all with IV. The Master of Masters is still the end of the road, and perfect for it because he’s a real-world normal savvy guy who can manipulate this world of straightforward classical adventurers with ease, while Sora at the opposite end of the scale is silly and sweet even by that world’s standard. But Luxu addresses the same ideas in a way that’d be perfect for this game in particular as it seems to be set up, he’d be the villainous connective tissue as this game moves from one trilogy to another, and he has the dangling personal thread of the ‘reward’ he suggested was coming for Sora. Or hell, since now it looks like she’s at least somewhat privy to what’s going on, maybe Maleficent will finally step back up.

EDIT: Ooh, just remembered, speaking of what Xigbar says to Sora, his Olympus conversation also predicts Sora’s fate? The whole “if you leap in to save somebody, you might just end up in the clutch needing to be saved yourself” lecture, i.e. the premise for IV. Maybe his teach isn’t the only one privy to future events?

* Not both, they’ll wanna space it out, but I’m like 70% sure this is where Marvel or Star Wars are gonna happen.

* Finally, while I’ve heard speculation that the Mystery Star is one of the Foretellers or the person who died in that Union X game, I don’t think she’s one of them given it’s a new voice actor and she cites a name Sora knows. More likely she’s ‘Subject X’ (I went ahead and looked up the Secret Reports, haven’t gone back and done all the bonus challenges myself yet and won’t I imagine for some time), who does seem to be from that time but is I think someone new.

[mightyville]

(Originally published on July 19, 2012)

BATWEEK: MightyVille's Favorite Batman Action Figures

Continue celebrating BATWEEK here on MightyVille with a rundown of our favorite Batman action figures!

We scoured the catalogs of our favorite retailers; we battled amongst each other during the vetting process; we toiled for hours...to comprise this gathering of our favorite members of the miniature Batman army. The only rule was that each item had to be an action figure, meaning moving arms and legs, not just heads (Sorry, Pop Heroes, you're cute, but more on the inaction side).

So, in somewhat of a particular order, here we go...

Mattel's Batman from the Justice League Unlimited line. JLU is one of our favorite cartoons of all time, and this is Batman in a classic, animated Bruce Timm look.

The folks at Hot Toys are, in our opinion, some of the best action figure designers on the planet. Meet Batman (and Bruce Wayne) from the "Cosbaby” Batman Begins line. Don’t you wish you could pinch their cheeks?

If this figure evokes the word "classic" in you, that's because it\'s from Matttel's Batman Legacy line and is called..."Classic Batman"! We dig this one because it combines a Batman of multiple eras: the early silver age, Darwyn Cooke's lovely New Frontier, and has that Adam West guffaw we all know and love.

Are they cute? Are they tough? I don\'t know!! They're Mez-Itz!

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight was a cool "Elseworlds" story before anyone knew what an "Elseworld" was. This Batman figure from that storyline by DC Direct is ready to take down Jack the Ripper (which he did). Also, Mike Mignola (Hellboy) designed it.

Zombies are hotter these days than they were in the 80s. Zombie super heroes? Why not?! This Black Lantern Batman from the epic Blackest Night storyline from DC Direct lives on our office wall right now and has the perfect level of freakin' creepy!

The Dark Knight Returns is one of the greatest Batman sagas of all time. This plastic version of Frank Miller's lunatic Batman looks like he stepped right off the page. Also on display at MightyVille HQ, this Batman is ready to break your arm and call himself a surgeon. 

If you're like us, you read Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne and it confused the Hell out of you. On the plus side, it gave us this awesome, Lone Ranger-esque "Old West" Batman from DC Direct, also a resident of the MightyVille toy shelves. And, no, he does not carry a gun, and still can throw down like Wyatt Earp at the O.K. Corral. That's how boss he is.

The Batman design from the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City video games is one of our favorite Bat-looks. Combining the classic look of the comics with the gritty feel of the Christopher Nolan films, we get a bulky, "tech'd-up" Batman ready to kick some bad-guy ass. This particular figure is from the Play Arts-Kai line by Japanese toymaker Square Enix. The level of detail and pose-ability, along with the stylized look, make this a must for most Batman figure collectors. 

No Batman action figure list would be complete without an entry based on master penciller Jim Lee's designs. This DC Direct offering from the New 52 Justice League line is the newest Batman addition to the MightyVille collection and features Batman in his most current comic book look.

