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sillyfudgemonkeys · 10 months ago

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the thing is all you do about p3re is salt about it. I'm disappointed by a lot about p3re too but I don't go as far as you do and be a downer all the time. you've been accusing it as a p5 game with the p3 skin which i think is disingenuous, because they were giving p5-esque updates to a 2002 game, a game over 2 decades old

im just happy that you're not one of those people who are hoping that p3's ending would be changed.

there are people saying that the answer is a retcon to the p3 game because mc did not die in p3vanilla and the answer retconned that.

but anyways... im just sad that everytime you post about p3re its all just salt.

Kinda feeling bad for P5 atm, since I've been dragging that dead horse for much longer. TT0TT But I think you're right, even tho I don't talk about it as much, but I've been mostly dragging P3R......

I'm going to be honest........as they come out with stuff, I haven't found a whole lot to be happy about:

(addressing the P5 point here since it goes hand in hand The P5 comparison, and the one I have the most issues with are portions of the UI (I still never published that damn asks did I? shit damn it, well it's buried I'll have to get it at a different time). There's def gameplay features they've added (but more or less I expected them, and actual gameplay changes I'm.....a bit more lenient towards tbh, battle systems will evolve and I accept that). Plus there's the new SEES outfits which are.....very P5 coded....and a strange "we gotta add this!" type of change (aren't we "honoring P3"? why do they NEED a new outfit? Why can't we just have a costume called "PT costume" like the PT got a "Shadow OPs" costume?). THAT BEING SAID....I don't think I've brought up the P5 comparison since the SEES outfits tbh. At least...I thought I was more focused on P3R itself lately...... I should go back and compare it and see just how much influence of P5 I think is on there now that the initial shock has wore off. (that being said....I tried glancing through my blog and....I don't talk about P3R often on here ;w; It's like maybe 70%neg, 30% pos/neutral? I think the last big blow up was the lack of the concept art being on the train? I feel like I've been very passive and silent about the game for the most part....not even talking about a lot of the ad art/trailers/interviews I dunno I just don't find I'm interacting with it much so TT0TT I get I'm being salty but I think P5 deserves to say "maybe ease off a bit yeah?" than P3R atm? sorry if it's been overly salty for you tho anon 😔)

They removed my fav MC. I love P3MC don't get me wrong, but I prefer FeMC. That being said, I love seeing them as a packaged deal. The work off each other so well. I hate how Atlus treats her fans it SUCKS. And IF we are lucky, she might be DLC???? I'm pissed at Atlus' DLC practices already, but this is a kick in the teeth. ;w;

They removed the Answser and Metis. Do I think the Answer is perfect? No. Do I have some issues with it? Yeah. But I love Metis, and good and bad, it's a big part of P3's story. And us not getting that is......really bad imo. Plus the possibility of MORE DLC???

They removed key gameplay features. Tired mechanic and split up mechanic being the biggest two (possibly reversals? I'm not sure on that, I don't mind reversals or even a play on the jealousy mechanic, I just think it needs to be reworked TT0TT). Two mechanics I loved and wished were in P4/5 tbh..... so yeah a bit salty, I've always felt it was a key feature of P3.

Still fucking DLC (not just P3R's fault, but still not a plus...or should I say negative?). And then the costumes aren't as good? TT0TT Thank god for the in game ones. orz At least they aren't making me pay for THOSE. DX

I....am not a fan of the new models and lighting. Soejima got me into Persona (I prefer the 25th anni art styles over this P3Rs), it's not that it's shit I just have a preference..... The lighting however.... and I've always kinda like Vanilla/FES's lighting scheme. There's parts of P3 that I just really love (the ones where they have special lightening and the rainbow). And P3R's.....just hurts my eyes ngl. TT0TT It's flat or bloomed, and then the models will look plasticy, it's just an assault on my eyes orz

Music.....I think I'm the kindest to the music, esp when covering the legacy songs. I don't mind covers. As long as I get an option to play the OG (I like options) then I'm fine. Edit: LOL NEVER MIND APPARENTLY THAT'S NOT THE CASE???? TT0TT WTF ATLUS??? I have some mixing issues (or Azumi's cursive singing) but even tho I labeled it as "salt." It's more of a "minor complaint" compared to other stuff on the list if I'm honest (maybe it'll sound better on my TV who knows)

Still no definitive version. It's related to FeMC/Answer, but really.....the damn questionnaires always listed Vanilla/FES/P3P. I know the biggest argument for a P3 remake was a definitive version. We still don't have that! I've been wanting one since before P3P was released! I knew this would be an issue! TT0TT

Maybe my salt is a bit more apparent because.....I love the originals......I mean I do have issues with them (Yukari/Junpei my be-loatheds), nothing's perfect, everyone has gripes about something even if they love it (*motions to the P4 fandom*). But with the new voice cast/possible translation (and new events) I'm willing to give them a chance (again.....like I always do orz).

I def don't want P3's ending to change. That being said, I'm not gonna be surprised if it does. "This might as well fucking happen" is my mentality atm (at best it's confirmed P3R is a new timeline, which I can dig but......is it really so hard to have one definitive ver???? orz). TT0TT If atlus really wants to keep using P3MC in future games (or heaven forbid FemC to an extent!) they really should play into the multi timeline. Might not be the P3MC we know as the SEES leader, but it's still a variation of him. (this way we keep the OG message in tact, explore/expand the lore, and still get to see an old face without "time warping/travel dream sequence" for the 1000th time, love those but moving forward is also good too TT0TT).

The answer.....didn't..... retcon..... TT0TT Ahhhh this is why the made the Answer, because people were confused. orz C'mon Atlus bring back the Answer! You've been screwing it over both in anime/movie and the manga like c'monnnnnn!!!! ;w;

*inhales* All that being said. I'm just weary. I'm hoping the end product is going to be a lot better than than it looks atm (and that's why I'm going to give it a chance, the complaints I have are from the previews). P3R has been in the perpetual state of "we're so back/it's so over" for me TT0TT It's tiring. And I'm just trying to keep my expectations on the ground (I've already been kicked and then kicked while I'm down with FeMC/Metis, I'd rather stay down until I know it's safe to get back up ;w;)

But there's been a few things that have been......highlights.

Hermit seems to be the same with all the emojis and such (I don't think they are voiced which is both sad and fun, cause I like trying to act out the L33T speak myself)

I think Female SLs have had a strong/confirmed leak that they have a friend route (please! TT0TT god I've wanted this so much!)

While I didn't get the option of SLing my male teammates ;w; I am getting episodes (which is in the vein of that and other stuff I've wanted!) AND there might be some big stuff with Strega which is also something I wanted! (as afraid as I am for flanderization, at least we're getting this!)

More Aigis/MC good stuff (at least in full 3D)

Midori's tweets are unfortunately giving me SOME hope for FeMC/Answer DLC. (unfortunate because it's DLC and cause I dunno if me hoping is good for my health atm)

There's some new songs that I like (even with my minor complaints)

we're getting a BMG randomizer???? Yay????? (I'm excited just confused TT0TT)

Tartarus looks decent, I'm hoping I like the gameplay loop even tho they've cut stuff I love! I'm hoping it's fun to explore!

I like the new upgrades to the presentation for the minor stuff (going to the arcade and such).

I like SOME of the design/UI choices (the white figures remind me a lot of the opening)

OP song is.......ok, pretty visuals. I like the visuals the most. (FES's song is still my fav tho)

As much as I'm resistant to idea (lots of pros and cons, so I'm very conflicted), a part of me is kinda hoping it's a new timeline ngl. I'm just afraid of what.......that entails tho. Like if it's a new timeline, it would explain some....differences and that would be cool. But at the same time I'm....afraid of them changing the ending. I guess I'm preemptively trying to soften the blow in case it happens?

I guess the confliction is "exploring something new" vs "actually honoring the original work????" (which I'm not really feeling they are doing atm).

I dunno, if they wanted to just do a new timeline experimental thing I'd rather they ruin/mess with P4. As someone who prefers P4 Vanilla and can easily just play that as my definitive version, I would've been more down with them messing with P4, and keeping P1/2/3 more faithful and creating a definitive version. Wait...."new timeline"....uhoh *opens up new post* Theory time ;w;

But...yeah I'm sorry anon. I didn't think I was posting about it THAT often tbf (I think the most I've said is on twitter and it's mostly been about the models/lighting fksjkldja but even then I don't think it was THAT often either).

Who knows, maybe I'll like P3R when it releases! Or maybe I'll ignore it and jus stick with FES/P. We'll find out later I guess. TT0TT

#p3r salt #silly asks #silly answers #silly salt #don't worry i have issues with P4 too maybe not the same as other's #(it's probs why I prefer playing the vanilla ver of P4)

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ironwoodatl01 · 3 years ago

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RWBY Review - Start to Finish -

RWBY VOL 1; CHAPTER 2 -

We ended on the line ‘Better shows were canceled for far less unforgivable sins on our last episode.’

There is a second part to this, which goes;

‘But a show has at least one season before something (that) drastic happens.’

I should have qualified that last statement because;

I know, I should have qualified my statement.

Moving on.

Chapter 2: The Shining Beacon -

Picking up from the airship ride upon which Chapter 1 ended, Chapter 2 begins with Ruby Rose taking her first steps onto Beacon Academy and fangirling about the weapons borne by the other students accompanying Ruby to Beacon Academy.

After being abandoned by her sister, Yang, whom we met on the airship. Ruby then meets three characters; Weiss, Blake, and Jaune Arc.

Bonding with Jaune Arc, Ruby makes her way into Beacon proper where the first thing we see of the school is an auditorium. Ozpin gives a speech, and Glynda tells everyone to spend the night in the Great Hall and prepare for Initiation.

During the ‘Slumber Party’ Ruby catches up with Blake, where Ruby then reveals that she loves books. Just like the mysterious, raven-haired beauty Ruby and Yang are attempting to befriend. Despite committing the cardinal sin of interrupting someone while they are reading, Blake seems to appreciate Ruby’s attempts at friendship but decides to call it a night when Weiss appears.

Building upon Chapter 1 -

In the vein of being creative, reviews from this point on will always build upon the last review of the previous chapter. A narrative is not cogent on individual scenes but on how individual scenes build upon each other, and therefore any review of RWBY should be taken in the context of what previous episodes show.

This is especially true since RWBY isn’t a ‘Monster-of-week’ story but a continuous story about Ruby Rose and her adventures.

Chapter 2 chooses to expand on the Huntsman storyline by focusing on Ruby’s entrance into Beacon after she was given a chance to be at Beacon by Ozpin. We learn more about Ozpin and his place at Beacon, we get a clearer picture of what Dust is capable of, and the Faunus issue takes a backseat to Ruby’s character development and relationship building with her schoolmates at Beacon.

However, Ruby Rose’s development is rather inconsistent. Ruby portrays multiple, contradictory character traits which cause Ruby to feel like a blank slate. Adapting herself to reflect the traits of better-developed characters instead of being a character herself.

The dialogue and exposition throughout the episode also make it feel like I’m being reintroduced to plot elements discussed in the first episode, making the narrative so far feel tedious.

In fact, it may be better if Chapter 1 was a prologue or a trailer, while Chapter 2 becomes Chapter 1. This is because most of the plot elements introduced in Chapter 1 were better introduced with a more cohesive narrative in Chapter 2.

What I (genuinely) liked -

Dust -

The scene where Ruby Rose knocks over Weiss’s Dust Cases was my favorite introduction to Dust. The scene was simple and established what we needed to know about Dust for now; It’s volatile, powerful, and produces elemental effects when it explodes.

The introduction also serves multiple goals; establishing Ruby’s clumsiness, Weiss’s schtick as having more than make-up powder in her suitcases, and the relationship between Ruby and Weiss. Ruby’s impetuous energy, and Weiss’s cautious uptightness in regards to her personal items and space.

It is also interesting to see a weapon being introduced in a way that does not involve fighting.

Jaune Arc -

At this stage in the story, Jaune is my favorite character. His simple design is elegant, his weaponry is a breath of fresh air compared to Ruby’s over-designed Crescent Rose, and Jaune feels like the kind of guy you could go out for a beer with. Which is something that writers tend to overlook when it comes to character design. Would your character be someone the reader would go out for a drink with?

Ozpin’s Speech -

Ozpin’s speech raises a question that sets up one of RWBY’s … themes. In the opening narration, Ozpin brings up ‘a Simple Soul’ as the key to victory. Though we don’t really know what is a ‘simple soul,’ it can be assumed that the story of Ruby Rose will tell us as it unfolds. So that’s fair.

In this episode’s speech, Ozpin brings up the question of ‘purpose’. The Huntsmen are at Beacon to get knowledge, but they fail to ask themselves ‘why’ they want this knowledge. Why do you want to be a Huntsman? Implying a question that requires a good answer if one wants to succeed at being a Huntsman.

The purpose is something that most modern stories tend not to explore. Why does a character want to do something? Protagonists and Heroes tend not to have this well established. The Hero fights the Villain because that’s what Heroes do, but why does a Hero want to specifically fight this Villain? How would fighting the Villain help the Hero achieve his goals? Villains tend to have this better explained, which may be why audiences identify with the Villains more.

But in RWBY’s case, this question is not answered yet. But it is a question that the show intends to address, and I think it is a pertinent question.

Another pertinent question is how I’m going to piss off RWBY fans this time.

Problems with the Chapter 2 -

Like Harry Potter, to an extent, RWBY’s main problem is Ruby. A special girl is marked out for a special destiny, and we have to know how special she is at the expense of more interesting characters like Jaune.

One example of this is when Ruby meets Blake and they have a discussion about books.

The conversation is skewed to explore more of Ruby instead of Blake by taking something that is uniquely Blake’s, her love of books, and having Ruby explain Blake’s hobby to her face. We learn about Ruby’s preferred genres, we learn what books mean to Ruby, and how they motivate her to be a Huntress. Forgetting that earlier on, Ruby’s thing was weapons.

Ruby’s thing for weapons was established at the beginning of the episode with a sequence explaining how weapons are an extension of the Huntsman and are thus cool. This in and of itself contradicts Ruby’s first interview in Chapter 1 where she states that being a Huntsman is cool because they are romantic and cool. At the same time referring to weapons a grand total of zero times.

One could argue that this love of weapons and romantic stories about heroes are linked to Ruby’s love of Huntsmen in general. Ruby does state that;

“As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves …”

Which could work, and I like that. So what do weapons have to do with stories? It is a jarring personality thing that takes away from the unique trait of other characters and serves to make Ruby a fence-sitter. A character tries to be like every other character, and in the process loses her character.

Funnily enough, this is why Jaune is a more interesting character than Ruby. He is his own character. A boy trying to live up to his family legacy by becoming a Huntsman, because that is how he would make his mark in a bloodline containing warriors and heroes.

We don’t have Ruby Rose telling Jaune how SHE is part of a family line of ancient warriors, and thus showing how special she is. Jaune is allowed to keep what makes him unique, and he thus maintains the quality that makes him an interesting character at this point of the narrative.

Conclusion -

I like Chapter 2. It interestingly introduces several interesting concepts and is a good start to the narrative of RWBY.

However, Ruby Rose takes too much screen time, and the Chapter would have been better suited to being ‘Chapter 1’ instead.

#rwby #rwby review #rwby fandom #rwby v1 #writing #reviews #rwde #anti rwby #pro james ironwood #pro ironwood

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stry-someone-to-remember-you · 4 years ago

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Plan(ed) to Have Something Ready, By The Ball Drop &/or Tomorrow!!! If Everything Works out...

Hey Everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!!

Wow, this is the second message without any art added or anything... LOL... Seems odd really to do this without having something up by now... By the way, yes the current avatar pic is related to the comic as you’ll come see soon. It’s and early sketch so some kinks aren’t worked out in the current image. But it was the one I was ready to have when I made this blog so there was at least something...

So as you probably can see by this title, I do plan on having something posted... I just don’t know to what extent. Due to some family drama, and continually piling on work I wasn’t able to get my Christmas Pic out to you guys, which was just a static scene with a few of the characters to get us started here. But... well family got in the way, continually decorating till Christmas day... a lot of things going on, bickering (though we all love each other) it’s just... you know life. I fully expected this as well, which is why I promised something before New Years, but didn’t specify as to what.

I postponed that idea to be released today or tomorrow, after seeing how I was completely unable to get to the work by Christmas Eve. But, by the looks of the progress I made on it and my families continually need of me till we get some things done in this house (that always has something to be done in it... LOL, at least things are coming fairly together). So lets just say, I may not have anything out by tomorrow. But with hopes I want to have something out. So We’ll see. I could release early the character sketches. But I want to keep this blog clean as possible, so I feel releasing the character profiles, cards and blogs together prior to the Prologue, would fit better and keep this page having a cleaner look to it at the start.

