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balketh · 2 months ago

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Lol, sorry if I want clear: I'm not here to debate. If you disagree with my thoughts on Starfield because you still like what Bethesda are doing, keep it to yourself. Triple A gaming has gotten worse because of this acceptance of shit (aside from the CEO capitalistic nightmare in the industry atm.) I truly could not want to hear those opinions less; it's like hearing from sports video game fans that current gen sports games are fine being so utterly engorged with dark pattern microtransations. Have some fucking standards, please.

Skyrim was truly only worth a damn because of modding. Oblivion, Morrowind; only still relevant because they're moddable. Bethesda wouldn't have been the first company ever to successfully shoehorn PAID MODDING on CONSOLES if that wasn't 100% the case. Something literally NO other company forced through before them. Skyrim would not have been a mega success if players on PC couldn't fix their issues. It didn't last because of console players. It lasted because of bugfixing and pornmaking modders, and that's a goddamn fact.

Nothing else they've done since has been nearly as good or long lasting. That longevity - because of modding - is the only real reason they've had so many chances to make more games. It's the only reason they're such a big fucking company now. If it wasn't, they wouldn't have released the CK for Starfield.

They have not learned; their games keep getting worse, their sales keep going down. It might be slow, but it's a fucking fact. Reviews aren't everything, just as sales aren't everything, but Bethesda is, largely, on the decline, and that's not up for debate.

Jee, it's almost like headlines like "An All-Time Low For Bethesda Studios" re: Starfield DLC completely support my entire point that Bethesda is in a serious decline that they won't recover from because they keep making worse shit than the last thing they made, and it's been that way SINCE THEY JUST KEPT REMAKING SKYRIM.

I cannot be clear enough when I say it won't improve. A writer for Bethesda, Will Shen, (one of the better writers - responsible for all of Nick Valentine/Far Harbour in FO4, the best bits of FO4), left Bethesda after Starfield, because of how awfully run by upper management it was. That's 1000000% what I'm talking about. I could not be more correct. You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, but people inside the fucking company can see it, exactly as I said.

Emil Pagliarulo, lead writer on - let's see, Bethesda's four worst written games, games known for having shitty stories that people actively disregard in favour of just playing with the game like a sandbox full of toys - FO3, Skyrim, FO4, and Starfield, (with known shitty contributions to Oblivion) claims that Starfield is Bethesda's best work yet. The guy who wrote the Dark Brotherhood storyline in Oblivion, which, to be clear, is dogshit. Not the 'kill creatively' gameplay, not the lore from TES at large, the actual writing, dialogue, and in-game narrative surrounding your actions; go and look it up right now. It's contrived slop, and this was his 'big win'.

The man who openly stated that he doesn't like using design documents in his work. On massive, sprawling, open-world narrative games. The man literally responsible for every single bad story Bethesda has released since Oblivion - yes, all of them, because that's what lead writers do, they approve and direct the writing of their team. The awful non-protag from-birth-fInD-uR-dAd of FO3. Skyrim's utterly generic dRaGoNs-R-bAcK! Go shout at them until they stop! and the god awful lol-all-sides-are-shitheels-but-whatever Thalmor, Legion, and Stormcloaks. FO4's hilarious improvement on FO3, 'SHAUN, WHERE IS MY BABY SHAUN', with the most obvious fucking minute-one twist imaginable, and now, his pièce de résistance, an entire universe of uninteresting, themeless, cookie-cutter sci-fi drudgery with no real reason to explore or be invested. A man so anti-protag in singleplayer games that rather than make you the protagonist in Starfield, they used the restartable ending to write off your singular importance by having there be infinity of you.

The fucker responsible for Shattered Space's absolutely dogshit reception, and its terrible writing and narrative direction. That lead to article headlines like 'Bethesda Honcho says Starfield is "the best game we've ever made" in massive bout of amnesia', something that would only fly if, oh, I don't know, we were generally all aware of how dogshit Bethesda's writing and dialogue have been for a decade. He might not have done the genuinely fucking bland, soulless gameplay, or riddled the game with fucking BETHESDA MENUS, but he's responsible for the most unfixable thing in all of these games: the writing.