Starting our top three is Batman from Kenner's Super Powers line in the mid-1980s. This classic line started the trend of the current line-wide diversity we see at Mattel. The fact that all you had to do was squeeze his legs and he could go around punching things blew my 7-year old mind and remains forever tied to my childhood memories. Hmm, I feel an eBay visit coming...

Remember that thing about Hot Toys up there? Here's another stellar example. This Batman from The Dark Knight Rises line is beyond museum quality. You can see the mole on Christian Bale's face! The level of detail, pose-ability, and a ridiculous amount of accessories put this squarely on the "wish I could afford this" list.

Did I mention Hot Toys yet? They bring us our favorite Batman from this list. This thing looks more like Michael Keaton than Michael Keaton does. I adore the 1989 Tim Burton classic Batman film, and you could probably recreate the whole film with the level of accessories this comes with. Everything that applied to the above The Dark Knight Rises Batman applies here, especially the "things I wish I could afford" list entry. Nostalgia overload!

We hope you enjoyed this trip through Batman collector history. We'll be bringing you similar features down the road. Have any ideas what characters to feature? Want to share your own collection? Let us know!

“Where does he get those wonderful toys?”

[theoutsanityshoppe]

Hnnngg KH3.

Note: This is my using Tumblr as a place to scream into the void my thoughts. I’m not looking for responses - or for anyone to try and change my mind, so please don’t bother. I’ve been playing these games since I was 8 years old when they first came out. 

Since I’m gonna be talking about the entire game, I’m gonna slap this on:

So all morning I’ve been highly annoyed and frustrated but unsure why until I let my thoughts just go on their own and I realized I’m just super huffy and upset about KH3 as I finished the game yesterday.

I’m writing this more entirely to get my thoughts/feelings down and maybe move the fuck on from them and not at all to influence peoples opinions on the game. 

But pretty much from the second I entered the Kingdom of Corona I was complaining throughout the entire game. That kingdom in particular pissed me off the most what with it beING THE GODDAMN MOVIE SCENE BUT FUCKING SCENE LINE BY FUCKING LINE and bored me almost to literal tears. I was infinitely more excited [and enjoyed it more!] to play Arendelle than I was Corona, and I can’t stand Frozen but love Tangled as films. 

I know Nomura has never been the best at linear, or hell for that matter, simple story lines but I felt that KH 3 was a mockery of what it could have been. It feels like it, and at the same time us, the fans, were shoved into the corner while other projects were worked on instead and only just finished because “well shit it’s been so long we gotta get something out there”.

The story line was the single shortest and most disappointing out of all of the games - and I have played every goddamn one of them [tho not very far into DreamDrop, the fact that you could drop mid-boss battle infuriated me to no end and I gave up on that game entirely after I had a single hit to go on a fourth attempt on Riku’s boss at Notre Dame]. They focused way too hard on the visual aspects of the game - the scenery, the characters [except, apparently, their hair as Rapunzel's hair made me cringe every goddamn time she showed up] the battle affects, the magic... all the most stunningly beautiful things I have ever seen. The vastly open worlds were amazing too - omaigod it was crazy just exploring every nook and cranny.

But the worlds were utterly pointless. There was no princess to save. No keyhole to lock. No Maleficent to stop. No Pete to beat up. No real REASON for the Heartless to even BE at the worlds and even less for Sora to be there! The only one that made any sense for why baddies were there was just Monstropolis cuz Vanita’s was there, thus, so were the Unversed. [Which was fun except it had already been spoiled that he was gonna show up there so good on your advertising team Square Enix /sarcasm.]. It was just Sora running around seemingly forgetting constantly that there is a HUGE ASS WAR coming literally around the corner. But naw, let’s just have him run around being a pirate during the middle of an incredibly jumpy PoC#3 film recreation. You really demanding we know these films forwards and backwards to enjoy the game??? Fuck that. [Also, I see they tried hard, but the faces on literally everyone in PoC scared the crap out of me. They showed too much teeth and despite trying to show enough human emotion still felt robotic and creepy. Sora, Donald and Goofy were freaking adorable tho.]

The only worlds I thoroughly enjoyed were Toy Box [cuz, gasp! It didn’t just follow the fucking movie line by line!! It was actually new and original but felt like it could be a Toy Story...story!!!] and San Fransokyo cuz I’ve never seen Big Hero Six. I purposefully didn’t watch it because I didn’t want to be bored to tears watching the fucking movie but with Sora, Donald and Goofy thrown in cuz why not. [Side note: Replica Riku and the Cubes showing up was awesome.]