Maybe even by midnight tomorrow PST I could have something... But that again depends. I need to clean stuff for the internet/cable guy and I’m seriously allergic to dust... So the next few days I may be in an almost sickly comatose state regardless of the precautions I take. If dust gets kicked into the air at all and isn’t properly vacuumed up, than I’m often sick for days... I feel like all I’ve been doing the whole month is cleaning or working story wise on this comic... Mostly cleaning if you ask me, but at least after Saturday things should be more relaxed and I can have a better work schedule planned out. So yeah, that’s my life...

But DIDNT’ WAN TO LEAVE YOU HANGING with this Negative Nancy Talk ;D ;P ;D lol....

I want to tell you what I have so far:

I have the Christmas Image at least with the basic building blocks to complete it. Like I’ve drawn where I want things, but not detailed anything... So that’s why it may be a day or so... Technically its a Happy Holidays and New Years piece, but with the Christmas Tree in it I have the habit of calling it such...

I may have plans to detail it a bit more then I plan on having the comic, but that also depends on things. I may just leave it in the same style and not fully decked out to make it easier to finish...

~Several Characters for the beginning have their final forms created. These are major characters that will be scene in the prologue. I’m just having to figure out out little things with background characters in some instances.

~The prologue is almost completely written out. I had a change of heart a week ago on some things and had to change it around, which is why the written format for the prologue isn’t complete as it initially was. I just felt some things didn’t fit, so I added and took away some things so it flows better and also works both fanfiction wise for the story, but easily mixes for the Ask AU... I also have at least the beginning portion of the Intro script written, the parts unaffected by the changes. However, parts of the intro will be written out, depending on the questions you ask the characters in this prologue so these portions I’m leaving open on purpose. It’s the plot driven portions I’m mentioning that I’ve changed slightly. ;) I have fun plans for the prologue. Remember this story has a clear direction I’m taking it with plot. But the Ask portion will be a part of it, I have such a fun way of Ask’s being tied into the plot driven story, and it will change depending on the context, person and setting which makes this really fun to plan out.

-With that said, here’s an early heads up, that for Ask Questions, I will allow any sort of asks, but if it has potential to spoil a part of the story, then I won’t answer it. Alongside this, I’ll allow Anon magic to a small degree. I won’t include Asks that like spoil something for a character, or tell the character where someone is, give away what someone else is doing to another character, etc... Unless it may fit the context, but generally I won’t use these types of asks. I will allow Anons to appear occasionally rather then just be unseen voices, as I have fun ways of incorporating Anons into the story that also works with different points in the plot. I will accept things like... say a dog or cat to appear for ex. amount of asks. I already know who they’ll be and have been planning out their designs, but I may draw the line at other animals (e.g. horses, fish, racoons, squirrels, lizards, etc.) Although, I do really love rabbits, I chose to make it concise to just two animals that if asked could appear. It’s not because I can’t draw them but I don’t want things getting out of hand. Types of anon magic I’m not going to use if put in the Ask portion, are things like giving people certain powers or items that may completely effect the tone or plot of the story, accept maybe if I did a non-canon AU to this au for fun one day. I will go more in depth in the general rules later. In no way is this to discourage anyone from asking such things. I may set reminders at times if I get to much of something. But, in general I’ll do what I can to make this a fun Ask blog all the same.

~The Larger Summary, I promised like a trailer would be in the comic form I have rendered the Script for, and have two slides so far drawn out, just not completed. (for the time I didn’t have around the Holidays compared to normally I actually surprised myself with this)

~The story itself is really coming together, I already have a starting and stopping point (which I had prior to this blog) as it will have several Acts and Arcs, some which have greatly changed and take on new depth since the point I started this blog. The themes and story in general are drawn out pretty well. I don’t have all the chapters I’d want fully written. As I have my plan, but I also want to get the prologue in first, just to see if there’s anything I should change with my concept. It’s just a precaution, something I’ve learned well when taking on something new. So I don’t have things that are written in stone and hard to change if the form I’m hoping to take doesn’t work out and needs to be retooled or something. But these are minor and shouldn’t change the overall scope and plot I’m taking this story on either.

~I’ve created several of the character bios, many in fact are already written in true Henry Stickmin fashion. But as I took inspiration to make this into a AU as well, I will possibly make both the bio cards and show a static shot of the characters alongside it or something... It’s an idea, but I want this to also be the easier comic. But, considering that I’ll always have a static shot I use as reference for any character I make, this is what makes this more realistic to occur as well. ~I’ve nearly drawn out all the characters for the intro portion. And already know how I’ll handle Anon’s in the story. In the Prologue itself, I’ll actually have you Anon’s being referenced as audience members in a conference of sorts. Think of it like those conferences when a new Apple or Microsoft product is first advertised as something new to the news conference, those big rotunda’s where someone's being interviewed and presenting the hot new item. Think of the opening to the prologue being something like this scenario. So the questions directed at the character in there, who... *cough* I will introduce later after I fully render both their character profile and have their character bio(s) fully done. Which considering how fun and easy it’s been to do this so far shouldn’t be to long now... Although to keep from getting questions to soon on them, I may hold off on posting the Characters and Bio’s till I have that Intro/Trailer completed... I’m still considering which to do first actually. But top on my list out of all of these is having my cover art for the top completed. That’s something I admit though I have the layout I have hardly started on and should focus on first.

~I’m also taking close looks at how to properly make the rules for this group. When I posts either the Character Bios, Holiday Pic, OR the Trailer Comic... Maye even just the cover art... Then I will try to have out an official Rules list. The one I have on the group posts is just general stuff... But I’m reconsidering some rules I already wrote... Basically keep things family friendly, be kind an courteous, nothing vulgar or disturbing.

I may change this from a PG-13 comic to maybe PG-15. I’ve realized recently, there are some points that some characters do swear... sometimes more then once. I’m not someone who talks with vulgarity myself, but I sure can write characters with it.... Let’s just say I’m going to see if in those scenes I might just bleep out words and see if the dialogue still comes through. But, I dunno... LUCKILY, we don’t have to worry about many of those scenes till way further into this comic. So lucky for either of us, this isn’t a major concern at the moment. And on the plus side it’s not the crudest words I could have chosen so... it may still work as a PG-13 work... I’ll make this decision soon as possible.