That's who will be doing ES6, probably with Todd backing him.

People didn't buy Skyrim 17 times (yes, that's how many discrete versions of Skyrim you could have bought without buying the same game on the same console twice) for the fucking story. They bought it because it's a fucking fantasy sandbox that did not have a competitor of similar scope for years. Starfield is a bad sandbox, and it shows.

Yeah, no, Bethesda's a fucking goner if he does ES6. It won't flop, because people will fucking RUSH to buy it day 1 without knowing a thing about it, but the reviews that follow will eviscerate it. ES6 will be the downfall of Bethesda. Both of them need to fuckin' retire, and let some actual talent do the writing for once in this decade.

I can only wish it would drop sooner rather than later, so they could just fucking stop.

#ursine musings #tes #skyrim #Starfield #starfield dlc #bethesda

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saijspellhart · 1 year ago

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Hey guys, Fiction can be Effed up and thats ok.

for all you creatives out ther worrying about how outraged people will be if you write the effed up story you want to write. Please remember. Without effed up stories we wouldnt have the entire horror genre.

And i dont know about you but the entire horror genre is a literal work of visual and storytelling art. One of the absolute last bastions of sandboxes for original ideas.

The rest of hollywood is hell bent on remakes and adaptations of preexisting media. But Horror always has a HUGE amount of entries every year from low budget and indy creators who are making glorious original content. With original ideas. And even film studios frequently greenlight original horror more often than other genres.

So when you are out there writing your original stories with the most depraved dead dove content imaginable. And you are scared people will hate it. Please know that there is an entire genre that celebrates the creativity of that content.

And that effed up creativity doesnt need to stay contained in the horror genre either. But without that freedom of creativity there wouldnt be a horror genre at all.

Purity culture would purge the horror genre.

So please keep creating your dead dove content.

Fake people and fake stories are not a reflection of real life. You can make a Saw franchise without wanting to commit torture pron in real life.

#Writing and art positivty

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jajanvm-imbi · 11 months ago

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Hazbin Hotel 4 episode premiere review Part 2

Part 1 | Part 3

I'm gonna preface this by saying that I am enjoying Hazbin in the same way I enjoy Helluva Boss. I've been following the series since the pilot's release, I've gotten more and more excited with every announcement leading up to it's offical release and I've already watched every episode several times.

HOWEVER, just like with Helluva Boss, there are a lot of issues with Hazbin that I feel are very fair criticisms worth talking about.

This isn't going to be another bad-faith rambling about how the show is shit, how everyone who likes it is stupid, and how Viv and her creative team deserved all of the harassment they've gotten for the past couple of years. Like I said I've been enjoying Hazbin and Helluva for what they are a lot, but just because I enjoy both shows doesn't mean I don't think there are many issues with it.

This post is going to be discussing Hazbin's issues ofc, but I'd really like to sit down and write up all of my issues with Helluva one day as well because any issues in Hazbin are almost always 10x worse in Helluva.

So now with that our of the way, here's my critique on Hazbin Hotel as someone who enjoys the show:

Buckle up cause this post is gonna be long

What I believe the main issue for Hazbin Hotel boils down to the same issue for Helluva Boss:

Pacing

The pacing in Hazbin is......not great. Don't get me wrong, its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the pacing in Helluva Boss, by like, a lot. But that doesn't mean its, well, good.

The Over-Reliance on the Pilot's Popularity.

So, there's no actual introduction to any character but Charlie and mayyyyyyyybe Vaggie. But the rest of the cast is just, there, and the audience is supposed to know who they are automatically. And even then, the introduction to the premise is almost non-existent in the first ep.

For those of us who have been following the series for years know who these characters are and what the plot of the series is, but for the causal viewer who's scrolling through Prime and stumbles upon Hazbin, there's no proper introduction to what's happening.

It's almost like its required to watch the pilot before watching the actual series in order to have any idea whats happening. And thats a problem because the pilot isn't an episode its a pilot. For like 99% shows, the audience never sees the pilot. Season 1 episode 1 has to start from square 1, reintroducing who's who and what's going on.