On the topic of worlds: WHERE. THE. FUCK. WAS. RADIANT. GARDEN.

Why in the actual hell was it just a “””””””””””background””’”’’’”””” world???????????? Why was the completed version of Hallow Bastion - a world that has been in just about every goddamn game in some form or fashion minus DreamDrop NOT IN THE “FINAL” GAME [yes I know this is not the end of the series I’m talking about the final for this damn saga]. IT;S A FUCKING IMPORTANT WORLD and all we get is backdrops of it while other characters are there??????? THEY EVEN BROUGHT ANSEM THE GODDAMN WISE BACK AND STILL WE DIDN’T GO THERE. OR EVEN MEET THE BASTARD AGAIN.

There was no purpose for almost all of the old Organization characters to even be in this game, other to be puppets for Xehanort and just pointless background characters.

“But Bri! Vexen helped give Roxas and Namine bodies!” SO. WHAT.

Roxas goddamn did it basically on his own. Despite it being A HUGE plot point that no one has any damn idea how to do this, even Vexen being a bit out of it, Roxas just fucking appears out of the blue having basically put himself together at this point cuz - reminder! SORA NEVER FUCKING WENT TO RADIANT GARDEN AND VEXEN NEVER SAW HIM ONCE. So how the SHIT did Roxas’s heart get inside a vessel???? Even if it was the vessel that they just left on the goddamn floor of the labyrinth and not the one at Radiant Garden THAT MAKES NO SENSE.

Nor their overly drawn out death scenes and the weird ass Grim Reaper heartless. Or that weird “Final World” other than a very obvious way to throw Cirithy int here at the last freaking second. Or that we had to watch the same scene twice only for some new bastard to show up [Lingering Will, and I will admit I was cheering that whole fight cuz hell yes go Terra but still why didn’t he show up in the first place?????? Why did Sora resetting the whole fucking world apparently trigger him coming?????]

AKGJAKJFHGADFG Like I said before I’m only writing this out to air my own frustrations on the game - if you love this game, fantastic, I’m very happy for you -it has plenty of good aspects to it too. I am not trying to change anyone’s opinions on the game.

BUT AUGH. I FEEL SO HORRIBLY CHEATED. I won’t even go into my rant about Kairi - there’s enough text posts out there about how horribly they wrote her. How pathetic.

Xion being there made 0 sense too. I’m happy AF she, Roxas, and Axel got their happy ending but annoyed as hell as to WHEN they got it - but frankly just about everything in the actual story happened during the last goddamn second. 

I get wanting to set up intruge for later games - but this was a) a main title game and b) supposed to be the end of Xehanort’s Saga/Sora’s. WHY. WASN’T. MORE. ANSWERED??????? In my opinion: aboslutely nothing from Union Cross should have been in this. Not a damn thing. That should all be in the past and NO ONE from the current games should be from the keyblade war *coughfuckingVentusLariumandElrenacough*. I’m excited and want to know about that war and everything from the past but I’m sick of them trying so hard to connect it to the current characters - just place is in the goddamn past! Or STOP AGING CHARACTERS - how the fuck is Xehanort and Eraqus so damn old but Ventus, Larxene, Marluxia and Xigbar are apparently 100+ years old but all look like they’re between 16-30 [minus Xig who looks like 50 cuz of the streaks in his hair]. Also that surprise that Xig is Luxu????? Exciting at first cuz I adore him as a character and am happy to see him continue to be a main player but WHAT?????? THE?????? FUCK???????? 0 sense. Makes 0. Goddamn. Sense.

And how ARE the foretellers still alive???? WHY the hell are they still alive??? And why didn’t they fight each other at the end - we watched them try and murder each other in the damn back video!

Again: yeah, ok this is all being set up for a later game to come out in the future. SO DO THAT IN A WAY THAT DOESN’T MAKE THIS ONE FEEL LIKE A THROW AWAY MIDDLE GAME!!! That’s what KH3 feels like - like Chain of Memories or Coded. It took me 35+ hours to get through all of the worlds [and find all of the treasure/lucky emblems] before it ACTUALLY started getting into the real plot of the story aka the real reason I was playing the goddamn game. In the end I finished the game at 43 hours. So. Less than 10 hours of this entire game was dedicated to the fucking plot and the rest was to reenacting Disney film scene by scene line by goddamn line with absolutely no purpose or meaning to anything. 