Another reason for the sudden change, came as I realized as the story goes, and even in early chapters there will be scenes where blood is shown and physical mortal danger and peril is experienced by the characters. I do have heavy theming sometimes, later on it may seem constantly about. As this story is heavily Drama/Mystery and some suspense based. As the story progresses it will become less Drama/Mystery and more based around the drama/suspense itself. This will obviously be some more intense scenes that showing less blood would allow me to make PG-13, however I also don’t want to undercut the certain tones using representations of a mortal wound would bring. I also want to look at things like these future scenes realistically. Which is why I’m mostly considering changing this story to a PG-15 or at least more certain I am. I just don’t want people shocked that I’m doing this. I don’t feel this story will be R, there was a time where I heavily considered it. But for once I decided no, I didn’t want that. I just didn’t want to open the door for scenes I didn’t intend to have in this story. There will be heavy themes that my have TW for some people. But I didn’t want some TW’s that having a R rated story could potentially have. I mean certain themes people are free to write fanfictions for, and depending on the content can make art for. But again this will be family friendly group... As You can see I’m considering more then a little here when it comes to the official rules. These details will be followed up on the official rules post.

~~~~~~

Now I apologize for the length.

The structure of this and the previous Authors Notes will probably fall under their own category for length. I’ll work to make sure posts in the future won’t be so long and hard to read. It is early morning for me when I woke to write this, and I found once much of the day passed that I still wanted to include the stuff I did into this update.

I have more to tell you, but I think this post has spurned the energy in me out. Anything that I missed in this post, I’ll try to remember to update in the next post (hopefully after I get some art on here). What I can’t do at the moment is promise dates right now till I’m more certain of schedule to work on this or can promise that my general allergies won’t cause me to delay this at all. But I can confirm that I should have several things coming out this next month, including the comic Prologue I hope. Depending on the traction the comic and fanfic gets, I may try to work on it quickly, or take my time with it. I may do a mix of both as my perfectionist self won’t let me just shoot something out without giving it my all first. I’m shushing that side slightly so this comic will be easier on me then the more detailed one I have planned. All the same, I’m planning to work on this one more at the moment till I can get an idea of my work flow. Sometimes the easiest route of work is better for planning, rather then diving head first into the deep end right away. You don’t learn to swim by jumping head first into the ocean. Piece of advice that it took years for me to learn myself ;). Anyways, I figured since I did promise something hopefully by today or tomorrow, I’d give you a formal update... Also... Well I can’t promise that updates won’t be like this in the future. I’ll try to keep them concise. But as people who know me, well have learned when it comes to personally talking I tend to write or talk out epistle. So... When I give updates, I may have lengthy ones... I’ll try my best to keep this side of me out of updates, if I can help it. Anyways Happy New Years Everyone!!! I hope everyone's Christmas and Holidays were extra special, despite the state of the world!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE AND DAY!!! Sincerely, <3 (Mod) Sweet Heart Blaze

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murfeelee · 5 years ago

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TS4 Werewolves - Rant Alert

I got this one comment that sent me off on a whole tangent, so I decided to reply to it separately.

slade-the-neko replied to your photoset “The Wolves:This world is slowing down How can I fight it? How can I?...”

Dang Murf, that's very impressive! Really makes me wish Sims 4 had werewolves. I'll definitely try porting the Skyrim model to TS4 if they ever add them.

Y’all know TS4 is my trigger -- wtF is EA even doing over there? That Tiny Living Stuff Pack was a JOKE, like....seriously? o_O For as much money as they’re swindling y’all for TS4, EA’s Sims team is creatively BANKRUPT. ZERO innovation, intuition or inspiration.

EA just takes popular concepts/crazes like the Tiny House Movement, Baby Yoda, and Harry Potter, and waters it down to the barest of minimums: tiny homes with huge AF Murphy beds instead of bunk beds or convertible futons/sofa-beds; a decorative Baby Yoda you can’t even interact with; no school of magic sims can go to (and no magic for kids YET). I’m so tired of them!

People keep comparing RoM to TS1′s Makin Magic, and I keep going WHERE? I said in my initial trailer reaction for RoM that it made zero frikkin sense for the RoM magic land to have that perma-nighttime full moon, without even bothering to have werewolves in the so-called realm of magic.

RoM would’ve been the PERFECT chance to add werewolves. What better way to have a magical pack than to also introduce werewolves as the local denizens of Glimmerbrook’s forests. Missed opportunity, EA. (－‸��)

They could’ve added a werewolf household living in the woods, that your sim either befriends or gets bitten by, so your sim goes to the Magical Realm to either find a cure for lycanthropy (for the werewolves or for THEMSELVES if they’re bitten and are gonna turn in a couple days), or wolfsbane poisoning if one of the wolves is made sick by the brand new harvestable Wolfsbane *cough cough!* (Wolfsbane comes in the Vampires GP, but they could‘ve totally made more types of Wild Wolfsbane, Yellow Aconite, Purple Monkshood, etc.).

Either one would give your sim a REAL impetus and incentive to go learn magic and talk to the RoM residents and mess with potions & alchermy. Which is another reason I said (I’ve BEEN saying) I wanted HEDGE WITCHES, who could do HERBOLOGY. U_U

The RoM Game Pack NEEDED to be its own Expansion -- it wasn’t a realm at all; it was a Diagon Alley ripoff and everybody knew it. HELLO, EA! Part of worldbuilding is creating a EFFING STORY that gives your game a FRIKKIN PURPOSE. EA didn’t go the distance at all; they did the mere basics of adding magic to TS4, with a lot of style but not much substance. But ironically they did the same with the mermaids, which did get their own EP, and everyone agrees that TS4′s Island Living was worse than TS3′s Island Paradise, so wtf. (－‸ლ)

But I doubt werewolves would get their own Game Pack like the Vampires & Spellcasters -- EA would do Faeries/Elves before wolves, I suspect, cuz faeries are in a sense easier. Wings, mushrooms & flowers, glittery magic, LOTR-esque art nouveau inspired furniture, etc -- everyone knows the standard faery.

But if TS4 werewolves got a pack all to themselves it would force EA to effing give a crap about lycan culture & lore, and the complexities of things like pack dynamics (alphas, betas, omegas, etc), moon cycles, transformations, lupine physiology & locomotion; diet & hunting (adding new flora & fauna), etc.

While heavy in gameplay expansion, with werewolf-specific abilities, interactions & animations, what other stuff could you stuff into a werewolf stuff pack? Y'all saw how in TS3 the Supernatural EP didn’t give wolves a single bloody thing other than their CAS stuff -- for build/buy mode wolves got ZILCH. We didn’t get busted furniture or shattered windows or blood splatters or more fur patterns -- NOTHING. Everything in build/buy mode was for witches & faeries--all wolves could do was tear the crap up with their claws.

And even their CAS stuff was lackluster - no hairy skins, makeup or tails, but we got body hair & face sliders, claws, fangs, etc.

I like TS1's werewolf design from Makin Magic the most, since their heads/skins looked like wolves.

TS2′s was the biggest downgrade in terms of the LOOK of werewolves, in that it was just a skin.

If EA does do wolves for TS4, I’d hope they make it so the werewolves look like effing WOLVES. At least let them turn into animals, like the ones in TS2 PETS. (WHY TF was TS2 the only time Sims had ACTUAL magical pets!? >_< TS3 has dogs! TS4 has dogs! DO IT ALREADY.)

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Considering the cartoony PG13 angle EA insists on keeping TS4, I don’t imagine they’d EVER make wolves look like @camkitty2’s amazing werewolf mod at MTS:

And certainly not the scary Skyrim werewolves that I converted.

Or even the ones from EA’s other property, Dragon Age (which are effing ugly, IMO).

(The ugly anthropomorphic bipedal version, btw, not the more wolf-like version.)

TBH, If TS4 did werewolves at all I BET YOU MONOPOLY MONEY the template EA’d use would be a lot like Bigby Wolf’s design from the Wolf Among Us video game:

Bigby goes through 4 phases, from man to gradually being an actual wolf in his 4th phase/Final Form. His 3rd phase has a face that not really wolf-like so much as Jekyll/Hyde; beastly enough that you pretty much know Oh that’s a werewolf they’re doing, without it actually looking like any animal.

It’s big and scary with muscles & claws & hair, but cartoony enough that it’s not drastically different from a regular sim. EA’s wack enough to pull something like that, rather than going the extra mile to give us the kind of Skyrim-esque werewolves many simmers want.

Or the full-shift magical WOLF that I personally want.

Don’t get me wrong; Bigby has a great design for Wolf Among Us, made by AA developers Telltale (who do The Walking Dead video games). But Electronic fArts is a AAA developer, with billion dollar budgets, massive teams & bookoo resources. But by god EA’s the laziest AAA company around; just the kind of twats to do AA level work with AAA finances, as we’ve seen in TS4 and TS3.

Bigby’s 2nd phase is basically what TS3 did for werewolves, with the scrunched up brow/nose, pointed ears, hairier face, etc.

This kind of werewolf design is fine, but it leaves A LOT to be desired, especially if it’s the only form you see in certain werewolf franchises. It reminds me too much of how Teen Wolf makes werewolves -- basically as hairier vampires from Buffy (which makes sense). But come on EA, go the distance; go FULL WOLF SHIFT or go home.

In Eastern Europe werewolves ARE vampires/witches -- they’re connected to nature magic, druids & wicca, neopaganism, etc: magic runes & symbols, stones & metals, scyring, bonfire festivals (having Celtic holidays would be so cool!), enchanted woods & nemetons & ley lines, the effect of moonlight on water #TuckEverlasting style, shamanistic sacred animal totemic power and such. Tap into that tribalistic Slavic, Norse & Celtic lore on werewolves, EA, you effing COWards!

In TS1′s Makin Magic and TS3′s Supernatural, witches and werewolves came in the same pack, and had gameplay elements tied to each other -- in TS1 it’s the Beauty & the Beast charm that magical sims can use, and in TS3 werewolves can be used as witches’ assistants to Gather harvestables/collectables used in alchemy potions. So for TS4, having werewolves in RoM would’ve made SO MUCH sense. Hell, they could’ve fit into the Vampire GP, too -- why was wolfsbane even IN that pack? o_O

So if TS4 adds werewolves, I hope they add something NEW to the lifestate, and do more research into other portrayals & iterations of werewolves.

Everyone knows about Norse Berserkers (were-bears), but less attention is given to the Wolves of Odin, the Ulfhednar/Ulfhedinn (werewolves). A lot of Nordic neopagans are into them nowadays.

A werewolf GP would make it so EA would have to flesh out werewolves -- if they live in the woods, give them woodland build/buy mode CC. Let them live OFF THE GRID as technophobic naturists, cuz electronics like tvs, PCs & radios hurt their sensitive eyes & ears. They could be more modern, sure, but it would be so much cooler to have sims who only use well water and hot springs and compost toilets and woodfire ovens.

Bring back hobbies/skills like bone/woodcarving, gem cutting, basket weaving & looms, soap/candle-making, pottery, horticulture, tree-cutting/tree-hugging, animal husbandry (could you imagine werewolf shepherds? XD), sparring, (arm) wrestling, boxing, hunting, bird watching and more. Basically: fullblown medieval-rustic hunting lodge aesthetics: animal pelts, antlers, mounted taxidermy, COME ON, EA, stop being boring!

#replies #Realm Of Magic #the sims 4 #TS4 #Electronic Arts #more like electronic farts #EA you suck #like wtf #RANT ALERT #sims 3 horror #sims 3 werewolves

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frogoat · 4 years ago

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The Venom/TASM Shared Universe

I realize that the MCU Spider-Man films are popular and that Sony definitely wants to try and tie their other Spidey-related films such as Venom into that cash-cow. And judging by the Morbius trailer, it’s apparent they want you to believe those films are all interconnected. But I’m not here to debate that, because I’m a little more interested in the idea of the Venom film fitting far better within the now seeminly-defunct Amazing Spider-Man film universe.

Initially, I thought the Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Venom weren’t internally consistent with one another due to the symbiote (or science-goo, if the TASM films had continued to borrow from the Ultimate Comics, I suppose) appearing in the OSCORP vault at the conclusion of TASM2. But, no. Turns out that was only in the trailer. If you go and watch the theatrically released film itself, the moving-goo-in-a-jar is replaced by the Rhino exo-suit. Just wanted to clear that point up.

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There isn’t a whole heap of actual evidence to support the idea that the Venom film and the Amazing Spider-Man films are set within the same universe, but there is a whole heap of points to consider regarding why it *could* fit, at least at this point in time. First, the Venom film was something Sony had in the works in various shapes and forms for an extremely long time, certainly overlapping with the production of the two Amazing films and being a pet project of Avi Arad well before the films were rebooted. It’s not inconceivable that early plans were for the films to interconnect, especially when looking at the various plot threads the second Amazing Spider-Man film was loaded with, all intended to expand and spin-off into a fully-fledge film universe for Sony.

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With that in mind, the decision to change the Sinister Six teaser in Amazing Spider-Man 2 to remove the previously rendered suspicious black goo seen in the trailer might even strengthen the idea of the Venom movie being originally intended to tie-in to a TASM universe. Removing the symbiote from TASM2 means the origin of the character can remain consistent with his other worldly origins later seen in Venom without further explanation. Or maybe they had the Venom script locked and didn’t want to have to rework things too much. Either way, it provided the studio flexibility in storytelling potential.

Next, Amazing Spider-Man 2 establishes that Peter Parker does in fact work for the Daily Bugle via dialogue and messages back and forth with J Jonah Jameson. We don’t get a physical appearance of the character, but the acknowledgement of JJJ’s existence provides a nice piece of connective tissue to the Venom movie’s brief John Jameson appearance. John Jameson is an astronaut and the son of the Bugle’s famous brush-topped boss. For anyone who saw the Spider-Man: The Animated Series’ adaption of the Black Suit and Venom Saga, the Venom movie’s integration of John into the symbiote’s arrival on Earth will have come as no surprise. On a side note, I’ve always felt it was a missed opportunity for Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 not to have used a similar concept especially considering they had introduced John Jameson in the previous film. But I digress.

The familial link isn’t the only piece of circumstantial evidence either, as Eddie Brock mentions an incident that occurred in New York connected to his journalism career. While it’s not explicitly stated, if like me you like to speculate, you could easily connect this to Eddie’s comic origin of misidentifying the serial killer known as the Sin Eater which led to his career going down the drain. In fact, if you accept the viral marketing material for Amazing Spider-Man 2 as canon, Eddie worked for Jameson at the Daily Bugle around 2013 and 2014, even reporting on the capture of a certain Cletus Kassady. The viral Daily Bugle page also makes mention of Anne Weying defending Curt Connors, which unless I’m mistaken, also doesn’t contradict the events of Venom. Notably, Anne refers to the this event as ‘the Daily Globe Incident’ and implies Eddie was ‘run out of New York,’ which appears to be true despite Eddie’s protests to the contrary. That said, there are around 4 years between TASM2′s setting of 2014 and Venom’s setting which seems to be 2018, at least after a few narrative time jumps.

Moving away from canon and continuity, let’s take a detour into style and presentation. As an experiment, I want you to watch the two Amazing films and the Venom movie one after the other. Now, tell me they don’t seem to have more in common in terms of visual language, narrative direction and tone. No, they aren’t identical, the 3 films are admittedly very different but in my opinion they hold much more in common with each other than they do when compared to something like the Raimi trilogy and the current MCU Spider-Man films. A good friend of mine has called the Venom movie a great 90′s superhero/antihero film and I think that’s probably the best way to describe the approach Sony took when producing the flick. By the same token, you could see broadly different visuals to the two Amazing films, despite both having the same director, and they work mostly as character pieces (or at least were intended to be before studio interference) focused on Peter and Gwen’s relationship. Heck, even Venom is arguably a character film focusing on Eddie and the Venom symbiote’s relationship! Look at goofball Eddie’s comedic moments and compare it to Peter’s physical comedy in the scene in Oscorp form TASM2 and tell me you don’t get a similar vibe.

So, even without an actual Amazing Spider-Man 3 film, maybe we did kind of get a third entry set within the same fictional universe. Or not! You decide! Unless Sony actually decides to take a risk and make their new shared universe a little more interesting by trying to bring together these and other past films, I think this is the closest we might get. It’d be a pleasant surprise if Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man showed up at the end of Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

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noramoya · 4 years ago

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“When I was 11 years old my art teacher drummed into the class the mantra, “draw what you see, not what you think you see”. An interesting, yet ironically simplistic point that requires you to look intensively to find the finer details and not interpret something to suit your capabilities. While my art abilities aren’t exactly stellar, I have never forgotten this notion and how relevant it is to so many aspects of life in which it’s important to really look and study something and not just come to your own conclusion. When it comes to the Jackson’s allegations, there’s a lot of ‘thinking’ that takes place – “I think he might have…”, “I think this song means…”, “I think he was…” – And yet, thinking isn’t required. You just need to look intensively at what’s there, not what you might think is there...

SO, ASIDE FROM THE HEAR-SAY AND HOOPLA, WHAT IS THERE ?!

There are accusations against Jackson, there is the fact that no charges were brought against Jackson in the criminal case in 1993 (the settling of the civil suit had no impact on this), a verdict from the 2005 trial which deemed Jackson not guilty on all [14] counts and, then, there is an array of material that can thoroughly disprove the fundamentals of the accusations against him. There’s not really a grey area. The FBI had no issue concluding the same, after a 10-year investigation. Yes, there are certain things that appear unconventional – but not criminal, and these are also very clear points when understood properly and in context.

A common reply to these points is “well I believe that…” – the wonderful thing about a fact is that you don’t need to apply your own sense of belief. A fact is a fact. The heavy lifting has been done for you. That’s usually further met with “Well, I’m entitled to my opinion” – Sure, but when a fact renders your opinion null and void and can prove you wrong, if you’re insistent on sticking with your ‘opinion’ anyway, then this is not a discussion that’s being had on an intellectual level. In the absence of research, Jackson’s public battering has taken place largely on the idea that “because I said so” is all that is required to make a judgement. In a climate that seeks to convict on word alone, the allegations against Jackson are prime and none was so evident than in Leaving Neverland, a movie where two men and their families told a series of stories that on closer inspection, appear embellished, inaccurate or completely untrue. It was believed in its totality in spite of evidence proving otherwise. And yet, there remains this frankly bizarre idea that ‘Leaving Neverland’ must not be challenged !

WHY ?!!

Surely discovering it’s not truthful wouldn’t undermine the concept of a documentary and create a distrust in the industry? Surely discovering it’s not truthful wouldn’t be damaging for victims of sexual abuse? Surely discovering its not truthful wouldn’t impact the multi-million dollar lawsuit Robson and Safechuck have taken out against the Jackson Estate.

SURELY, SURELY, SURELY...

But, as long as we just ‘believe’, everything we’re told and dare not challenge the narrative pushed out by the powerhouses behind ‘Leaving Neverland’, then we can deem ourselves experts, without a single piece of evidence to the contrary. Welcome to the dawn of a new-old age!

The problem with ‘belief’ is, at what point is it not enough? At what point must somebody stand up and say, “I need to validate this.”? And, while some would rather we live in Salem 1693, where we point, accuse and burn at the stake; we do need to validate claims. It’s part of existing in a civilised society. And seeking to validate what’s being said doesn’t make you an ‘apologist’ or a ‘truther’ – that’s dictatorial language. While it’s fundamental we listen to accusations of abuse to determine the outcome, it’s frankly dangerous to replace ‘listen’ with ‘belief’. It’s also perplexing that, in 2020, this still needs to be explained.