The first ep of Hazbin takes place one week after the pilot. Which means they all acknowledge the pilot happened, its not retconed or anything, but it's still not an episode.

The pilot takes the time to establish Charlie's base personality, her motives, how the rest of hell treats her, and the significance of Alastor's presence at the hotel. Charlie getting bullied by Katie Killjoy at the news station does more for establishing Charlie's character and her motives than anything in all 4 episodes of the official premiere. There isn't really anything to show how hell doesn't take Charlie seriously, either. (The closest thing we get is how Valentino talks about Charlie when she's not there) Yeah Adam bullies her in ep 1 but that heaven not hell. S1 ep 1 "Overture" just expects the audience to already know what's happening.

There is literally no reason why they couldn't have just remade the pilot into an actual episode with a few changes and the new voice cast (obv), and then pick up the next day instead of the next week.

Like is the whole terf war still happening? Cause it isn't acknowledged at all in the premiere. Maybe they could have added Alastor's mysterious 7 year "sabatical" into Vaggie's explanation of Alastor to Angel.

It would have been so easy to just remake the pilot into an episode since the pilot does such a good job of establishing whats going on. A well known example of a show doing just that is the Gravity Falls pilot. The pilot is obviously shorter and the supporting cast is missing, but the plot of the episode is still the same and it establishes the personalities for the 3 main characters. Anyway-

2. The Hotel Isn't Even the Central Focus

They introduced the conflict between Heaven and Hell waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too soon.

This is the exact same thing that happened with Helluva Boss. The pilot displayed a clear premise for the series and then when the series officially airs it turns out the premise isn't even the central focus.

It isnt as offensive in Hazbin because at least Hazbin's central focus is on something still somewhat relevant to the plot which is "helping sinners". In Helluva Boss the central focus is "Owo angsty gay relationship drama", which is completely irrelevant to the initial "imps in hell are hits for hire up on earth and shenanigans ensue" premise.

Why are we being introduced to heaven's schemes to do more than one extermination a year before Charlie even gets a chance to prove there are some sinners interested in being redeemed? It would have been a MILLION times more impactful if Charlie got maybe two or three sinners actually looking to be redeemed to stay at the hotel, who were hopeful that they still had a chance to live a better life, only for all of Charlie's hopes to be crushed by Adam's rejection.

If Charlie had people who believed in her, if she saw how much faith they had in her to help them change their lives around, only for her to come back from her meeting not only saying the angels rejected her but that the next extermination was sooner than anticipated, OUGH would it have hurt.

Instead, the hotel is treated like a background or just a thing to do in the meantime while the characters focus on the Heaven vs. Hell conflict or other stuff.

The show just immediately jumps into the whole Heaven vs. Hell thing without really even focusing on the hotel and what Charlie is trying to do, AKA the title of the fucking show. Why even bother calling the series Hazbin Hotel if you aren't going to even focus on why the hotel exists in the first place????

We as the audience need to spend time at the hotel with the characters in order for us to get attached to Charlie's cause before you dash all our hopes away. Then we can root for Charlie as she overcomes Heaven's hypocrisy with the help of her friends. (which kind of goes back to the over reliance on the pilot)

And the cherry on top would have been that this is the perfect set up for some fun ""filler"" character establishing episodes while Charlie works with the sinners.

There's a reason why most people seem to recognize ep 4 "Masquerade" as the best episode out of the 4 despite also being the most graphic, followed by ep 2 "Radio Killed the Video Star". Both ep 2 and ep 4 are more one off self contained stories you would usually see in a more episodic series, and they're wonderfully entertaining because they're still being treated like introductions. Ep 2 takes the time to properly introduce the Vs and their connections to the main cast, particularly Vox and Alastor's rivalry. Ep 4 introduced Angel's situation with Valentino to the audience, which is a major part of his character, and Angel is part of the main cast so this isn't out of place. The conflicts between the Vs and the main cast aren't resolved by the end of either of these episodes, but thats because they're still only introductions.