KH2 is infamous for confusing players cuz no one knew who Roxas was at the beginning but was a fucking masterpiece - it had so much thrown in and yea, a lot of questions left over, but we actually had enough to be satisfied. We had new characters and new villains and enough interactions between them all to get a great feeling about what’s going on. KH3 simply threw together last second answers with next to no explanation other than “that’s just how it is” in order to just move on and that PISSES ME OFF TO NO END. 

KH3 also just felt like a movie - there were so many cutscenes!!! AND DURING BATTLES. SERIOUSLY???? DURING THE FINAL FIGHTS BETWEEN ALL 13 DARKNESSES?????????? 

Also something that I hated and refuse to acknowledge because to me it feels 100% like a Rowling/Snape scenario: Fucking Isa/Saix.

Not once in any game do we get the feeling that Saix is redeemable. Not. fucking. once. [not including BBS in which he was an innocent]. I’m perfectly happy with villains getting them - I love that! BuT WHERE WAS IT???? He was a cruel and sadistic bastard in all the other games he’s in - especially KH2! [and a jerk in 358!] WHERE DID THIS NEW FRIENDSHIP WITH LEA/AXEL COME FROM???????? Give us the goddamn redemption - don’t just have him show up after NEARLY MURDERING THEM AGAIN and be all “and now they are friends. weee” that is bullshit. He deserves NOTHING right now.

Frankly the whole way all of the Organization members who haven’t been given backstories died annoyed me. Larxene’s goddamn secret [why fucking mention it if it’s not gonna be in the damn game???] Luxords weird ass trump card that was useless and we never even saw what it was. Marluxia suddenly “getting memories back” - bitch what memories??? And how almost happily they all went????? What????? Now they’re totally cool with Sora murdering them????

Also Demyx...just Demyx. I love him but he was pointless in this. He did 1 thing. And they didn’t even need him for that. Vexen switching sides also made little sense as again: he had only ever been set up as a villain before. Ok- they SORTA set up a redemption arc for him and Ansem but then promptly dropped it and we never saw either of them again. SAME WITH TWILIGHT TOWN. We went through all that trouble to get the virtual world set up and then???? Never???? Mentioned???? Again???? We didn’t even get to GO to it which is what I was 30000% expecting to happen.

You know what else: where the heck were Leon and the gang. They’ve been a vital part of many KH games - including both main titles. Why weren’t they in this. In fact were ANY Final Fantasy characters even in this??????? Siefer and his change were apparently locked in the sandlot that was completely un-accessible from anywhere in Twilight Town. Cloud didn’t show up and since the Collesium was gone [I was ok with that tho] neither did Sephiroth as a mini boss].

AND

NO

HALLOWEENTOWN

EITHER

Another world that has been in almost every game and is A MASSIVE fan favorite! You were able to come up with a story line for the second game, you could have easily figured one out for this one - hell you didn’t even need Oogie you could have had fucking Vanitas as the baddie here instead of at Monstropolis. 

This entire game felt like a cop-out to just get the story over and done with to move on to other stuff and that infuriates me. I’ve put too many hours and too much of my life into this series to get such a shitty ending to this particular part of the story. Yeah I get that no matter what it would end confusing - Nomura is king at that. I get it: this game is a perfect example as to why you need to know what your ending is to a story before you dive head first in. I don’t think [if I remember correctly] anyone thought the game would go past the first one so there was no reason to add more to it which is fine. Then it went crazy in traditional Nomura fashion lol. Which is fine! But at least have SOME kind of understandable plot!!! I’m still confused as to what exactly was going on - especially since so many characters kept changing their reasoning [YEAH IM LOOKING AT YOU XEHANORT. Not sure I liked his ending either. Yay he’s gone - but really? A happy ending with his best friend WHO HE MURDERED?]

Still don’t know what the hell Kingdom Hearts really is. Or why Sora and co didn’t just use it to try and fix the worlds. Also I feel like it must be hella annoyed at everyone like the Dragon from DBZA lololol like “WHY DO YOU PEOPLE KEEP CREATING ME JUST TO HAVE SOME SNOT NOSED 15 YEAR OLD SLAM THE DOOR IN MY FACE AGAIN???” kinda thing hahahahaha

I think I need to start a second post cuz this one’s getting weird.