Someone said to me “But I’d rather believe a potential liar, than support a potential rapist.” And therein lies the problem – that many would rather consider what’s going to make themselves look better in the long run. They feel that backing a ‘liar’ would offer better redemption in the face of public opinion – seemingly saying ‘we can all identify with the concept of lying so it’s easier to digest if we’re proved wrong’. But, this isn’t about saving face for you – this is about truth.

When Leaving Neverland dropped in early 2019, many looked to the Jackson Estate for some sort of rebuttal. The Estate was quick to launch a $100 million lawsuit against HBO, citing a breach of contract for the 1992 agreement the network had to screen Jackson’s Dangerous World Tour. The unprecedented figure ensured the story made major headlines around the world while firing a warning shot to other networks who consider doing the same thing.

While the Estate has insisted they’re working behind the scenes on damage control, there was a notable lack of anything in the mainstream that would help the public balance the negativity. Taj Jackson launched a crowd funder with the premise of setting the record straight and while that will no doubt serve as something that will be a staple in the fight against injustice when it comes out, something was needed immediately.

Earlier in 2019, Danny Wu had produced a YouTube video discussing the accusations put forward in ‘Leaving Neverland’ and made mention of a new witness who had previously moved in the same circles as Jackson’s first accuser. The witness happened to be Josephine Zhony, a public relations specialist who had several interacts with accuser Jordan Chandler, years after his family accused Michael Jackson of child abuse.

Initially planned as a one-on-one interview with Zhony, Wu had no intention of making a documentary. “I was in a very unique position where I was able to interview a witness who had never told her story before,” said Wu. “I realised along the process that a one on one interview was not going to be enough, it would mean a lot for the fans, but for the neutrals, it was not going to be enough. Around the time there were a series of short YouTube documentaries that were very well made, I just thought, why not take it to the next level, why not make a feature-length documentary?”

What was interesting about Wu’s approach is in the idea that “Square One” was not an ‘answer’ to ‘Leaving Neverland’, it was about going back to the source of the accusations to help understand why Jackson has been continually tied to such claims. What it demonstrates is how people are far more susceptible to the idea of Jackson being an abuser, because they keep hearing it. It’s known scientifically as the ‘Illusory Truth Effect’, which is a tendency to believe false information as correct, after repeated exposures. After over 20 years of repeated exposure, anyone coming forward with new claims against Jackson knows they are doing so, under pre-emptive conditions.

So, with “Square One’s” position, if circumstances and fact can, at the very least, create doubt upon those initial accusations, then the rest should also be viewed under scrutiny. Because”Square One” does not, emphatically or boldly, suggest Michael Jackson is innocent. It simply presents the facts of the case which allows the viewer to reach their own conclusion. And that’s exactly why we’re seeing viewers in their droves affirm their belief in Jackson’s innocence. They can see facts, they can comprehend the timeline and better still, all the information presented is information they can go and locate for themselves. There is no smoke and mirrors. There are no discrepancies in Jackson’s whereabouts. There are no claims made in buildings that didn’t exist.

It doesn’t need to force the viewer to accept Jackson’s innocence; it just needs them to comprehend the facts, which ultimately points to Jackson’s innocence. Unlike ‘Leaving Neverland’, which relies on a cognitive bias to run its narrative.

While ‘Leaving Neverland’ came in like a hurricane, attempting to destroy everything in its path,”Square One” is a quiet storm. Of its own volition, it reached number one on Amazon Prime’s documentary chart. “The goal from the very beginning was always to end up on a platform like Amazon Prime or a video-on-demand platform,” says Wu. “By the time I released the trailer, I had prematurely put out the YouTube release date. When I was in London, I met someone who worked in film and he said if I wanted to get it on Prime, I’d need to take it off of Youtube one day and that was something I really didn’t want to do. But, we made a more polished version of “Square One” with some changes and submitted it to Amazon Prime and luckily, that was the easy part. To see the success it’s had now, that’s the mind-blowing part.”

With its new home on Amazon Prime, “Square One” is finally reaching more people and, when compared to ‘Leaving Neverland’, it is really a story of David Vs Goliath. “Square One” was made by an independent filmmaker, on a shoestring budget, with no media or mainstream backing and found its way onto Amazon Prime, through Wu’s commitment to what he created. Whereas ‘Leaving Neverland’ had the financial backing of two massive corporations in the UK & U.S, prime time programming slots, Extensive PR agency support, mainstream media private screenings, and a Sundance premiere. It was further supported by interviews on all major news outlets, a post-movie special and buy-in from major entertainment industry figures. Its director bounced from channel to channel making false and inflated claims as if he was also one of Jackson’s accusers while suggesting the Jackson Estate were a powerful entity to be reckoned with. It’s fundamentally flawed to suggest the Jackson Estate are ‘powerful’ and ‘merciless’ in dealing with these accusations when ‘Leaving Neverland’ used the power and money of the aforementioned networks to bring the majority of the mainstream media to heel. And anyone who dared suggest the movie was anything other than truthful in its entirety was shut down, dismissed and silenced. That’s the power ‘Leaving Neverland’ wielded. Yet, it is now referred to as an ‘award winner’, as the giants behind HBO and Channel 4 evidently threw their weight, PR agencies and most likely their cash, to ensure a ‘win’. It won an award for ‘editing’ despite continuation issues set 17 months apart and having been exposed for manipulating footage to appear damning.

By contrast, “Square One” hasn’t received or purchased any awards because the truth doesn’t seek a glorified door-stop to stick on the mantelpiece. It’s as if nothing says “healing” quite like the constant reminder of your “experiences”, sitting above the fireplace in your lounge! If that does not demonstrate the intent of ‘Leaving Neverland’ to those who refuse to read a court transcript, then ultimately nothing will.

“Square One’s success lies in the fact it managed to achieve its listing and growing acknowledgement without buying its way into all forms of media. Like a well-constructed documentary, it relies on facts through an in-depth timeline, supported by research, key accounts and first-class journalism. It doesn’t leave anything out in favour of what would appear more convincing and it doesn’t attempt to manipulate the viewer – it just presents you with the facts. While Wu’s tactic could have been to present account after account of former Jackson friends and associates looking emotionally into the camera and regaling the viewer with tales of Jackson’s generosity and friendship; he rightly chose to spare us the emotional manipulation in favour of simply presenting the case and – here’s the best part – it can all be backed up with evidence. Which is ultimately why it continues to inspire social media statements from individuals reversing their opinion having now seen both. It provided the crucial part of the discussion that was needed, something ‘Leaving Neverland’ deliberately chose to omit – balance.

In the year since, so much has come out to disprove so many of the allegations, yet in a race to the top, it’s astonishing to me that not a single top-level journalist from a leading media outlet has thought to crack open ‘Leaving Neverland’ and address the 60+ discrepancies in the movie. It could be an award-winning story, based on research and facts, not opinion. What are they afraid of? Or, more importantly, who is preventing them? It’s also fundamental to notice that while claiming to have integrity, no mainstream journalist gave the same effort, attention or merit to “Square One”. Where was the coverage from Good Morning America? NME? Sky? CNN? TEN? All were so keen to discuss Jackson in detail just months prior, yet on the rise of “Square One”, again silence. It’s glaringly obvious Jackson is only a good topic when a lean towards guilt is central to the discussion, not a fully researched, fact-based documentary which highlights the truth behind the years of allegations.

Any mainstream journalist who gave ‘Leaving Neverland’ its 5 minutes but refuses to do the same for “Square One” is demonstrating their bias and refusal to really look into the case. And it’s somewhat understandable. If you were somebody who sat and invested four hours in a movie that reduced you to tears or invoked repulsion, admitting that you have been duped is something that many lack the will-power to acknowledge.

Instead, they’ve developed this frankly bizarre concept of ‘separating the art from the artist’ in an attempt to appear to approach the debate on an intellectual level, when in actuality it was nothing more than trying to want the best of both worlds. Those pushing this ideology wanted to be able to throw up their zombie hands to Thriller on Halloween safe in the knowledge they’d convinced others it was ok to do so because we’re enjoying ‘the art, not the artist’.

IT’S RIDICULOUS .

Anyone who thinks you could take Michael Jackson out of Thriller is probably already aboard a sailboat looking for the edge of flat earth!

If you truly believed that Michael was guilty of such heinous and monstrous things, why on earth (round, not flat) would you want to still listen to his music? And this is something Jackson’s fans have been saying all along. They don’t defend him because they ‘like his music’; the music doesn’t even come into the discussion of the accusations against Jackson, it has absolutely no weight in building the facts and evidence in the case. The major challenge “Square One”, and indeed Jackson’s Estate face is entering the battle of feelings with cold hard facts. And that doesn’t make you popular. Nobody wants to be the person telling a crying athlete who lost the race, “Sorry, but the fact is, you just weren’t fast enough!” But with allegations as serious as these, how the movie made you ‘feel’ is redundant, especially when the accused is not here to defend themselves. A quick look across much of the coverage from ‘Leaving Neverland’ was self-important op-ed pieces about how the journalist was made to ‘feel’ based on what they’d been told and not what the facts were. After all, telling your audience you’re seeking $1.6 billion from the Jackson Estate is not going to have audiences crying and marching to twitter to express their distress.

So what happens next? In the year since the release, there have been requests from the Jackson fan community for Wu to follow up “Square One” with another documentary – a question I put to Wu who insisted “I’m always very flattered when fans tweet me asking for a “Square One – Part 2”, it warms my heart that the fans place so much trust in me to do something like that, but in my opinion what makes “Square One” so special is, it’s not a rebuttal documentary and it’s not a counter documentary. We tell our own story, so I think that’s one of the reasons it has resonated with neutrals so much – it’s not been told before.” And Wu is right. Whereas ‘Leaving Neverland’ treated the public like geese being forced fed to make foie gras, “Square One” gently nudges the viewer on to the path where they suddenly realise the entire misconception they’ve been exposed to all this time. To force-feed them with yet another documentary would start to feel like agenda pushing. Additionally, Wu explains that, as an ambitious filmmaker, he’s keen to explore other topics outside of the Jackson realm and develop his craft. Asked what he sees as the legacy of “Square One”, Wu points to the change in the way we view and consume media, “we don’t have to listen to the same select voices of the news” he states “if you want to make a change and tell your story, there is an opportunity.” Additionally, he acknowledges the sheer organic force behind “Square One’s” elevation “the fans who sacrifice their time spreading the film through word of mouth, the individuals who translated “Square One” to include different subtitles, journalists who stood behind the film, the cast who stakes their career reputation to tell their stories, my two incredible associate producers who have dedicated months to researching, the legacy is theirs. They are the legacy.”

However, the most important point Wu shared, as we look at the enormous task “Square One” has taken on, was in its ability to break through the mainstream: “I would like it to be remembered for the impact that a micro-budget documentary film can have in one of the most gatekept industries.”

PEZ JAX (left) @Pezjax, on Twitter. DANNY WU (right) @dannywuyue, on Twitter.

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timeagainreviews · 5 years ago

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Sifting through the Dregs

For series twelve of Doctor Who, I have opted to take a casual approach. I've avoided spoilers as much as possible. Although I caught the trailers, and the odd press photo, I've managed to stay away from things as simple as episode descriptions, writers, or even episode titles. I want to come into each story with as little expectation as possible. This is so that I might avoid hype, both of the negative and positive varieties. So when I read the words "Part One," after "Spyfall," it was genuinely a surprise. And when I read the words "Orphan 55 by Ed Hime," I was suddenly very hopeful.

If you remember from series eleven, I was a big fan of Ed Hime's episode "It Takes You Away." I praised its brazen absurdity, likening it to something Douglas Adams may have done. The episode is rather divisive in the fandom, as some might call it one of the worst episodes ever. Obviously, I disagree. Ed Hime stands out to me as exactly the kind of writer Doctor Who needs. Someone with a bit of a taste for the absurd, while still managing to capture human moments. Ironic then, that despite my best efforts to approach the episode without expectation, the hype I would most contest with would be my own. Does "Orphan 55," live up to my expectations? Let's get into it!

As I said, Ed Hime lends a sort of mad weirdness to Doctor Who that I feel a certain section of writers possess. Think your Lawrence Mileses, your James Gosses, or even the occasional Steven Moffat. These are writers, who for better or worse understand one thing about Doctor Who- it's weird. Strangely, one of the common most aspects ignored by Doctor Who writers is the absurdity. A blue police box wrapped around an impossible machine, piloted by an ancient trickster somehow becomes mundane. Doctor Who's weirdness is an integral element that has been around since its inception. That's why when the gang gets teleported by a contest cube Graham has assembled, and the first person we meet is a furry, I feel we're already onto a good start. Especially when they just finished cleaning up the biggest calamari ever from the TARDIS floor. (Anyone else think of the Nestine Consciousness?)

Characters like "Hyphen with a 3" or "Hyph3n," remind me of some of the '80s era's odder characters. I could easily see her and her tail living in "Paradise Towers," or perhaps riding a bus in "Delta and the Bannermen." But another reason I love her is that she's not just a furry, it's part of her identity. You don't get the idea that she's an outlier like real-life Trekkie, Barbara Adams, who famously wore her Star Trek uniform to jury duty and her place of work. Instead, you get the feeling that in the future, people respect identities. To use Star Trek again, I remember watching an episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise," where the character Trip has a crisis over whether or not a girl "was a man." When you compare this to the dialogue we're having about transgender rights in 2020, you're automatically reminded that Enterprise came out in 2001. By today's standards, furries are still seeking acceptance. Seeing Hyp3n in a partial fursuit may seem absurd now, but in its own way, it's futuristic. How very Doctor Who.

Things in this future, however, aren't all progressive acceptance of our fine furry friends, there seems to be trouble in paradise. As I said, the gang is greeted by Hyp3n, a sort of porter for a relaxation destination called "Tranquility Spa." The companions immediately take to the spirit of things, as they settle in for a bit of rest and relaxation. The Doctor, of course, starts snooping around. Meanwhile, a security team of two, Kane and Vorm are responding to "another security breach." Whatever it is requires machine guns, which seems like quite a lot. And if you're like me you'll spend the next half hour trying to figure out where you've seen Kane before. I'll help you out- it was Lydia from Breaking Bad. You're welcome. I just saved you a trip to IMDb.

The next scene introduces us to a concept that will run strong within this episode- Yaz as a gooseberry. We see a couple of pensioners, Benni and Vilma, enjoying their spa getaway. Just as Benni is about to ask Vilma to marry him, Yaz stands right between them. I mean, I know the pool is for everyone, but read the vibe, Yaz. Jeez. Meanwhile, Ryan is checking out the interior of Tranquility Spa. The bar looks like the kind of place art vampires go to get lemongrass enemas. It reminded me a lot of "The Leisure Hive," with a budget, or even a more modern twist on the Centre of Leisure from "Time and the Rani. So much of this episode reminded me of classic Doctor Who.

Ryan notices a vending machine, but as he's retrieving his food is infected by a hopper virus. The Doctor explains the virus is capable of jumping from computers to humans. After expelling it from his system, the Doctor bags it to take to whoever is in charge. While Ryan is sucking his thumb to reduce the hallucinogenic side effects of the virus, he sees a cutie in a similar situation, a young woman by the name of Belle. It's pretty obvious at this point that Belle is to be a sort of romantic interest for Ryan, and who can blame him? She lives up to her namesake!

Everyone is rounded up for a "tranquillity drill," to a safe location while Kane and Vorm run through the lobby with their guns in tow. As with most companions, travelling with the Doctor embeds a deeper curiosity. Much like the Doctor would, Ryan questions what type of drill requires guns. This question entices Belle to follow him as they investigate. I really liked this pairing of the two of them as their chemistry was natural, despite Ryan's repeated failures at chatting her up. It only added to their charm.

The Doctor confronts Hyp3n who seems just about as confused and nervous as many of the guests. Whatever she's hiding is only because she's been instructed to by her superiors. Considering the hopper virus and drill, the Doctor deduces that the spa is under attack, and demands to know what they're hiding. Who would want to harm a spa? The spa has been using an ionic membrane to keep out unwanted visitors, visitors which appear to have breached the membrane. Now under a full-on attack by a group of monstrous beings, guests become casualties. Not only is the base under attack, but the viruses have also handicapped the systems, disabling the emergency teleportation devices. With everyone trapped the Doctor has to work fast to stop the killing, as well as survive.

Graham finds a pair of green haired servicemen in the form of Nevi and his son Sylas. Their entire character design once again had me thinking of classic Doctor Who characters such as the Swampies from "The Power of Kroll," or the Karfelon androids from "Timelash." I liked wondering if they were a kind of species that has naturally green hair, or if they had father/son hair dying nights. In this brief interaction, you learn that Sylas is the better mechanic between the two of them, but that Nevi does a bad job of acknowledging this. Graham gathers them and others to evacuate while Ryan and Belle hideaway in a sauna of sorts. While there, they confide in each other that neither of them is nearly as impressive as they initially led on, and the truth strengthens their bond.

Sadly, as Graham is rounding people up, Benni gets separated after backtracking to pick up Vilma's hat. As life signs extinguish across a computer screen, highlighting the trail of carnage, the Doctor finds a way to push back the onslaught. By repairing the ionic membrane, the creatures, known as Dregs, are physically pushed out of the spa by a force field. The crisis averted, the survivors search for the bodies of their loved ones. Much to Graham's relief, Ryan and Belle have both narrowly avoided the claws and teeth of an angry Dreg. Benni, however, is nowhere to be found.

After discovering a hole, which looks like a tear in reality, our heroes discover that Tranquility Spa is actually an illusion. A dome separates the spa from a hostile planet far too polluted to inhabit. This abandoned, or "orphan," planet is designated "Orphan 55." This is the reason guests are teleported to the spa- to cover up its seedy location. However, it would appear that whatever the Dregs are, they seem to be apex predators, able to survive the hostile environment of Orphan 55. And they want the spa and its inhabitants gone.

The Doctor makes Kane drive them out into the wasteland to find Benni, as his oxygen tank would allow him to survive outside of the dome for some time. It was a thin chance, but it might be enough to save at least one person among the carnage. I was really hoping for some silly "Moonbase," style helmets, but instead, we got these minimalist blue breath right strips across the bridge of the nose that linked to small wrist canisters as supplied by Nevi and Sylas.