The problem with ep 1 and ep 3 is that we're charging ahead with the whole Heaven vs. Hell conflict with characters we still barely know.

The issues with ep 1 mainly tie back into point 1. with how there was no proper reintroduction to anything in the series, and the show immediately crushes Charlie's dreams before we are even properly introduced to them again. Adam being an asshole to Charlie and them moving up the next extermination date has no impact because we as the audience barely knows who these characters even are.

In episode 3, the hotel and the team building stuff is the B plot while Alastor and his meeting with the other Overlords is the A plot??? In the third episode of the series????

I was confused with why ep 3 featured a Velvette and Camilla duet and a Vaggie and Camilla duet because we barely know who Velvette and Camillia are. Why did Camilla get a whole ass power ballad about protecting her daughters from an exorcist if we barely know who Camilla is??? Why was she paired with Vaggie, a character we've already grown attached to for the past 2 episodes??? Vaggie had some nice character moments in ep 3 but it was overshadowed by Camilla's presence because we don't know nearly enough about Camilla for a parallel between her and Vaggie to feel appropriate.

Velvette had some fun banter with Vox in ep 2 but only for like a minute, why is she singing about being better than everyone else?? Vox and Valentino had way more screentime than Velvette so far, so why should we as the audience believe that she's the "backbone of the Vs" and thats why she's feels like she can be disrespectful to Camilla and Zestial? The show doesn't even directly acknowledge that Velvette is the newest and youngest of the overlords, thats information given to us from????Instragram??? Why is Velvette the "backbone of the Vs"?? I'm not saying they should have done a whole backstory episode before this scene, I'm saying there should have at least been a scene foreshadowing Velvette being the mastermind behind the Vs' power or something.

And both the issues with Camilla ad Velvette tie back into how they're talking about starting a fucking WAR with HEAVEN?????????? We barely know anything about the conflict between Heaven and Hell why would a war between the two being a real threat in the mind of the audience??? And what does any of this Overlord drama have to do with Charlie's mission to rehabilitate sinners??? They don't care about the new extermination date because of Charlie's mission they just don't want to fucking die.

Its way too soon to be talking about all this with characters we as the audience barely know. None of this had anything to do with the hotel or Charlie's goals.

So in conclusion to this section, the writers at Hazbin have done the same thing they did with Helluva, which is: They expect the audience to care about the characters and the plot without actually giving us a reason why. Because the pilot was so popular and was the only thing we had of Hazbin for 4 years, they decided that the pilot's popularity was good enough to take the place of actual character establishing work. They felt like since the pilot already generated a large fanbase, they didn't need to do any of the work to get the audience to care about the characters and the plot because they already do. So now the writers are charging ahead with all this fluff and drama, talking about things that are irrelevant to the premise without re-establishing anything because they felt like the pilot are did that for them. Long time fans are gonna eat this all up regardless because we've been waiting for more episodes for YEARS, but Hazbin is going to have a very hard time gaining any new audience on a mainstream platform like Prime Video because the show is incomplete. No casual viewer scrolling through Prime is going to want to click off of Prime, log onto YouTube and watch the 45 minute pilot in order to then understand Hazbin Hotel the series. Causal viewers are going to watch the first episode thinking "Oh I've heard of this lets see what the hype is all about" and then be super confused on whats happening and who all these characters are and quickly loose interest. No one wants to do homework in order to enjoy a show. At least with Helluva Boss the entire show is on YouTube and the official playlist with all the episodes includes the pilot so new viewers don't have to leave the platform. Hazbin already has a second season confirmed right out of the gate, and the fanbase is already large enough to keep the show going (hopefully), but honestly I fear Viv and her team are gonna have a really hard time getting their numbers to grow because of these choices. Lets see how all this plays out.

There's one more thing that I wanted to bring up because it is a glaring issue but people have been talking about it since the pilot so I'll keep it brief.

Character Designs and Color Palette

Yes, Viv's artstyle suffers from "Tumblr Sexyman Syndrome".