[salarta]

For the fun of it, I’m going to post about all the cases I can remember where I stopped buying stuff from a company involved in creative works because of various things they did. Also, my history with them and current state. I could write very long posts on each of these, but my intent is to try to keep it short and straightforward.

Square-Enix

I grew up with Final Fantasy from Squaresoft. It was my lifelong fandom.

Problems arose with Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, and Chrono Trigger DS. All of these games either were ideas for new franchises forced where they didn’t belong, or half-assed projects meant to bilk money out of people. The final straw was 3rd Birthday, one of the most insulting works I’ve ever seen. It bent over backwards to ruin perception of Aya, treated her like a sex object, and the producer and scriptwriter lied profusely about things like how the clothes ripping away mechanic was for “realism.”

Current status: Starting 2010, I’ve refused to buy anything Squeenix until a new game starring Aya Brea would be made that treats Aya right and makes 3rd Birthday noncanon. Squeenix’s philosophy is to hide its mistakes instead of fixing them, so I expect I’ll never buy and engage in anything from Squeenix again.

Ubisoft

I didn’t have much history with Ubisoft. I had been starting to get some interest in Assassin’s Creed after an online pal introduced me to the franchise. I greatly enjoyed AC3.

Then, Ubisoft decided to be dicks to Patrice Desilets. A lot could be said about this, but the cliffnotes is this. Desilets was making 1666 with THQ. Ubisoft bought THQ. When Desilets left/was fired (can’t remember which), the rights to 1666 were to go back to him if it got canceled. So, Ubisoft put the game on “indefinite hold” instead of canceling it - ensuring the rights wouldn’t go back to Desilets while never actually doing anything with it. I stopped buying anything Ubisoft until Desilets got the rights back.

Current status: The rights finally went back to Desilets after a few years. I immediately bought four games: Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. This year, I bought Far Cry 5, and I currently have Assassin’s Creed Odyssey next to play after I’m done with Soul Calibur VI.

Soul Calibur

I’ve been playing Soul Calibur games since SCII. I’ve enjoyed them a great deal. My favorite character in the franchise is Setsuka.

Soul Calibur V is where I had big complaints. The excuse of a time jump to change the roster conveniently meant most of the female roster “needed” to be changed while most of the male roster got to remain. Including the removal of Sophitia and Taki. To Taki’s exclusion, the director claimed she was “too old” to be a ninja, yet he saw no problem with Mitsurugi, Siegfried, or Raphael returning. I played Lost Swords, but I determined that I wouldn’t play another Soul Calibur entry until Sophitia and Taki were brought back.

Current status: Soul Calibur VI just recently came out, and it brought back Sophitia and Taki, and gave them some of the respect they should’ve gotten during SCV. As such, I own this game. I’m playing it right now. 

Resident Evil

Like most people, I started with Resident Evil 2. I was never a huge fan, but I followed along with main entries up to and including Resident Evil 5.

Then Resident Evil 6 happened. A supposed “anniversary” title, it excluded Jill and Claire completely, while putting Chris and Leon on a pedestal. Other projects began to make it abundantly clear that the current team fanwanks over Chris and Leon while refusing to acknowledge the value of Jill and Claire. I can say so, so much on this, but I’ll refrain for brevity sake. I determined that after RE6, I would only buy something if it starred Jill or Claire, until they got to be the stars of a main numbered entry again.

Current status: Capcom still hasn’t done it, so this rule is still in effect. Notably, I’m skipping the Resident Evil 2 “remake” because it’s become abundantly clear that the team is treating it like a Leon fanwank with Claire included rather than an actual remake.

DC Comics

Of the two “big” superhero entities, DC is the one I grew up with. It was mostly Batman growing up, because that’s what DC was focusing on the most. But I still loved Superman a lot. I never really got to watch any of the cartoons. Never seemed to catch them. It was mostly about films. I came to greatly enjoy Harley Quinn as I got older, to the point where I read her first (in my mind only) solo series.

The first DC “reboot” of the 2010s is where things changed. I had huge problems with how they changed Harley Quinn. The design threw away her entire harlequin theme, and all the fun it meant, to make her basically look like a clown girl Joker knockoff. I dropped everything DC at that point with plan to only engage in stuff that included actual Harley Quinn until she came back.

Current status: In rare cases where I find out actual Harley Quinn is involved in something, I check it out. I watched the Batman and Harley Quinn animated movie (which sucked) in theaters, for example. The only exception I’ve made so far was the Wonder Woman film, to support female-led superhero films. I do see that there’s going to be an animated series with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. If that’s the start of bringing back actual Harley, I may be returning to DC soon.