The trip out onto the surface reminded me a lot of the great Russell T Davies episode "Midnight." And much like Midnight, the confined space of a vehicle traversing harsh conditions offers plenty opportunity to explore the people within. Remember how I said Yaz is a gooseberry? She wastes no time getting right between Ryan and Belle. I honestly can't tell what's going on between Yaz and Ryan at the moment. Last season, there was a bit of a "Will they or won't they?" vibe between them. But series twelve seems less interested in coupling them off. First, we had the Master and Yaz getting weirdly touchy-feely, which surprisingly never comes up again. And now we've got Yaz teasing Ryan in front of Belle like a jealous school girl. We learn that along with sucking their thumbs, Ryan and Belle also share having a dead parent in common, so that's something.

The vehicle picks up a bit of barbed wiring leaving it, as the Doctor put it- completely knackered. Keeping with the Midnight vibe, the surface of the planet is too dangerous due to monsters and killer sunlight. Afraid for her own self-interest, Kane wants to abandon the search mission, but a pleading Vilma begs her to continue looking for Benni. After callously accepting Vilma's necklace as payment, Kane agrees to continue with the rescue mission. The crew abandon their vehicle and run for the safety of an underground service tunnel, but Dregs attack from every direction causing them to return to the safety of the vehicle. But that safety won't last long.

It's then that they hear Benni calling for Vilma. He asks her to marry him and then asks them to shoot him as well. It's a morbid moment as you realise the only reason the Dregs have kept Benni alive is to taunt the survivors and prolong his suffering. I don't really understand what the point of having them run back into the vehicle actually was. They basically run back out a moment later with the new plan of Kane and Vorm covering with gunfire. I don't understand why it was so important that they leave one location just to return moments later.

As Kane and Vorm blast Dregs, the rest of the crew run to the safety of the service tunnel. In the scuffle, Vorm dies, but Kane catches up just in time to open the tunnel. The entrance to this tunnel had me thinking of the opening of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." I kept waiting for Rita Repulsa to pop out and say "Ah! After 10,000 years I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!" They make it down into the tunnel where there is a short-range teleporter nearby. Vilma asks Kane if she saw what happened to Benni, and Kane coldly tells her not to worry, that she shot Benni as he requested. It's at this time that Belle steals Kane's gun. She reveals that Kane is her mother and that she's here for revenge for abandoning her and her father. Belle teleports back to the spa taking Ryan with her. Seeing as the teleporter only had enough juice for one go, the rest of the crew must go deeper into the tunnel to find their way back.

Back at the spa, Belle reveals a huge bomb she plans to use to blow up the spa. Poor Ryan, he just met this girl and already he's dealing with her baggage with her mum. I kid, but damn girl, take a guy to a movie first. It's lucky for the Doctor that this adventure isn't actually from the '80s. Had it been Ace in this position, she would have seen the bomb and said "Wicked!" while offering up Nitro 9 to add to the destruction. Instead, Ryan pleads with her not to blow up the spa, dooming everyone involved.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and crew discover a plaque written in Russian, cluing them in to the fact that not only is the planet abandoned, but it was also abandoned by humanity. Orphan 55 is in fact, Earth. This revelation hits Graham and Yaz hard, as they never imagined the fate of the world to be so ugly. Their grieving is cut short by the appearance of Dregs, who Vilma bravely sacrifices herself to, to save the others. The Doctor, at this time also appears to be running out of air. It appears that the ability to be the loudest talker isn't always helpful when oxygen preservation is to be considered.

The sole reason for her running out of oxygen serves only to discover the Dregs breathe out oxygen. She discovers this when she finds a Dreg conveniently hibernating within the tunnel. Why this is important is that it gives a bit of insight into the Dregs' motivation. Kane's big plan was to make a spa that slowly terraforms the planet, which would harm the Dregs. It also explains the trees seen on the surface of the planet. That or these trees are also apex predators able to adapt to anything. Using her Time Lord brain magic, the Doctor looks into the mind of the Dregs and affirms what she feared most- they evolved from humans.

Everyone has now made their way back to the spa. The Dregs are closing in and they need to fix the teleporter. We're treated to a series of people once again leaving and returning to the same location for the sake of upping the tension. Kane appears to sacrifice herself and Sylas gets in an argument with Nevi once more over being told he's not a mechanic causing him to run away. But both of them are ok, as they both return unscathed. Yaz and Ryan wheel Belle's bomb to try and take out a few of the baddies. It's kind of a clusterfuck if I am honest. Lots of characters get taken in and out of scenes merely to pad time and add to the tension. It's not egregious but could have been edited better.

Sylas appears just in time with a solution to use the hopper virus to convert fuel for the teleporter. I was happy they brought the virus back, even if they don’t make a whole lot of sense. Were the Dregs weaponising the hopper virus? Were the viruses remnants of human civilisation? Regardless, I’m glad they brought it back. Sadly, this entire end sequence acts as evidence that perhaps there are too many companions in the TARDIS at the moment. Graham's job is to stand over Nevi and Sylus saying things like "That's right lads!" Yaz and Ryan are basically running around doing busywork, while the Doctor and Belle are having a stand-off with a Dreg. The Doctor manages to equalise the air in the room so that it is mutually beneficial to keep her and Belle alive. What the Dreg breathes out, they breathe in, and vice versa. This stalemate allows them the ability to leave. With the teleports up and running, the Doctor and her crew are transported back aboard the TARDIS, but not before Belle steals a kiss from Ryan. Are she and her mother going to be okay? We're left to wonder.

The victory celebration is short-lived as the companions remember the fate of the earth. Now, I need to preface what I'm about to say with the following- I fully believe climate change is a thing. I say this because we need to talk about how Doctor Who handles the subject. I've seen a lot of people (see: morons) complain about when Doctor Who gets "too political." They seem to think anything they don't like is political. The Doctor being a woman is political to them. But as I said with episodes like "Rosa," and "Demons of the Punjab," it's not that Doctor Who shouldn't be political, it's that it's simply not very good at it.

I can appreciate that the message of climate change is a real and pressing matter, but the cautionary edutainment way in which they present the information was so cringe. It felt so unnatural and tacked on. In their desire to address the audience directly, they lose a level of reality that makes the dialogue seem fake. These scenes always feel badly acted to me, but it's the fault of the dialogue. There's no good way to break the fourth wall without also sacrificing the characters' voices. It's like one of those adverts where you have two people talking far too candidly about something like their period flow, or constipation. It's a way to disseminate information about a product or ideology, but don't mistake it for dialogue. Nobody talks like this.

All in all, this was your standard "base in peril," episode. While not as transcendent as "It Takes You Away," I believe Ed Hime has given us another solid episode of Doctor Who. It's hard for me to tell if Hime's ability to write action was wanting, or if it is simply the fault of the director, but it definitely suffers at points due to the janky pacing. Pacing has really been an odd sticking point for series 12, and I hope they work it out. Even still, I was hoping that after the two-parter of "Spyfall," we would get something a little more grounded. Having this odd little contained storyline with little homages to classic Who is actually more than I had hoped for. It also gave us a new character in Belle, whom I expect to see return eventually. And despite the heavy-handed and unnatural way in which they dealt with climate change, I understand that it's a family show. In keeping with classic Who, it aimed to be educational, and for that, I cannot fault it.

#doctor who #Thirteenth Doctor #Jodie Whittaker #Bradley Walsh #tosin cole #mandip gill #Graham O'Brien #Ryan Sinclair #yaz #yasmine khan #orphan 55 #ed hime #dregs #series 12 #TARDIS #BBC #Time and Time Again

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breadknight-likes-things · 4 years ago

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Bread’s Game Journal 06/09/20: Wrath In The Frozen North: A Northrend Retrospective, Finale: Wintergrasp & Wrap up

Wintergrasp is a zone of half baked ideas, aborted features and weird systems, but it’s also the first time Blizzard experimented with a myriad of features, and it directly led to far more full featured versions of this same zone that many people greatly enjoyed! That’s not to say people didn’t enjoy Wintergrasp, I remember quite a few people being extremely enthusiastic about the idea of an entire zone dedicated to PVP. In Burning Crusade we all fought over Halla, so the same basic principal was put into effect on a larger scale in Wintergrasp. Seems simple enough, what could possibly go wrong? Well, the answer is “not much, but not a ton went right either”. As far as PVP Zones go Wintergrasp is pretty bog standard, it’s a place to run around and fight the opposing faction, there’s points to capture, bases to to defend and even a giant fortress that can only be dominated by one faction at a time. What’s notable about Wintergrasp isn’t so much it’s lack of features on a base level, it’s how many features were supposed to be added, but just never will. There were supposed to be dogfights, more vehicles to control, new benefits and all sorts of crazy stuff to earn, but little of it ever actually materialized. It’s not like you can really blame Blizzard either, they obviously had to choose places to allocate resources and this odd little PVP zone that probably didn’t get much attention wasn’t the top priority.

At least for the most part Wintergrasp Keep is dominated by The Horde these days, as all parts of Azeroth should be!

So that brings us to the end of my Northrend retrospective! I hope people enjoyed reading about this expansion as much as enjoyed writing about it! I can still vividly remember when they revealed the first trailer. The initial confusion over whether you had to actually give up a character to create a Death Knight, the fabled “New Dances” lost to time, that trailer that seemed cinematic as hell at the time, but odly clunky today. Wrath of the Lich King was a huge time for a lot of people who play World of Warcraft and it’s easy to see why looking back!

The game really had begun to morph into what we know it as now. Some of the more arcane systems were slowly trimmed from the game (I vividly remember rejoicing at the patch that finally removed the need to buy Ammo for ranged weapons). Quests started to take more complex forms, no longer just a series of “Collect 12 wood” or “kill 10 bandits” over and over again until you hit max level. Keeping those modernization's in mind though, it was the beginning of the end of some other aspects, that I think a lot of people still miss to this day. Though it continued on for a little while, I think Northrend was the last time Blizzard really designed zones as if they were intended to be a “real” place in the context of the world. Compare the absurd size of Borean Tundra to a more recent zone like say, High Mountain, and you can see the night and day difference of how one feels like a sprawling landscape, and the other a highly curated theme park experience. This isn’t bad, but it does feel like two very distinct eras of design philosophy that simply don’t exist alongside each other!

Again, I hope you enjoyed these posts, whoever you may be reading this, and I think I’ll keep this retrospective concept in mind for the rest of the year as we move closer and closer to Shadowlands! Who knows, there may even be a reason for me to go back to Outland again....something I’m pretty sure I swore never to do again!

Bread’s Coveted “Best Town” Award: None, there are no towns in this PVP only zone! But I’ll give Wintergrasp Keep a thumbs up for being cool anyway!

Random Screenshot Of The Day:

Goodnight sweet prince, i’ll be back when Sylvanas sunders the divide between the living and the dead! Take care until then!

Stray Notes:

- My power went out while writing this, i’m about to hit post since it’s come back on, I hope I don’t lose an hour of writing!

#world of warcraft #wow #wrath of the lich king #world of warcraft wrath of the lich king #wow wotlk #northrend #northrend retrospective #Blizzard #Activision Blizzard #blizzard entertainment #bread #breads game journal #bread's game journal #game journal #game journaling #pc gaming #battlenet #warcraft

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tycoons-official · 5 years ago

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♛Ｔｙｃｏｏｎｓ♛

.•♫•♬•ＡｌｂｕｍＤｅｔａｉｌｓ•♫•♬•.

• Tycoons' self-titled debut album 'Tycoons The Album' was released on the 3rd of January, 2017, 07:00AM KST.

• JYP released two trailers for the music video a month prior to the release date, however they didn't attract too much attention as they were first advertised like regular ads that would appear on most YouTube videos, sometimes even other JYP idols' music videos to maybe draw a bit more interest, as the trailers uploaded on JYP Entertainment's YouTube channel did not do so well as expected, at first. Although this, once the album and official music video came out, people started realizing that 'Tycoons' was actually a group and began drawing in a huge crowd.

• The album focuses a lot on storytelling, through music and lyrics, telling the day-to-day life of two siblings taking over their family's money wagering, illegal weapon dealing empire within the vast Mafia and how they run operations as well as the drama that will commence throughout half of the album.

• The album starts with catchy hip hop beats and dance/house trap drops, giving a sort of Stray Kids vibe to it. As the album goes on though, the lyrics and mood start to take on a more emotional tone and meaning. Just as the mood changes, Tyke and Carmen's [the Characters] lives are changing along with it.

• A majority of the songs in the album are written by both members of Tycoons [and the music video is also partially directed by them since the CEO was curious as to how this duo plans to start off their careers after training for a good amount of time] and most of the music [in the album and the music video] was also made and produced by Tycoons themselves.

• 'Tycoons: The Album' was a success, initially selling a total of 1.7 million copies in Korea and 1.65 million internationally within the first week and a half of so. But when the album began gaining some traction, the numbers spiked to 3.18 million copies in Korea and over 4.19 million copies internationally by early February.

.•♫•♬•Ｔｒａｃｋｌｉｓｔ•♫•♬•.

▄︻̷̿┻̿═━一 25 minutes & 20 seconds

• MAFIA

• 우리는 (We Are)

• Hands Up

• GSW

• Heir

• 만족하니? (Are You Satisfied?)

• Losing It

• Fire With Fire

• Outro: The End

.•♫•♬•ＳｏｎｇＡｎａｌｙｓｉｓ•♫•♬•.

1. MAFIA - ⏱ 4:05 - Title track

'MAFIA' is the title track of the album as well as the first track in the lineup of Tycoons' debut album. It is also the only song in the album that got a whole music video dedicated to it. Being that the album was written and co-produced by Tycoons themselves, they wanted this album to tell a story; to be the first chapter of their characters' stories and build up on their development as they evolve and grow in the music industry. They promoted the album, the title track and it's B-side heavily, going on several interviews, TV and music shows for 3 weeks straight, all at once [though Tycoons themselves quote en quote 'didn't mind the busy schedule, as they have been preparing all their trainee lives for this moment', courtesy of Carmen].

'MAFIA' is a song about the 'dangers' of the Mafia world and how they rose to the top with sheer resilience and smarts, as well as available weaponry and other form of utility such as soldiers. Tyke and Carmen the characters describe a glimpse in their life in a line taken from Carmen's rap verse:

'in this dangerous place

where Alphas roam wild

one shot dead in the streets

echoing cries for miles and miles

with blood dripping on their face

as they lie cold there like a stone

truly a beautiful chaos

this is home; how we live our lives'

The song is hits hard with a hip hop style dance beat, an interesting use of common synths, a fresh twist on melodies that are often used, heard and reused, and carries an intense tone throughout the whole song. Added to that the ranging high and low notes that Tyke hits, especially in the bridge, and Carmen's consistent deep growls in the rap verses. Said factors when merged create this harmonious yet unpredictable title track that would be considered 'perfect to set the tone', as Tyke puts it. Fans often compare this song to the style of Stray Kids' and BAP's music, and although some people say that this is the 'least JYP' JYP song ever according to some fans, Tycoons have confessed to have let the company add their flair to this song, so it's safe to say that it was an even game when it came to producing.

There were also special effects to the song to amp up it's chilling vibe. For example, throughout the song, there would be gunshot fire sounds inserted, as expected from a group with a dark concept, however fans pointed out that as the song reached it's climax, the shot sounds start condescending to the point where it even tricks some people into believing that there was an actual gun fired next to them, and therefore have them either scared or even more in love with the song. This effect however was not the only sound [or even visual] effect inserted into the track; in the official music video, Tycoons are shown to present almost everything you'd want in a perfect music video; great clothing choices, beautiful sets and decor, a nice harmony of dark and bright colors throughout, flattering camera angles and lighting, makeup and filters galore, only to then show the Characters' reality, showing various ruined sets littered with blood, dead bodies, empty bullet cannisters and bloody knives on the floors, yelps of pain, stab sounds and the final groans after getting shot, make the atmosphere even more spine chilling.

Critics praised this title track for it's unique concept, style and visuals, however they added that there could've been a more clear trigger warning before the MV starts, as it could easily trigger a younger audience. So to appease them, the company temporarily took the video down to add an extra 10 second trigger warning clip accompanied with a subtle rain sound effect that goes well with the beginning of the MV where Tyke and Carmen are seen walking through the gloom streets while it's raining.

2. 우리는 (We Are) - ⏱ 3:46 - B-side

'우리는' or 'We Are' in English is the next song in the tracklist as well as the album's B-side track. 우리는 Is mostly written by Tyke, therefore it's fairly vocal heavy for the most part, however he does give his sister Carmen the bridge and the last verse of the song to rap, but the rest is Tyke. It's a more story telling song that has a much softer, but more mysterious vibe to it. This song doubles as a deeper look into Tycoons' Characters' backstory as well as a song that shows off Tyke's light and clear contratenor voice with the occasional sassy run as well as stable vibratos and falsettos.

The song carries a nostalgic feeling, as if you've heard this song before some other place or time in your life, but not exactly in the way one'd originally think. It has a sad-ish tone, despite having happy nostalgia inducing guitar, piano, a variety of classical instruments, hip-hoppy snare and slightly lighter trap drops, that is meant to symbolize Tycoons' not-so-happy childhood that is the consequence of their family joining the Mafia.

Overall, the song has a fairly light hearted tune with variety and a nicer, clearer beat compared to it's title track, however if you look at the lyrics and analyze them, they hold a much darker meaning:

'you can't run

you can't hide

hold your breath

close your eyes

turn your ear to the sky

you're not safe here anymore

this is who we are, now

who we are, now'

The unsettlingness of the lyrics combined with the strategic classical orchestration make for a song that's meant to feel like, quote en quote 'a false security blanket that shields you from the actual good reality, or even a blindfold that makes you see everything in life with a different filter', courtesy of Tyke.

This song isn't exactly a favorite of the people, therefore dubbing it 'under appreciated' or 'underrated' by Capos, however critics applaud this song as much as it's title track for the same factors, but they have less critiques for this song as there wasn't any music video, however for some critics, the sense of false security and lack of straightforwardness was not exactly their cup of tea.

3. Hands Up - ⏱ 3:25 - Inizio

The third track in the album is titled 'Hands Up' and is the introduction to Carmen's [the character] personality and role in her and her brother's business. This track is mostly written by Carmen and contains mostly rap verses, with Tyke included briefly in the chorus, the bridge and as backing vocals to go with Carmen's raps. 'Hands Up' is has traces of inspiration from hip-hop songs, with it's more uppity, 'in your face' beats.

The story, or message, this song is trying to convey is to never disrespect those whom have helped you and built you up and explain the diligence and perseverance you are going to need in order to survive in the Mafia industry, and that once you think you got there, that means you still have ways to go, or to put it in Carmen's words; 'Don't get too comfortable, life can take 10 steps ahead of you just like that.'