Every other character wears a suit and bowtie. Which makes sense for some of them, Charlie and Vox in specifically. Charlie is a princess so she dresses formally and Vox is a business man. (Although why does Vox wear a bowtie and not a regular necktie?)

Alastor, Sir Pentious, and Angel however? Why? I get how a suit and tie could fit into their respective aesthetics, but there are also different outfits from their respective time periods that could have made more sense and would have easily solved this issue.

By having every other character wear the same outfit, we loose the sense that all these characters are from different periods of time and places. Which is a shame because Hell is the PERFECT setting to have all these different time periods collide in a way that makes sense.

No one questions why a 1940s gangster from New York, an English inventor from 1830s London, a radio host from 1930s Louisiana, a housemaid from the 1950s, a Vegas gambler from idk when, etc... are all in the same location because they're all in Hell. They all died at different periods in time but they all ended up in the same place! It was such a missed opportunity to have fun with this hogpoge of different aesthetics and it sucks because it would have been so visually interesting and engaging!

It also doesn't help that almost everyone is wearing red. And not just red, but the same shade of red as the fucking SKY. Like look at this shit:

Like rip to any colorblind person trying to watch this.

I'm genuinely shocked that this wasn't corrected while redesigning the main cast. Viv went to the School of Visual Arts (SVA), one of the top schools for animation on the East Coast. I refuse to believe she didn't learn how bad this in school.

This is one of the only areas in which Helluva Boss is actually better than Hazbin. The imps all have the same color palette, red white and black, but because they regularly travel to other rings of Hell, earth, and interact with other beings in Hell like, sinners, succubi, hellhounds, the Sins, etc.... they stand out. The imps don't blend into the background (as often) like the Hazbin cast does.

But because the Hazbin cast can't travel to the other rings of Hell according to the lore (which I don't mind), then it was up to Viv and the other designers on the team to find a creative solution to make the characters stand out against the bright red sky. Instead they made it infinitely worse than the pilot by putting everyone in red.

At least in the pilot, Charlie wore pink and black, Vaggie wore grey and white, Angel wore white, Nifty had a splash of yellow etc... But now literally 90% of the cast is in the same shade of bright red as Alastor and the SKY. Like we get it they're in Hell they don't need to wear red to convey that because the SKY is red and has a fucking PENTAGRAM IN IT. We know the hotel is in Hell it doesn't need to be red either

The best scenes in the show visually so far are when the characters aren't outside or in the hotel. For example:

Charlie in the Heaven clocktower, Angel dancing in Poison, Angel and Husk outside the bar (I know I just said when they aren't outside but that background has enough variety of color that it actually works very well)

I am honest to God baffled how this wasn't corrected. Its like, Character Design 101, how was Viv allowed to get away with this?

Anyway

CW: brief mention of abuse

Those are my first impressions on Hazbin Hotel the official series. I know there are only 4 episodes out but the fact that the series started like this is genuinely concerning. Viv was given the opportunity of a lifetime, what started as a indie project was picked up by a well respected studio and distributed by Prime Video. She gained a massive fanbase right off the bat and had all the tools to make this series something special. People are tired of the oversaturation of remakes and reboots and sequels and prequels and spin offs and live actions and whatever that seeing a new show with a whole new concept and setting and characters is exciting! Not many big studios are willing to invest in bold new ideas anymore. People are starving for something new, but when the new stuff is, well, this, its pretty disappointing.

I'm going to continue watching Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss because despite the many glaring issues both shows have, I do still find them entertaining.

I don't mind all the swearing, (even when it does get annoying), I don't mind the sense of humor, I'm not too offended by the Tumblr Sexyman artstyle. I'm a musical theater lover, so I don't mind the musical numbers, especially with such a stacked talented cast. I can personally handle darker, more intense topics like Angel's abuse.

I was excited for the series to premiere, I'm excited for future episodes, and I honestly believe the reason why I still find these shows enjoyable is because I love doing breakdowns like this. I love analyzing the media I consume, I love understanding how and why shows fail, and bad shows have more to analyze than good shows do lmfao.