Nintendo

I also grew up with Nintendo. They were the main video game provider. There’s not a lot to say in this regard.

Other M was where problems started. I actually bought, played and beat the game, and I can tell you it’s an insulting wreck. But it’s Nintendo’s behavior afterward that turned me against them. They basically blacklisted Metroid and Samus except for cases where they “had” to use her. They treated her and Metroid like a minor franchise, ignoring its anniversary, cause they didn’t want to admit they made a mistake and fix it. And there’s also Federation Force which is a whole other ball of bullshit. Nintendo’s antics there led me to refuse to buy anything Nintendo until they decided to make up for what they were doing to Metroid and Samus and treat them right.

Current status: Nintendo put out a new Metroid game and plan to release Prime 4 too. I wish I could say that’s the end of the story, but it isn’t. I’m pretty pissed still that they threw Alison Rapp under the bus for a bunch of vile assholes, and fueled more harassment in the industry. I don’t know when I’ll get Nintendo stuff again. I’m still not fucking over this.

ArenaNet

I bought and played Guild Wars when it came out. I played and enjoyed it. There isn’t a whole lot to say on this.

If you’ve watched video game news this year, you know Mike O’Brien fired Jessica Price and Peter Fries for bullshit reasons. In doing so, he fueled tons of assholes hellbent on harassing good people and forcing them out of the industry. My reaction is that I’m never touching another ArenaNet thing until Mike O’Brien is out. Because he should be forced out. He doesn’t deserve his position.

Current status: Nothing’s changed, so I’m waiting for Mike O’Brien to be gone. I don’t anticipate this being any kind of burden on me.

Disney/Star Wars/Marvel

Oooookay, this is a big ball of stuff right here. It’s gonna be hard to keep this short.

Obviously I grew up on a lot of Disney stuff, like just about anyone in the United States. Star Wars, I got into during the 90s when the original trilogy was getting released. Marvel, I saw stuff here and there but didn’t truly give a damn until 2009 when I discovered Polaris.

When Disney bought up Star Wars, they shut down Lucasarts very abruptly, with no plans whatsoever to prep the studio’s employees for its end. I found (and still find) that absolutely fucking atrocious. So, I refuse to touch Star Wars video games. I actually don’t have any criteria for engaging in Star Wars content again. Maybe that criteria will come back some day. Maybe I’ll never touch another Star Wars game. This happened in 2013, by the way.

Then Marvel. After the forced retcon on Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s parentage, I vowed to never buy or engage in anything from Marvel except content that’s either X-Men related or tied to Polaris, until the twins were Magneto’s kids again. Only exception I made was the Black Panther movie, to support minority-led films.

Now, I’m about to drop everything Disney - including X-Men content, Star Wars, ABC programs and anything else - because of their treatment of Polaris this past year. To treat Polaris like her only value exists in being a supporting character for the stories of men, then throw her into limbo while putting those men on a pedestal, fucking infuriates me. Disney does not deserve money or support, so I won’t give it to them. This will only change for me if Polaris gets a solo, mini or oneshot comic, or leads a team book again.

Current status: No plans to ever play a Star Wars game again. Everything’s on track for me to refuse to touch Disney content after this year, possibly for the rest of my life. Only exception I plan to make is Episode IX, just to wrap up the sequel trilogy I’ve been watching.

In conclusion, I have a lot of companies that I refuse to play, watch, read anything they offer. Sometimes, like with Soul Calibur and Ubisoft, things change for the better and I come back to it. But most of the time, it’s like Squeenix or Disney. A company treats franchises or people like shit, they do nothing to fix their mistakes, I continue to not give them money or support because they don’t deserve it.

A lot of people think this is a huge burden. It’s not. The truth is that in our world, there’s a looooooooooooooot of creative content out there. If I wanted to, I could spend the rest of my life reading all the fanfiction written just today. I’m watching 5 TV shows right now that aren’t tied to Disney, more than I watched during the 2000s. I’ve recently played Far Cry 5, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Soul Calibur VI, and I’ll soon by playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

I don’t need these companies to find entertainment. In some cases, I can even make my own. I can create things that these companies refuse to make. These companies need me more than I need them, because they need money to stay in business, and my money plays a role in that.

That’s my long post.