The bold beats and sassy lyrics can be quite jarring to some, but the song overall is very well received by Capos and music critics alike. Although a minority of Capos did make an argument about 'Hands Up' being a better B-side track for 'Tycoons the Album' than '우리는', however this dispute is easily dismissed by favor over the idea of "'우리는' and 'Hands Up' being equally great overall, but '우리는' is a B-side for a reason that we don't know yet/we will have to speculate more on to know why", given by K-pop commentary channels such as KPOP Junkee and Korea Scouter TV.

The topic of respect and being respectful is heavily mentioned in the song and due to this, some Capos said that 'it almost seemed like they were demanding respect' and this ideology was shared around with a portion of the fandom, however Tycoons responded to this issue by saying that they only wanted to portray their characters, not the actual people themselves.

4. GSW - ⏱ 3:02 - Continuazione

'GSW', short for 'Gun shot wound' is the next song in the tracklist and another hip hop dance song in the whole album. 'GSW' is co-written by Tycoons and this song carries a more JYP style of music for the group, but with that said, the JYP 'signature style' was definitely beneficial for Tycoons' versatility in music styles. What makes this track different is the lack of lyrics and the main focus on the dance aspect that goes with the track.

The music was intense like the title track and had a variety of different musical tones incorporated, like at some points of the song there could be a more deep atmosphere and in others it could be softer, or faster, or sad. Though the song may be lacking in lyrics, it compensates for a complicated, but amazing choreography. The only verses in the song are the first pre-chorus, chorus and bridge, and these verses are fairly brief;

'just when you think there's a settled score

the battle has just reborn

comes swift like an avalanche

come to steal what you just got back

at your back like a loaded gun

and the night has just begun

steady now breathe, breathe'

This song took the longest to practice in terms of dance. According to Tyke, he stated that they've had to practice this dance longer than any of the other song's dances combined. The choreography is much harder and more technically challenging, and it also involves the usage of various props as well as stage actors to accompany Tycoons in their action sequences throughout the dance. The CEO even opted to postpone the actual date of their debut because of how challenging this dance was, as he had doubts that the group could actually meet the deadline. But hard work and dedication pulled through and the duo clearly succeeded through all the hours of work.

5. Heir - ⏱ 4:45 - Conflitto

The song 'Heir' is sort of like the climax of the album. This is when the tone of the song shifts to a more calmer, simpler tunes and faster timing with more room to add story telling lyrics and catchy raps. Tyke and Carmen worked on this song together and therefore rapping-to-singing ratio is pretty equal, and their inspiration for this album can really be sensed here, or at least that's what they think anyway. At the beginning, this song sounds quite to 'MAFIA' because of how Tycoons' characters are connected to the person next in line to their 'throne' but they found out something was wrong and they go searching for her. Shown briefly in the music video, this 'heir' is a baby, almost a toddler, who's sleeping in a crib inside a dark nursery but the scene is shown to flicker to a clip of people in full black outfits taking them away, resembling a kidnapping.

In the music video for 'MAFIA' we briefly get video shots of Carmen turning around to face the camera angle with a distraught expression before running towards a hallway as if rushing to get something, and Capos think that this is Carmen running to save her 'heir.' Tycoons soon confirm the rumors surrounding this mysterious heir however didn't drop every detail, but did mention said heir's name; Chloe.

The song itself is intense just like it's title track, but with added drama and theatrics by an orchestral pre-chorus and followed by another dirty dubstep/trap drop and bridge. The classic parts meant to symbolize going back to the classics, where king and queen take care of their heirs as they rule their kingdom, but by the end of the song the orchestra melody doesn't complete itself and loop, instead for the last 5 seconds of the song, it's heard glitching and skipping certain beats before eventually quieting down.

This strategic, but harmonious symphony of classical and trap genres seems to be the critics' favorite and it definitely made sense for Capos to enjoy it just as much. However some added that the drop sounded too much like 'MAFIA' and when put side by side, they almost have the exact same notes. Tycoons took to answer this predicament right away, explaining that, though taking care of children aren't the characters, Tyke or Carmen's, front suit, their heir still plays a role in their journey to the top, by being more careful, thought out and responsive to anything, and eventually the crowd died down.

6. 만족하니? (Are You Satisfied?) - ⏱ 4:30 - Calore de momento

'만족하니?' or 'Are You Satisfied?' in English is the 6th song in the tracklist and right off the bat is a rap-heavy trap style song, going back to harsh, dirty beats and Carmen's growly voice. This song is meant to represent the heat of the moment and a continuation of the previous song 'Heir', after they realize that the next generation of their 'royal family' was taken from them. Carmen wrote this song feeling her own anger to the horrible people present in her life as a child, and after some fine tuning from Tyke so it doesn't sound too much like a diss track [though according to some fans, it still does], the lyrics to the song can really convey how angry and angry [and rather sadistic] their characters were over loosing their 'heir':

'you think this is fun?

that this is all just a game?

well I'll tell you this now, you pricks

that you'll regret this mess you made (yuh)

you've dug yourself deep in a hole

where we will throw you a rope

and drag your body to your neighborhood

and cut you open wide!

does that sound good?

are you satisfied now?'

The rather horrifying lyrics of this song and the glitchy sound effects added makes it one of the least favorite songs in the album to fans, along with 'Losing It', but as the internet is known for divided opinions and constant fighting over the slightest things, Capos were no different. One side said that this song was okay and 'the others who can't stand the lyrics are actual babies', quoted from one Capo, and 'the other' side of the fandom just did not appreciate the gory lyrics and 'would just listen to the album without this song overall', quoted from another Capo.

Critics also agreed that this track and 'Losing It' in particular could've been less gory, however they did understand why Tycoons wanted to make it so that it would sound sadistic and scary and all that, even if it was their least favorite song concept. Tyke quickly defended himself and his sister by stating that they wanted the album to be raw and true to their characters' personalities and the storyline, and at the end of the day it was just some lyrics in a song that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Some people saw this as Tycoons' over-involvement with their fanbase and turned them away from the group but a couple of them have since returned to being a Capo after realizing that the reason why Tycoons called them their 'Capos' is because of their wish to be engaging with their fandom and that they were forgetful to the meaning of the name in the first place.

7. Losing It - ⏱ 2:04 - Climax

'Losing It' is the very next song and yet again, a continuation of the previous song '만족하니?' but unlike the last one, 'Losing It' is much calmer but at the same time, was just sinister and a little vocal heavy. The song was one of the quieter songs in the album but kept that deep and mysterious aspect about it, which made fans appreciate this track more than the previous one. In this song, Tyke really showed that he can rock to a quicker paced song as well as a slower one, as 'Losing It's melody incorporated a few transitions from a fast paced beat to a slower beat.

The electro synths and more vocally challenging melody and high notes made this song one of the hardest songs to sing in the album, if not the hardest song to sing in the album. It was more of a ballad with the occasional trap build up leading to a softer EDM drop as per usual. The song's varying speeds also made it a challenge to sing as you first go up high, then low, then mid-range before climbing back up again and several different variations of this pattern were incorporated so no verse sounded the same, nor did it have the same lyrics. Speaking of, the lyrics to the song describe the disappointment and shame the characters had to go through when they found out their family member had been kidnapped and it includes a few hints pointing towards Tyke's depression really helping out during this song [even though it was actually written by Carmen since Tyke was depressed when the song was written, so his low mood helped this song convey the sadness and frustration properly]

8. Fire With Fire - ⏱ 2:50 - Vendetta

'Fire With Fire' is the finale of the album, and though it may be only less than 3 minutes, the song holds a deep passionate beat and had probably the most memorable ending drops throughout the whole album. Mirroring 'GSW', 'Fire With Fire' was dance dominated with a few lyrics, but due to its short length, the choreography was more complicated and faster paced, 'ending with a bang' as Tyke would say. And though the choreography wasn't as complicated as 'GSW', and did not need any props, it was definitely just as tiring, according to Carmen.

Capos compare the drop to that of Stray Kids' 'Miroh' for it's electro house instruments but broken down, it doesn't sound too similar, though people managed to merge the two songs together to create a song that even Tycoons listen to and they gave the person that made the first remix a very well deserved shout-out.

9. Outro: The End - ⏱ 1:14 - La fine (per ora)

The outro song wasn't originally needed in the album but Tycoons added it in there to add some hype on the next album coming up as well as a quick sneak peak and Capos and the rest of the world were definitely excited for what's to come

.•♫•♬•Ａｃｃｏｍｐｌｉｓｈｍｅｎｔｓ•♫•♬•.

• 'Tycoons The Album' was nominated for album of the year at the MAMAs 2017 however did not win.

• Tycoons themselves won Best New Artist of the Year at the same event as well as 3 other music show awards; from the MGMAs, AAAs and Soribada;

• 'MAFIA' won Song of the Year at the MGMAs and Tycoons won Rookie of the Year at the AAAs and New Artist of the Year at Soribada.

• 'MAFIA' peaked at #5 place on the MelOn chart, #6 place on the Gaon chart, #8 place on both Soribada and iTunes Top 10 and #39 on the Billboard hot 100.

• '우리는' made it to #18 on the MelOn chart and dropped to #20, #17 on Gaon, and #16 on iTunes Top 20

• 'Hands Up', 'GSW' and 'Heir' made it to #49, #50, and #52 on the Billboard hot 100 charts. But jumped to #35, #38, [surpassing their title track] and #40 and stayed there.

• 'GSW' was actually nominated for Best M/F Dance Performance at MAMAs but unfortunately did not place.

.•♫•♬•Ｅｘｔｒａｓ•♫•♬•.

• Carmen has a painting that eventually became the official cover of the physical album and the company's design team thought 'why not put that design to good use', since Carmen already did the work for them, and she didn't mind them using her design, as she was credited in the back of the album as well as inside the photo book. Where there were photos taken of her actually recreating the cover painting on canvas while wearing her *ⁱᶜᵒⁿⁱᶜ* elbow-length-sleeved shin-length black skintight dress, long cherry red satin gloves, matching-color kitten heels and beret in the 'boudoir' set [also featured in the music video].

#tycoons #tyc.#pinkocnet #tokyokocnet #lofi #lofikocnet #kumokcn #kumokocnet #woopkocnet #kocsociety

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featuristicfilm · 5 years ago

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Movies of Fall/Winter 2019 (and 2020) that I’m really excited to see

With awards season kicking in, the movie release slate is about to bring us some incredible pieces of cinema. There are many films this year that sound fun, interesting, profound and promising so here is a shortened list of the ones that get me giddy with most anticipation. TOP 5 let’s go! (and a few honourable mentions)

5. Lucy in the Sky (Noah Hawley, December 6th, 2019, UK)

Randomly stumbling upon its trailer on Youtube, I was surprised as to why I haven’t heard anything about this film at all because it actually looks super intriguing. Even though the notion of a space movie can feel fairly worn-out, and there is only so much originality you can bring to that kind of concept, Lucy in the Sky looks like it’s going to be a completely shifted take on space dynamics and exploration. In fact, it seems it’s going to be a story fully centred around one character’s individual, self-reflective, very personal journey, with space acting only as a narrative device that creates the background, rather than it being at the forefront of the film’s events. Natalie Portman seems completely in her shoes in this trope of a study of a character who’s deeply damaged and emotionally transformed by whatever trials she undergoes. The trailer is put together so perfectly as well. It tells just enough information for us to understand what is the movie’s premise while also creating a dramatic and suspenseful energy. Also, to me the imagery feels very grounded and serious but also kind of weird, daring and eccentric in some shots, so if the creators managed to balance a kind of art-house approach with some epic, grandiose visual elements it is going to be one hell of a film. To be fair, I was kind of excited just ‘cause it’s Natalie Portman but the more I think about the story the more interesting and promising it sounds. Unfortunately, it comes out October 4th which means its going to have a biiiiit of a competitor in the box-office in the form of Joker.

4. Jojo Rabbit (Taika Waititi, January 3rd, 2020, UK)

This one exhibits several traits that make the film very enticing. First of all, of course, the subject matter. I think it’s fair to say that a little boy interacting with Adolf Hitler in the shape of an imaginary friend is as crazy and amusing an idea as it gets. And, of course, many of us have our understanding and reaction towards the people and events of the WW2 era but to have that portrayed in a comedy genre is definitely going to cast a whole new light on the subject, at least as seen on the big screen. This will most likely be a story exploring harsh realism through imagination and fantasy but also through the earnest and innocent eyes of a child and it will likely be a surprising take and not what anyone expects it to be. Due to many reasons, it is, obviously, going to be a widespread conversation piece and for that alone I have to see it. The other thing that perfectly complements the idea of this project, is the man himself, Taika Waititi. I don’t think a better combination between the material and the creator can emerge because it is hard to imagine someone else taking on such a bold proposition. He’s just the type of writer and director that is so unique in style and taste that you just believe anything he makes is going to turn out special in one way or another, and having creative will and freedom and integrity might be exactly what made this whole thing possible in the first place. Plus Waititi himself is playing Hitler which, I’d imagine, just raises the scale of humour and energy and dynamics of the whole piece.

3. Jumanji: The Next Level (Jake Kasden, December 13th, 2019, UK)

I know, a not so popular of a choice. Compared to the way every other film is awaited based on their technical and creative merits, with this one I am so genuinely eager to experience the fun. After all the amusement Jumanji: Into the Jungle brought to the franchise, I don’t see why anybody wouldn’t be excited about this next instalment. I absolutely loved that film, it was so so so funny and entertaining! The story was really great because not only did it bring that fantasy and adventure aspect once again but also the way the avatar/game player narrative approach was incorporated was so unique. So, after seeing the trailers for this sequel, it sparked even more excitement to see how else can they possibly spin that concept. With that in mind, bringing in Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, well regarded comedic figures and over all talents, to the mix is genius. Them trapped in the bodies of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart is, honestly, a hilarious thought and having old guys interact with the other teenage friends and deal with challenges in the desert, jungle, mountain tops will be no less than a thrilling journey. I think this is going to be just the right film to kind of step back from all the serious and deep dramas that will be in full motion for Oscar season at the time, and switch to some good-old light-hearted cinema. With holidays coming up during its release (December 13th) - nothing better than to go see a fun family movie. And if the playfulness and humour combined with the fond spirit of the story lands at least the same way as it did with the previous film, it’s going to win over people’s hearts and probably the box-office. Can’t wait to just fully enjoy the action and immerse myself in the wonder of this adventure all over again!

2. Joker (Todd Philips, October 4th, 2019, UK)

I have to admit, while initially I was very interested in this new iteration of Joker purely on a general movie-goer level, it was maintained and gradually piqued as time went on largely due to everyone talking about it so much. The sheer amount of hype and anticipation this announcement has managed to create is baffling. Every film coverage outlet, magazine, blog was discussing it. And maybe it’s just that I follow a lot of superhero genre loving people and maybe the idea of this film, in fact, doesn’t concern the general viewer as much, still it has kept many eagerly waiting. The thing that gives it an edge, though, is the fact that this is not simply going to be your general superhero action blockbuster but rather an intense psychological drama reflecting on certain societal issues applied to a familiar mythology. The character everyone knows as a rival to Batman here seems to be a troubled man, beaten down literally, as well as emotionally due to social injustice and his own mental complications. Therefore, this film will probably not rely on epic showdowns and comic tropes as much but actually will give the concept of an ‘origin story’ a different meaning. It’s exciting that DC took it upon themselves to make a bold and creatively charged version of their beloved character, and with Joaquin Phoenix as the lead and Todd Philips as director I think they can be confident about their vision. Whether it is going to be received well or not, that’s the question. While it did already receive heaps of acclaim, including the Golden Lion in the Venice Film Festival, the early audience reviews are quite widely mixed. Nonetheless, it is very intriguing. I have to say, it’s shaping out to be one of those films, and performances, in particular, that have the ability to stay in the minds of the viewers long after. Not long to wait now and we’ll finally see if it lives up to what it set out for. ‘Cause let me tell you, the standard’s high, for sure.

Knives Out (Rian Johnson, November 29th, 2019, UK)

For the longest, this film and Joker were up to par for the number one place on my list of the most awaited movies of the rest of year. Every trailer amped up the excitement so much more and, ultimately, when I felt that I could’t stop thinking about Knives Out, counting days ‘till it’s release, I knew which one has won me over. No surprise, though. I absolutely love whodunnits!!! There’s just a certain thrill to a mystery or a detective style film that cannot be found anywhere else. There’s always so much room for exploration of characters and narratives and the story can take so many directions. If a screenplay for a murder mystery is done right, and all the twists and turns are unexpected and smartly placed, it’s just the best. I also love the interactive aspect of it. Even though I know I can’t change the way it all plays out, I have the ability to have my own reasoning and conclusions that I can apply in my head as the events role out. So with this film I was instantly hooked. Chris Evans’ attachment to the project definitely helped me discover it, though. I’m a huge fan of his and I was curious already to see what kind of role he is about to take on next after the culmination of his journey as Captain America in the MCU. Since I find him to be a very intelligent actor, I think I can trust his judgement on what kind of material is interesting to explore and what kind of people are worth collaborating with. That in mind, this cast looks absolutely incredible! Some really experienced ‘veterans’ in Toni College, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, a big big star Daniel Craig, as well as some less known but promising names such as Ana de Armas and Katherine Langford, for example. And that’s just to name a few… Wow. With the nature and genre of the story, given it’s a suspenseful mystery but with a comedic flare, a good ensemble of performers is crucial, as is their dynamic. Hopefully, writer/director Rian Johnson has managed to create a rich, powerful and unique film that will entertain and won’t disappoint. I do believe that will be the case, as that much talent on screen and behind the camera is usually a recipe for success.

If not for the short list… I have so many other films that have caught my attention and that will absolutely have me in the cinema seat on opening night. These include Bombshell whose team is worth an applause for that amazingly well put teaser trailer; Just Mercy, for a true story that will no doubt have an impact on me and for what seem to be astounding performances by the lead cast; and Marriage Story because it will make me cry… Stories about family, love and relationships always hit close home, this one might break my heart but there’s pain and joy in life all the time, I look forward to seeing the often difficult reality reflected on screen.

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hypeathon · 5 years ago

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Was MissHabit Partial Inspiration for Pyrrha Nikos in RWBY?

If you’ve stumbled into this post, chances are you seen the second video in my “Monty Oum’s Vision for RWBY” video project. In it, I referred to many of the sources of inspirations and concepts that would shape RWBY into being the type of show it would become. One of those inspirations was Monty’s interest in cosplay and the cosplayers he knew personally. Among those cosplayers was Amie Lynn, otherwise known as “MissHabit” and how I claimed she served as partial inspiration for not just the character Weiss Schnee, but possibly Pyrrha Nikos as well.