And don't get me wrong, there are things about the series that I really love as they are! But that's for a different post lol.

If you're still reading this I hope you enjoyed my review Hazbin Hotel so far. I know in the past I said I was prepared to not engage with the fandom at all because there was too much drama and the hatedom is honestly equally, if not more annoying than the fandom, but I couldn't resist doing a whole long ass post about the show, jaja. I have too much fun with this sort of stuff!

#yall better appreciate this cause I was trying to upload those screenshots instead of getting ready for work #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel spoilers #helluva boss #vivziepop #vivienne medrano #spindlehorse toons #spindlehorse

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cartoonkitten · 3 months ago

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Going insane because what the fuck is that remake/remix/cover of Where Is My Mind in The Inseparables /pos

I typically HATE pop/modern remixes/covers/remakes whatever the hell of classic rock songs, but imo, The Inseparables version of Where Is My Mind fucking slayed, devoured, ate and left no crumbs. It's majestic and I love it to pieces. Nearly started crying when I heard it. THAT'S HOW MAJESTIC THAT STUFF IS

Really fits with Don's whole "you are a toy, you can't fly" moment where his whole reality and imagination was shattered and smashed to bits, especially considering the song's abt being high and dissociating or being out of it in general. And DJ's lines/quotes telling Don that it's all in his head fit so well, almost rap-like (at least in spanish lol) and i was like WHATT HOLY SHITTT

Once more, sorry for the sudden ramble, I just HDKSJSHSH I FUCKING LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SILLY MOVIE

NOO BECAUSE LITERALLY ITS SO FUCKING GOOOODDDD. LIKE THE FIRST TIME I HEARD IT I WAS LIKE NO FUCKING WAY PUGGY IS REMAKING THAT PIXIES SONG. puggy is already iconic with several other of that studios films, cause they made the soundtrack for the bigfoot movies (which were also directed by the same guy as the inseparables btw!) and the score for chickenhare and likely will be scoring chickenhare 2. AND LIKE, FOR THIS MOVIE THEY LITERALLY MADE EVERYTHING SO PERFECT, AND THIS????? LIKE THIS SONG MAKES ME FUCKING CRY TOO

AND LIKE OH MY GOD HIS WHOLE REALITY CHECK MOMENT IS SO HEARTBREAKING CAUSE LIKE. all he wanted was to find a way to use his creativity for something better, to not be confined to one thing all the time (especially one that gets him picked on), and of course, to gain some respect. ending up contradicting himself on every goal he was initially after and thus developing a tunnel vision of one conforming dynamic, like before, but different. he wasn’t wrong for committing heroism for others, but in the process he started forgetting to not just respect the couple people that actually try to respect him, but also forgetting to respect himself— which he realized in the beginning but completely lost track of after vaguely loosing his mind. AND THE FAKE CASTLE SCENE SHOWING THAT HES CHASING AFTER NOTHING IS SO FASCINATING TO WATCH GENUINELY. AND THE SONG JUST ADDS TO IT.

ALSO THE ART OF IT ALL IS HOW IT TIES BACK INTO THE END. CAUSE LIKE Don doesn’t really need anyone to build him back up, he humbled himself, but still remembers what he intially promised and still believes what’s right. he goes in with more self respect and still holds in his heart how to use creativity to save others. allowing others to respect their own strengths as actors, because nobody should have to be seen as one thing

TANGENTIALLY RELATED TO THE MUSIC but i also really love how rap is represented in this movie. usually rap isn’t taken as serious as other music genres and it’s frustrating to see all the time. so having this movie value and even encourage it is actually very interesting to me

ALSO DONT EVEN WORRY YOURE SO GOOD I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YA!! i also tend to ramble a lot about it and it gets pretty off topic but i just feel like the music ties everything together so well, i swear i could write an essay on everything about this movie HA

#griffin speaks #the inseparables #nwave #I TALK ABOUT THEM TOO MUCH #the silly puppet movie that drives me up walls #tee hee

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toniko · 27 days ago

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초심돌 478 very extended thoughts n theories

btw Hajun is not mentioned in the memories in any detail at all. We continue to know fuckall what’s going on with that guy really.