But how did I even come to that conclusion if Monty never explicitly said-so himself?

In case I did not drive my point home clearly enough in the video, I want to stress that this is all guesswork on my part. Monty did in fact state the based another character with MissHabit in mind besides Weiss but he never specified which one. He at most only teased how he got the idea for the character towards her. So nothing is really conclusive. But the assumption I made was not at all a shot in the dark. I spent time collecting certain sources, connecting dots and contemplating on my own. In the end, I’m not one-hundred percent certain. But I figured it would at least be worth sharing how exactly I thought this through.

First, let’s examine the following tweets from Monty himself:

Him claiming a character’s design was inspired by MissHabit

Him claiming how another character aside from Weiss was inspired by MissHabit

Him referring to how she wore a wig one day, a set of armor another day, and her smile

Him stating it was a secret

Him telling MissHabit that they’ll talk at Pax

One thing of note is the timing of those tweets. which were on March 11th, 2013. At this point, the Black trailer wouldn’t premiere until the 22nd of March. While one could argue that Blake Belladonna was the character Monty referred to, he then explicitly replied to both MissHabit and Linda Le, otherwise known as “Vampy-Bit-Me”, stating how the he had the latter in mind when designing Blake. So then, if it was not likely Blake, then maybe it was Yang Xiao Long instead since her trailer would not premiere until June 2nd. Well, here’s the thing, Monty explicitly stated that Barbara Dunkelman, the voice of Yang, was a big inspiration for the character, so much so that his pitch for casting her as Yang was simply put, “you should play Goldilocks”. It was kind of a no-brainer.

It obviously could not have been Ruby Rose either since her trailer had come out months prior to the above list of tweets and Monty was being very secretive about the matter. So then, if this other character was likely someone outside of team RWBY, who else could it be? Well, there are a few other clues that help narrow things down. For one, Jessica Nigri would end up voicing Cinder and thus would have likely served as a partial source of inspiration for the character as well. Then there’s that one tweet about how MissHabit wore a wig one day, a set of armor another and how Monty referred to her smile. The armor and smile aspect specifically does aptly describe Pyrrha’s character, though one could also state that maybe he was referring to Nora as well since she smiles a lot and has the braces around her torso in her volume 1-3 design. Then again, if say Pyrrha was the character in question, when Monty talked about how the supposed character was “designed with MissHabit in mind”, there’s a chance he’s referring to not Pyrrha’s final design from concept artist Einlee, but rather from Monty’s original design of her.

He obviously didn’t elaborate on what kind of wig or armor Miss Habit wore, but one famous cosplay of hers is that of Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII-2. That character’s design and Pyrrha’s initial concept design do share a few similarities, but there’s definitely no confirmation as to whether he based the initial look off of Lightning at all. And Monty went on record to correcting people whenever his characters in RWBY were compared to specific characters in other popular works of fiction, so we’ll leave a question mark in that regard.

However, one last clue and is probably the biggest one is that of Misshabit’s own personality and experiences. In interviews and other videos, she expressed things about herself that stick out. In one of her Q & A videos on Youtube, she mentioned about how she wound up being the kind of person she is today (assuming she still is the same person years after that video). She mentioned how by the middle of her high school years, she became a more optimistic person and someone that wanted to help people and do the right thing. Also in that video and certain interviews like the one at Pax East, her interviewer assumed that she broke the hearts of guys as if her appearance and personality garnered naturally garnered such romantic attention. But her response suggested that she, at least at the time of the interview, never really got asked out by anyone. Sound familiar?

What I said before bears repeating, but everything stated is all guesswork and nothing more. I don’t know for sure if Pyrrha Nikos was the character Monty was talking about or not and we may never know. Given how MissHabit and Monty saw each other at Pax East 2013 (she cosplayed as Natsu from Soul Calibur 5 then), he seems to have shared some things. But it’s not even clear if he ever really brought up the other character that he claimed to have MissHabit in mind. And the cosplayer does have quite the supposedly quirky personality, so maybe it really could’ve been Nora instead. But even if my hypothesis could be proven wrong, that does not negate the fact that cosplay was a vital cornerstone within Monty’s ideas for RWBY and the various characters in them. Monty cared about seeing people cosplay his characters. Monty was close friends with various professional cosplayers. Monty was conscious about designing characters with pockets and pouches for cosplayers to put their wallets and phones inside when at cons. Monty still created characters like Melanie & Militia because certain friends of his requested a set of twins to cosplay as and Neo who was based off of a gender-bent Roman Torchwick cosplay. And if say, she was based off Pyrhha, that doesn’t change the fact Jen Brown was chosen to voice Pyrrha either and for all we know, she might have somehow served as a bit of inspiration for the character.

This one little thing, regardless of whether or not it’s true, is just a small aspect of the many ideas implemented into RWBY and its creative process.

#rwby #rwby analysis #rwby7 #monty oum #pyrrha

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rwbyconversations · 6 years ago

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DmC Devil May Cry- Six Years Later

A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay about Dante from the Devil May Cry series and his character development across his six mainline appearances. Doing it got me thinking about the franchise and got me to get around to finishing the DMC games I own in my possession- Devil May Cry 4, which has a great combat system but is let down by having far too few environments and missions, and DmC Devil May Cry, the black sheep of the franchise and one of the most controversial reboots of a franchise. Finishing DmC gave me a perspective that only finishing something yourself can provide.

I’d owned a copy of the original launch version of DmC but found it dreary and sold it less than a quarter of the way into the game, before grabbing its Definitive Edition during a Christmas sale on really a glorified whim- sort of a “Let’s see how bad it can really get” vibe, but then I put it down and didn’t come back to it for three months because other games and other projects took prominence. But about a week ago I was bored and decided to knock the entire game out in one day due to a lack of anything better to do, and after a few days to mull on it, I decided to write an essay about DmC and how this oddball entry into an otherwise mostly beloved franchise has aged.

1) Pre-development

Devil May Cry 4 was a success for Capcom, selling about two million units in its first month of release when Capcom were hoping for 1.8 million by the end of the fiscal year. On a critical level too it walked away satisfied, with Metacritic rating both the PS3 and 360 releases of the game with 84/100, praising the fluid gameplay and intricate combat system, but knocking points off for a very repetitive campaign which saw Dante literally backtracking through Nero’s stages. But Capcom were hoping for more from DMC4. This was the debut of the franchise on not just the Seventh Generation of Consoles, but the franchise’s Microsoft debut, and the hopes were that DMC4 would be a smash success potentially on par with the numbers Western games like Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 had made the year prior. 2.1 million was still good, but Capcom wanted more.

The mid-2000s marked a turn in Japanese game development, with the increased costs of HD modelling and Japan’s home market becoming more apathetic about buying games (some Japanese games reported only 10% of their total sales from Japan itself), while the West began booming. With the 7th Generation, gaming went mainstream for many people in the West- as an example of this, I’m sure we all know at least one person who went to college after 2007 and can share stories of nights spent playing Halo over XBox Live. The mass success of the God of War franchise in the West also told Capcom that this gold mine of a market was ready and willing to enjoy some classic hack and slash action gaming.

The decrease in local sales gave Capcom the idea that they needed to begin outsourcing their properties to the West so they could appeal to a larger market, which led to such projects as Lost Planet, Dead Rising and Bionic Commando being made by Western studios. This was largely the brainchild of Keiji Inafune, nowadays known for the utter disaster of the Mighty Number 9 Kickstarter game. Inafune had a mindset of “doing the same thing is going to get us the same results (if we’re lucky). Let’s try something from a different perspective.” Unfortunately for Inafune, his different perspective failed to set the world on fire, with only Dead Rising proving to be a success and making it into the 8th console generation when handled by Capcom’s new Vancouver team, and even that series has suffered some fatal blows due to the poor launch of Dead Rising 4.

Even though Inafune cut ties with Capcom in 2010 (a month after DmC was announced), his idea of Westernizing several dormant properties was still in effect and Devil May Cry became one of the franchises that was outsourced. British company Ninja Theory, known for their games Heavenly Sword and Enslaved Odyssey to the West, were the company Capcom gave a phone call to. While known nowadays more for Hellblade, back in 2010 Ninja Theory were known for two very simply action games that relied more on their stories and usage of motion capture and facial captures to fill in the gaps. What didn’t help was that in the interim period between 4 and the reboot, DMC1 director Hideki Kamiya had since formed Platinum Studios and proven themselves to the West with Bayonetta, a game hailed by many as a spiritual successor to the DMC franchise.

Capcom had faith in Ninja Theory to translate DMC’s vision to the west, and as such at TGS 2010, the first trailer for DmC Devil May Cry was released and... well the rest is history.

youtube

The fanbase’s hackles were immediately raised and knives were out within seconds of the launch trailer dropping. A series that had become known for its over the top cutscenes and wry sense of cheesy humor had been Westernized into another gritty, bleak product. Dante went from the goofball who quoted Shakespeare to a gravelly voiced methhead who smoked. And for a series that prized itself on action and combos, that no proper gameplay was shown at the reveal was a worrying sign. The reveal trailer tainted the whole game right out of the gate; alongside Ninja Theory’s less than stellar track record with action games the fanbase was ready to hate this game on principle if it followed what had been done to Capcom’s other franchises that went on a foreign exchange trip.

Being fair to Ninja Theory though, several extenuating factors must be addressed. Among them is series director Hideaki Itsuno’s admission that he didn’t want to do Devil May Cry 5 yet after having worked on three straight games for the series out of concern that he would suffer from burnout. He wanted to go off and finally make a passion project he had been dreaming of for years in Dragon’s Dogma, which launched in 2012. Additionally, Ninja Theory did try and make a more faithful rendition of Dante, one who even kept the white hair and vibrantly red jacket, but these initial designs were shot down by Capcom, who told them to “go crazy.” In fact one of the people who rejected the designs that were close to classic Dante was Itsuno himself, who saw little point in Ninja Theory just copying Dante’s look if the whole point of the project was a new approach on Devil May Cry.

But the fanbase at the time didn’t know that Capcom were actively encouraging Ninja Theory to experiment, and what didn’t help was the quotes coming from the game’s director, Tameen Antoniades, which would prove to be a series of disasters that plagued DmC’s PR campaign. Tameen, put bluntly, wasn’t ready for the backlash to the game and its visual style and shot back at the fans. When asked by Venturebeat how he felt about the fan reaction to the TGS trailer, Tameen “took a drag of his cigarette and without blinking or pausing to exhale the smoke from his mouth, said: ‘I don’t care.’” People began to mockingly compare Tameen to Dante as seen in the trailer, which caused some fans to question if Tameen had used his own likeness as the basis for Dante.

And unfortunately for Capcom’s PR team, he didn’t stop there, mocking Dante’s original design in a later interview when saying that what was and wasn’t cool had changed in the years since DMC1: “If Dante, dressed as he was, walked into any bar outside of Tokyo, he’d get laughed out.”

I’d like to remind you that Tameen as director of the project likely signed off om some of these alternate concepts for Dante and keep that in mind whenever Tameen or a Ninja Theory staff member talk about A) what is and isn’t cool B) Original Dante’s character design.

The fanbase didn’t exactly make a good case for themselves after the game’s announcement though, with Ninja Theory reporting that they received death threats from some more hardcore fans. It still doesn’t make Tameen admitting he didn’t care if his game sold “a thousand or two million copies” look stellar, nor his derisive attitude towards the original series and its depiction of women, mocking Lady and Trish as “prostitutes with guns.” Ironically, despite being insistent that he’d made the game he wanted to play, Ninja Theory did dial back on methhead Dante, redesigning his model to be more beefy and replacing his voice actor, alongside redoing some scenes to make Dante crack more jokes.

On a technical level, hype was low from the hardcore fans due to simplified combat and, more egregiously, the game being locked to 30FPS on launch unless bought on PC which offered an upcapped framerate. For those unaware, all prior Devil May Cry games had run at 60FPS, including DMC4 which had come out some years earlier on the same console. 60FPS was a requirement by many pro players due to how it made animations silky smooth, so DmC being capped to 30 was an immediate red flag. Suffice to say, the fandom was ready for DmC to be a disaster at launch and began prepping their funeral pyres.

2) Gameplay

Early reviews for DmC were quite positive, with the game earning a Metacritic rating about even with DMC4, but the fanbase were far less forgiving. The 30FPS framerate lock outside of the PC port (which was admittedly one of the more polished ports of 2013, as covered by the late and great John Bain) had tainted the well pre-release and then came back with a vengeance to haunt the console launch in 2013. Without a lock on system, movement felt sluggish compared to the other games, hurting the flow of combat.

Difficulty was a major criticism of the game from long-term fans, particularly pertaining to how the style rank system rewarded damage done over pulling off varied combos. Whereas in the older games the player was punished for repeating moves over and over, DmC’s style ranks were so easy to abuse that so long as the combo was never broken due to taking damage, achieving a SSS rank was child’s play. Aquila’s Tornado and Arbiter’s Trinity Smash were especially broken in this regard.

Being fair to the game, it did introduce several mechanics that were later incorporated into DMC 5 in 2019- enemies get a subtitle during their first appearance (taken from Bayonetta), weapons getting a slight glint when the player pauses to let them know they can launch a pause combo attack (also taken from Bayonetta) and a dynamic soundtrack that racketed up the higher your style rank got, alongside the killing blow at the end of a fight getting a cinematic camera angle. These are all features that were genuine improvements over Devil May Cry 4, and while Bayonetta likely paved the way for most of these improvements, DmC still served as a test-bed to experiment on their integration with Devil May Cry as a whole.

The level design was also a huge step up from the earlier games. Dante’s whip functions made platforming far more varied that it had been in prior games, and these new traversal mechanics allowed for the level designers to stretch their legs. DmC arguably has, even in light of 5, some of the best platforming in the entire franchise, and a gorgeous color palette in some areas when Dante is in Limbo. Gothic European cities were cited as a huge influence by the team, Barcelona in particular, and it shows whenever Dante is outside as he gets dragged into Limbo. The idea of the city itself being a weapon of Mundus that tries to kill Dante is inspired, with obvious homages to Inception, and allows for the designers to make environments that at the drop of a hat can try to kill Dante. The team did their best to bring their unique aesthetic mixture of grunge and color to life, and even goes through a full color script. The downside is that exploration is rarely allowed beyond side paths that lead to collectables, meaning the player is on rails for much of the game.

DmC’s largest gameplay addition is in Dante’s Devil Arms. As he progesses through the game, Dante absorbs angelic and demon weapons from the bosses, gaining Angel Weapons that serve as fast crowd control, and Demon Weapons that are single-target but heavily damaging. Both of these sets of weapons are accessed by holding a trigger button during combat, allowing Dante to fluidly switch between weapons as the situation calls for it. One of my personal favorite applications of this tactic was to use Rebellion’s opening two slices to lead into Arbiter’s Trinity Smash as it was easier for me to read the above-mentioned glint tell on Rebellion. Alongside Dante’s firearms, it gives the player eight different weapons to switch between in combat, allowing for some unique combo potential, albeit potential that isn’t as deep as the original games. Dante losing his styles from DMC3 and 4 alongside the unique moves from those styles like Royal Guarding and jump cancelling was a particularly heavy blow for the hardcore fans, to say nothing of the revulsion generated by the color-coded enemies who could only be hurt by specific weapons.

Another heavy blow for the fans was the handling of Dante’s Devil Trigger, which gives Dante his traditional color palette, slows time to a crawl and gave Dante an attack and speed boost, alongside automatically sending most enemies flying into the air upon activation. The air-boosted hurt the usage of Devil Trigger in the long run, as it reduced whatever encounter it was activated in a stomp for the player- even Dante’s basic combos could tear through enemy health with DT active. Devil Trigger in the original games was a mixture of emergency button and power boost, but here it just serves as an “I win” button on whatever enemy irks you today.

And yet for all that can be said of DmC at launch, it could have been worse. Despite being busy with Dragon’s Dogma, Itsuno still served as an executive producer of the reboot and often gave Ninja Theory advice on areas to improve the gameplay mechanically. One such story goes that Itsuno saw a design for an enemy with blades in its arms. Upon asking what purpose the blades served in combat and being told they had none, Itsuno ordered that the blades be removed. Capcom producer Motohide Eshiro later noted in a Famitsu interview that Ninja Theory had to be reigned in on several occasions in spite of the “go crazy” approach given to them in early design, in order to avoid the game receiving a rating that could potentially stonewall it being sold in physical stores in Japan.

Ultimately the gameplay failed to impress for DmC in 2013, which reflected poorly in its sales. Capcom initially hoped for DmC to break 2 million units like DMC4 had back in 2008, but then quietly lowered the projected sales to 1.2 million. Rumors circulate to this day that Capcom were so desperate to boost the game’s poor sales that when DmC was part of the PS+ membership offer in January 2014, Capcom counted PS+ downloads as part of the sales for the game. In a financial report for 2013, while not speaking of DmC by name, Capcom spoke of a "delayed response to the expanding digital contents market," "insufficient coordination between the marketing and the game development divisions in overseas markets," and a "decline in quality due to excessive outsourcing." Capcom would only report in June 2018, a full five and a half years post-launch, that DmC had met the original sale goals of 2.3 million units. But it wasn’t the gameplay that ultimately turned off the fans and prevented Capcom’s sales pitches from becoming reality. No, that matter fell to the story.

3) Story

DmC’s story isn’t so much a straw that breaks the camel’s back, as it is an anvil. Regardless of your opinions on the gameplay, the story is where DmC comes to a grinding, screeching halt and fails to capture any of the essence of what made Dante and characters from the original setting interesting or even cool. Before we dive into the narrative itself, we need to discuss what started the controversy back in 2010 at TGS, and that’s Dante.

Dante is simply not likable in the reboot. While the original Dante was a goofball and a bit of a jackass, he always backed up his actions with flashy deeds and was ultimately a good-hearted man. In this setting, Ninja Theory try so hard to make Dante cool and badass that it loops around and makes him look like a petulant child’s version of what’s cool- a hard-drinking loner who has threesomes with strippers in his trailer by the amusement park. Dante in DMC4 threw Shakespeare quotes out at Agnus, while Dante in DmC screams “Fuck you!” at demons and writes profanity on clipboards. Nothing about Dante carries that effortless swagger that the original had. His smug, IDGAF attitude tries to make him cool and more fitting for the gritty tone but it’s so different from the original Dante that the subsequent tonal clash makes Dante a much more poorly written character. Again, this is something that must be put at Capcom’s feet and not Ninja Theory, as they were the ones telling the developers to westernize Dante, but the end product stills fails to match up with what came before.