Okay. So when it said age 31 memory I thought he had a couple more months but you son ofa bitch IMMEDIATELY AFTER??? Because you could not have survived the sleeping pill downed with beer combo, come the fuck on. Seo Yehyun even bids you goodbye with a ‘see you next time,’ crazy flag to raise there

Okay. So the rest of the chapter, memory 2. I personally believe in the theory that each member had their turn with being the ‘regressor’ in each round. Like it’s such an odd action of ‘handing Yoon Eden a poorly remade version of All Right or Night’ to Yoon Eden. It’s his own song, so if he’s a regressor he can just remake it right? Like this has to be done with the assumption that they believe they’re the only regressor. Eden implies that Dobin & Jaehee have also done the same thing in previous rounds. If the other members remember the regressions then they wouldn’t have brought up the same idea either (considering that Eden says it’s been a failure every time). In the first place, it seems like only Eden fully remembered everything during the ‘Risk system era’ while the members on different regression turns/rounds would remember pre-regression but not the actual regression.

I mean, I think this is why Eden is so pissed too. Imagine if he really wasn’t a regressor and made the song based off of those notes. Wouldn’t some credit go to the member that brought him the song? I don’t think any of the member’s intended to steal Eden’s work or anything but it’s a bit much to hand him a sheet of his own music. And ‘All Right or Night’ fails anyway because it seems like they didn’t find or springboard off of ‘One Chance’. (Assuming he was still in his slump because only time/age was reset, it might not have been a great rendition of the song either)

Additionally, Eden really hates piggybacking off of other people’s hard work in the artistic sense. This may be his own song but at this time, it was given to Navy for their big break. As much as it is Eden’s song, it is also Navy’s. The members being outsiders in the creative process had no right bringing this song to Eden even if Eden made it with them in mind. I honestly don’t blame the other members, because this seems like pretty standard regressor plays or decisions.

Regressor stories love dodging the issue of achievements made by other people being stolen by a main character simply by making it so that the achievements were made by shitty people. There’s the additional smokescreen of it being a time that no longer exists.

Of course, ‘All Right or Night’ does become a Reve song. This decision is made alongside deciding he’ll make an even better song for Navy. And then he does. What a guy really.

Seriously, Yoon Eden is a fascinating regressor character because he’s so self/made he barely makes use of literally knowing the future and mostly just takes the chance to right the wrongs in his pre-regression days.

Well, final thoughts on the ‘Risk system era’ is how it seems like he lived through the full damn 7 years at least 5 times. It seems like ‘Beginner’ system comes in at 5th but there’s a mention of that same house and Ferrari. With how much Eden emphasizes his age as well, these didn’t seem like short regressions even if the number is small.

But it’s not all depressing, because our current Eden always picks the mood back up. Hahaha his final line really cleared my head, if he hadn’t done that, I would’ve been rolling around my bed in misery still…

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icedragonlizard · 1 year ago

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The one Kirby game that really deserves a remake, in my opinion.

When Return to Dreamland Deluxe came out, I've then noticed people wanting remakes for Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot. And if I'm going to be honest? I don't think it's necessary to remake those two games. At least not around this time. They're still deep in the newer half of the spectrum for Kirby games, they're still literally from one console ago, and thus I believe it's too soon to remake them.

Remakes don't happen very often in the Kirby series anyways. But if I think there's one game in the series that absolutely deserves a remake more than the others, I think it's Dreamland 2.

This is another long rant so I'll add a "keep reading" tag to this if you're curious to hear more of my thoughts as to why I think this.

Dreamland 2 is the most outdated mainline Kirby game, as the original Kirby's Dreamland has been used for Super Star's Spring Breeze gamemode, and Kirby's Adventure has been remade into Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland for the GBA.

Dreamland 2 is the only mainline game in the series that you can't play in graphics better than Gameboy Color.

And the game has a lot of flaws. Due to being on the Gameboy, it's got a small screen. Kirby can't even run in this game because of how small the screen is. Kirby also loses his copy ability EVERY time he takes damage in this game, compared to other games where it usually takes more than one hit for him to lose his ability.