While Dante does have an arc over the game that sees him develop concern for the people close to him and humanity as a whole, the characterization and framing regularly undermines his arc. Dante is written as the archetype of “Jerk with a heart of gold,” but as a direct violation of a core rule of this character- that they must be fun to view and see their antics as an audience member- Dante fails to meet this tenant and it makes his obnoxious, smug and asshole moments taint the character and make it difficult to care for his struggles. Rather than see Dante’s dark backstory that puts his behavior into context and makes you understand why he’s so sullen and bitter, the audience just sees Dante being a smug jackass, and one who takes himself too seriously to be fun like mainline Dante. The one time I buy that Dante genuinely cares for other people is at the Order hideout raid when he stays in order to guide Kat through being arrested, and stays with her as the SWAT officers shoot her and beat her unconscious. His facial expression sells his anguish at seeing Kat be brutalized like this and it contains the best acting from Tim Phillips.

Ironically, despite how hated Methhead Dante was, I do have to wonder what the game would have been like had the developers stuck to their guns and committed to their original idea for the character- someone with psychosis who has no clue if he’s actually seeing and killing demons or if he’s just a mass murdering lunatic. It might have been even worse or it could have made the game work. It’s probably for the best we don’t know what Methhead Dante would have been like, but part of me can’t help but wonder.

It’s important to understand all these problems with Dante, since as the protagonist, the story partly rests on his shoulders. While older Dante had the charisma in most of his appearances to be able to sell the weight of a story moment when he stopped fooling around, reboot Dante’s heavy angst focus means that feat is harder for him to accomplish, and it doesn’t help that his supporting cast are less than ideal.

I mentioned earlier Tameen’s “prostitutes with guns” remark aimed at the DMC female cast, and I think it’s amazing how little self-awareness he must have had to say that when his own story’s approach to female characters is frankly insulting. DmC has one of the most sexist stories I’ve yet seen in any media, and it’s galling when compared to the mainline entries, DMC3 in particular. Kat, Eva and Lillith are all plot devices, Eva being long-dead and existing just to give Dante motivation to kill Mundus, Lillith being the stereotypical sexy villainess who gets reduced to her womb, while Kat is basically the subject of a snuff film with how she gets brutalized by the plot and the camera makes sure you see all of her injuries in extensive detail. And this all goes without saying how the second act revolves around the two female characters in the narrative being traded like Pokemon cards only for Vergil to perform the now-infamous sniper rifle abortion.

It doesn’t matter what joke you’re making in your head right now, it’s still not half as tasteless as this actual scene

Speaking of Vergil, his depiction in DmC is genuinely upsetting and while I’ve seen people argue for Dante’s arc in the reboot, Vergil is almost universally despised and seen as a black mark on the prime version of Vergil. Putting aside the sniper rifle abortion, Vergil is just not written well and he never gives the impression of being powerful. Vergil’s opening scene has him say point-blank to Dante “I’m powerless to stop you,” words that should never flow out of the mouth of anyone claiming to be Vergil. It doesn’t get much better as throughout the game, Vergil hands all the major physical parts of the plan against Mundus to Dante to preserve the secret of Vergil’s Nephilim heritage. The problem with this is that Vergil subsequently never gets to show his stuff in a fight until the very end of the game when he fights Dante and suddenly has a lot of his moveset from the old series transplanted. It makes moments like Vergil hiding behind a barrier at the hands of one demon that Dante has to kill undermine his character and make him look like a coward, to say nothing of his awkward heel-turn which just shows up for the sake of having a final boss. Compared to the depiction of Dante and Vergil’s rivalry in Devil May Cry 3, which was amazing on a thematic and character level, DmC falls flat on its own shoelaces. And the character Vergil gains through his DLC is just further unpleasantness as he rips off Bleach and the Hollow Ichigo fight wholesale. Vergil is just a mistake in this game, and alongside Dante is the cardinal sin in its writing.

Mundus represents a lot of the larger problems with DmC’s story, in particular its on-the-nose message and symbolism. The game is so focused on making sure you get the point that “Hey, we’ve seen this niche film called They Live and it’s the sickest shit also FUCK THE MAN, CAPITALISM SUCKS, WAKE UP SHEEPLE,” that Mundus doesn’t really get to be a proper villain. He’s just this stereotypical slimy corporation guy, with one slight hint to his character in that he’s obsessed with continuing his lineage. The problem is that his lack of writing makes him boring and one-note, a cliche rule-the-world dictator that’s been done to death. He’s not even a major threat in gameplay, his boss fight just being a giant blob monster. It’s visually drab and has the most boring boss fight in the game. Mundus may not have had much personality or screentime in the original DMC1, but he made up for it with a powerful presence that made him feel dangerous. This Mundus is just a bald guy in a suit. The only fear he puts in me is the fear that I’ll drop my controller when I fall asleep.

DmC’s story is a mess. While structurally well-put together, its dialogue is often weak and cringeworthy, most of the villains have no real staying power beyond Barbas, Vergil is a waste of the character name, Kat and Lillith are plot devices and Dante is just a jackass. It’s a cast of unlikable people being unlikable jerks to each other and when the story it’s making me sick with how repulsive it can be with its tone deaf themes and sexism, it’s putting me to sleep with how fucking dull it is.

4) Definitive Edition

The post launch years of DmC weren’t kind to Ninja Theory or Capcom. Capcom retracted their Western development philosophy after a string of flops resulted from it, while Ninja Theory became the whipping boy of the action community for several years post-launch, which led to the now infamous GDC presentation where Dante was photoshopped onto scenes from Brokeback Mountain by someone who had no hand in designing Dante’s old costumes:

Revenge, evidently, is a dish best served cold

What didn’t help them was that 2013 also saw the launch of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Platinum’s take on the Metal Gear franchise that quickly gained the adoration of the action fanbase while leaving DmC in the dust. According to Dante’s voice actor Reuben Landgon, Itsuno apparently was extremely close to retiring after DmC, and Capcom had to offer him the chance to finally make DMC5 before he decided to not quit (though this story has been disputed by Capcom USA producer Matt Walker).

Capcom, like many publishers, has taken Sony and Microsoft both refusing to have backwards compatibility in the PS4 and Xbox One as an excuse to re-release many of their old titles on the new console platforms, often slapping a new coat of paint onto the game and potentially adding achievement/trophy support and calling it a day. In the case of DmC though, the team went above and beyond in solving many of the mechanical problems that players had complained about in the following two years.

Released in March 2015, DmC Definitive Edition was handled more by Japanese side of the Capcom team, and they set to work on making DmC more mechanically in-line in with the mainline entries, as covered by this extensive changelog. 60FPS was an advertised feature on the box, Dante got multiple costumes that let players play with white hair, the style rank system was retooled to punish repetition more harshly and a slew of balance changes were made to the core game- some even based on PC mods players had made of DmC’s original PC port like a lock on function, though sadly the adventures of Donté, el exterminador de demonios didn’t serve such a function.

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Rest in piece, you brave soul.

The Definitive Edition goes leaps and bounds in solving the pressing issues of DmC. With the combat balanced and framerate bumped up, the combat had a much better flow to it. In particular the addition of a new mode, Must Style, where Dante can only damage enemies when he has an S Rank or higher, received a warm reception from the fans to the point where it was hoped that DMC5 would adopt it. With the DE upgrades, DmC goes from a flawed game with potential to being one of the best attempts by the West to emulate Devil May Cry’s frantic, stylish mode of gameplay while adding variety to how the combat and level design was handled. But even two years on, the damage had been done; while Definitive Edition was well-received by hardcore fans, it still failed to set the world on fire sales wise, and in fact was outsold by DMC4′s own HD remake that launched that year, even though the Special Edition was a digital only purchase outside of Japan. In fact, DMC4SE’s sales were so strong Capcom noted them as being behind the company having a good financial quarter during 2015, which many saw as an ironic nail in the coffin for any hopes for the DmC universe getting continuation.

There was no saving the story unfortunately, barring removing Vergil’s laughably pathetic fedora and one especially cringeworthy line from Lillith (”The world is at last your bitch, as am I. Nothing left, but to grab it by the hair, bend it over and-”), which means that much of the issues that DmC’s story presented are still haunting the overall product. One new scene added in the game has Dante calling out Vergil for shooting Lillith and causing countless deaths from Mundus’s rampage, but the scene was itself criticized for missing the point in the fan anger to Vergil’s .50 caliber coat hanger. And the further away the player and time gets from DmC’s outdated-at-launch messages and symbolism, the more the script just fails to entertain or educate, leaving just apathy and the ability to mock it.

5) Conclusion- Left in Limbo

DmC Devil May Cry is... alright. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played and there’s far too many good things here for me to even call it a boring game. The level design and color palette has real moments of beauty, the combat system is a decent showing from Ninja Theory with Capcom supervision and the Definitive Edition showed that the teams from both cultures acknowledged the feedback and made a more mechanically satisfying game to play. DmC is one of the best Western attempts at emulating the over-the-top action of Japanese games alongside Darksiders 2 and does deserve credit for being a satisfying experience to play.

Where it falls apart is whenever control is taken from the player. This story is just terrible and wrought with bad choices that haunt the entire experience and taint the game by association. DmC’s cutscenes are almost slimy in how detestable they are, and it is odd that they inspired such loathing from me on my first run while I was left feeling nothing towards the entire cast other than pity towards Vergil due to what had been done to him on a writing level. I must repeat that I have never played a game as derogatory in its depiction of women as DmC and I pray I never will.

DmC is a flawed experience, perhaps one that you should experience yourself so you can formulate your own opinion on the matter. I wouldn’t recommend it for full-price but if you see it on sale for ten bucks, you can do worse- if nothing else, get some friends over and laugh at the story to get past the cutscenes and onto the mostly-decent gameplay. But you can also do a lot better, being honest. Ultimately DmC is this weird relic of Capcom’s attempts to branch out into the West, and one that ultimately just.. happened with no real lasting impact. Itsuno went on to make DMC5, Ninja Theory and Tameen redeemed themselves in the eyes of many with Hellblade and then got bought by Microsoft, while Capcom finally started to turn around and starting with the 8th console generation, made a concentrated effort to return to the “Capgod” reputation that they had before the 7th gen. Everyone came out of this story with a happy ending and got what they wanted, but that leaves DmC as this odd relic of a weird time in gaming, albeit one that certainly made... memorable experiences.

Thank you for reading.

I guess a million years just comes in at... about five or six.

#devil may cry #dmc devil may cry #dante devil may cry #devil may cry 5 #vergil devil may cry #devil may cry analysis #kat devil may cry #ninja theory #capcom #hideaki itsuno #tameen antoniades

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megatentious · 5 years ago

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Megami Tensei where u at??

When you are down in the dumps about your favorite video game franchise and the future of a series that is special for you, sometimes you end up seeking it out in places that are … unexpected. I’m going to talk about how, over the last couple years, I ended up seeing three different flavors of Megami Tensei in three different games, and maybe by the end of this we can all end up feeling like it’s okay to move on with our lives. Just keep telling yourself that your favorite games are not your identity and it’s not that serious bruh but also tell yourself that it is therapeutic to collect many paragraphs of thoughts you have had about this to write at length about in your blog.

First up is a game that many many people have noticed is very Megaten and that is the Digimon RPG, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth. There was no reason at all for this to be as good of a game as it is. I have no special affinity for the cartoon show. I do not like the Devil Survivor character designer even a little bit. I do not find grinding and monster collecting for the sake of monster collecting entertaining. But from the very first trailer something seemed compelling, and as good word of mouth spread I decided this was going to be a game I needed to play.

Again, everyone has already commented on how Megaten this game feels, and for me the closest specific analogue is actually Raidou Kuzunoha. From the first extended trailer I noticed the jazzy main theme, the detective agency conceit, the visible partner monsters appearing in a Tokyo with bold camera angle choices, and felt a weird familiarity. Digimon also function very plainly as Megami Tensei demons in multiple ways, not only mechanically but also through their story roles. And the somewhat arcane stat manipulation needed for high-end Digivolving scratches the exact same itch as high-end Megaten fusion from previous SMT iterations, which is both a dangerous (100 hours of playtime good lord) and wonderful (100 hours of playtime good lord!) itch to scratch.

You need to put up with some annoying characters and prattling dialogue, but unlike other games there is no pretense here which absolutely helps. Also, re-interpreting traditional Japanese folklore through the lens of the Digimon world is something that never stopped being fascinating for me even amidst a sub-par localization, and as someone with low familiarity with the cartoon, the Digimon designs themselves were alternately hilariously bizarre, bafflingly stupid, and straight up awesome. They even have their own Lucifer!

By the time you get to the second half of the story where the game completely changes and becomes about alliances and faction-building and what happens to a city facing apocalypse, when you take in the incredible atmosphere in Odaiba all buoyed by a soundtrack that has no right to be as good as it is, you start to feel optimistic about how Megaten influence can live on even outside of the series itself.

Next up is an entry from another series that is occasionally compared to SMT, but this one in particular feels like it was only played by two or three people at all when it was miraculously released earlier in 2019 for the Nintendo 3DS. I’m talking about Yokai Watch 3. Arriving close to three years after its initial Japanese release to utterly resounding indifference, this game’s hook is that you get to play in “America,” but as you can tell from the quotes around America this is actually much more complicated than it seems in a way that specifically draws comparison to my beloved Revelations: Persona. You see, the very Japanese Yokai Watch series city location of Sakura New Town, Japon, was localized here for us as Springdale, Springdale back in the first game. This decision has led to many wonderful incongruities moving forward that are honestly identical to those in the Lunarvale of Revelations: Persona. Gotta love these small American towns with Shinto temples in em!

With Yokai Watch 3’s plot focusing on the family moving to actual America though, and the cross-cultural hijinks that are meant to ensue, things quickly get even weirder and more strained. Protagonist Nate Adams complains about the difficulty of understanding southern accents while slurping down sukiyaki. Shopkeepers with tempura-based hairstyles serve traditional Japanese dishes in the quaint American township of St. Peanutsburg. Huge timezone differences between America and “America” are introduced. And all of this is refracted through the even more convoluted localization prism of this game about two versions of America being scripted by the British, leading to children aspiring to be “basketballers” and restaurants having “oriental” atmosphere.

I’m barely scratching the surface of the dissertation-worthy unpacking needed for all of this, and it’s difficult to describe just how deeply weird the vibe can get in this game. In just the first twenty minutes of Yokai Watch 3, you have 1) a purely nutso anime opening featuring scary demonic folklore-based yokai, robots, and cat mascots 2) Mulder and Scully very seriously discussing mysterious “Y Files” 3) a rhythm game where your very American family devours an enormous amount of sukiyaki 4) the same very American (or in the game’s terms, “Springdalian”) family leaving their home to move to the state? country? of “BBQ” and 5) suddenly you are an otaku girl going to a figure shop in “Sparkopolis.” This is just as delirious as it sounds.

Revelations Persona’s uncanny America atmosphere may be one of a kind, but Yokai Watch 3’s frequently insane scenarios can sometimes recall a similar sort of lunacy that leads you to end up fighting a giant mechanical rat while a song with the track name “Child Abuse” plays, or chatting up a populace of mole-covered rainbow afro’d citizens in a locked down mall. At one point after returning from one of Yokai Watch 3’s various alternate dream worlds (very Persona!) my game was even afflicted with a commonly reported glitch that caused the environmental textures to not load, leading to a flat polygon world and some authentic PSX Lunarvale vibes. Throw in all the folktales and mythology involved in the yokai themselves and straight up demon fusion in a cathedral and suddenly you’ll end up experiencing more Megaten than you’d ever expect to see in an RPG targeted to young children.

Last up is an all-time classic that actually predates Shin Megami Tensei entirely, making it temporally impossible for any influence to show up, which muddles the entire concept of this essay but please roll with it you guys this is just how I feel. I’m talking about the seminal Phantasy Star, for the Master System, which I played through M2’s loving, impeccable SEGA AGES port on Switch. This game, which was released in 1987, is simply incredible. Right off the bat you’ve got genius-level programming from Yu Suzuki himself, which allowed for the first person dungeons to scroll so smoothly that posting a snippet of directly captured footage from the game can still lead to semi-viral tweets. It’s these extremely cool boldly colored first person dungeons, along with the expansive feeling of the several worlds you visit that led me to feel some of the spirit of Megami Tensei 2 specifically in this game.

“oops i accidentally phantasy starred for four hours” is how I put it playing through this game for the first time, and it’s a given that a non-fantasy setting RPG where you can talk to the monsters would be appealing to me. Phantasy Star as a series was in fact deliberately conceptualized as a rebellion against the many fantasy RPGs of the time, and the developers have talked about this in a way that is practically identical to early staff interviews about the goals for Megami Tensei. Director and gaming luminary Rieko Kodama has remarked that the choice of a female protagonist was also considered rebellious, even though it felt like a natural choice for her on a personal level.

Megami Tensei 2 is the game that builds the structure for Shin Megami Tensei as we know it today, moving away from Megami Tensei 1’s single full-game dungeon format to a world map with numerous discrete dungeons and eventually, paths to alternate worlds. Phantasy Star shares this exact design format, which still feels so expansive and impressive to this day. It’s a treat to get to experience a game like this over 30 years after its release on current hardware and still feel such an impact, and all of you need to go out and buy buy buy this game, seriously give M2 your money.

I’ve taken it as a given that everyone shares my perspective on where Shin Megami Tensei is at these days as a series, and it’s obviously never a good look to come across as an over-dramatic scolding bitter old who has retreated into pure irrelevance. But by documenting all of these observations down for myself, I can at least feel better about finding bits and pieces of various Megaten strains in the games of today. The lesson learned is that even if you feel your favorite franchise has lost its way, you may be able to find parts of it in the places you least expect.

#megami tensei #shin megami tensei #optimism???

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