Rick and Kine both suck to use in this game, but thankfully they've been heavily improved in Dreamland 3 when they gave Rick all sorts of perks like climbing walls and being unphased by slippery terrain, and allowed Kine to be faster on land. But in Dreamland 2? Coo is the only one out of the three animal friends that's actually good here.

Planet Robobot is still pretty fresh and fine, as is Triple Deluxe. They can stand pretty well on their own and don't need remakes for a while. Dreamland 2, however, really shows its age. It's good for a Gameboy game, but it's so archaic and lackluster compared to all the newer Kirby titles, and like I said above, it's the most outdated since even the Kirby games older than it got remade one way or another.

Remaking Dreamland 2 into the modern era could easily go a long way to do it much needed justice. It could address all or at least the majority of its problems. It could provide a bigger screen to let Kirby actually run like he does in the newer games. Rick and Kine could be given all the same buffs that they were given in Dreamland 3. Heck, we could probably even add a few more copy abilities to provide combinations for, as after all we're still only dealing with three animal buddies here, so it should be okay to add a couple more abilities into the mix! They added some abilities in RTDL's remake that weren't there in the original game, so the same can apply here.

I think a Kirby adventure where Rick, Kine and Coo are the companions could be great. I love those three characters anyways. But Dreamland 2 as we know it is really outdated, barebones and tbh I'd be hard-pressed to call it fun at this point. For a Gameboy game, yes, but it's kind of a joke compared to all the newer Kirby titles. Looking at this game, it seems absolutely ripe for a remake imo.

Dreamland 2 is a short game, but in a remake they could easily just add more gamemodes to make it a larger game compared the original. I'm aware that a remake doesn't typically do any real notable expansions on the gamemodes that existed in the original, but I mean.. they could add a few things in the original mode. Like I said, they could maybe add a few more copy abilities.

Extra gamemodes.. I dunno, they could be stuff similar to Merry Magoland. I'll admit, I'm not that creative when trying to think about gamemodes, I guess they'd come up with stuff fine if they ever choose to remake this game into the modern era.

Also, maybe GOOEY could be a little bit something more in a hypothetical Dreamland 2 remake compared to how he was just in the bags in the original to serve as a heal item if you already were riding around with Rick, Kine or Coo. Who knows? Maybe a Gooey "epilogue" that happens between Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3 to show his growth and to how he got to his position in Dreamland 3! Although I'll be honest, I'm not exactly advocating for all sorts of characters to have prologue/epilogue-style gamemodes similar to what Magolor got, as that could get old and repetitive pretty fast. But hey.. I think Gooey would be a sensible candidate if they actually do decide to go that route again for whatever reason.

Given Dreamland 2's shortness, even with extra gamemodes included I would agree that a remake for the game definitely wouldn't be worth $60 like most switch games are. I guess... $15-30 would be better? HOWEVER, I wouldn't be opposed to a "Dreamland Trilogy" that contains all of Dreamland 1, Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3.

Dreamland 3 is also rather old for the series, although the idea of remaking that game sounds a bit weirder in comparison because I think it should keep its crayon aesthetic to allow it to stay unique. I also think it's generally more fleshed out than Dreamland 2. So in my opinion, Dreamland 3 isn't as needing of a remake as its predecessor is. I wouldn't be too opposed to it, though, since it's also old.

Anyways, those are my thoughts. I can understand why people would want Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot to be remade, but they're still new for Kirby games, and I think it'd be weird to just remake all the Kumazaki games and ignore all the older titles that arguably need remakes so much more. I mean, remakes are rare in the series like I said earlier, but if we're gonna choose another one to remake, I think it's pretty obvious who could ACTUALLY use it. Dreamland 2 is the one Kirby game in most dire need of a remake, in my opinion.

What do you think?

#kirby #kirby's dreamland 2 #rick kine coo #rick kirby #kine kirby #coo kirby #animal friends kirby #gooey kirby #dark matter #dark matter swordsman #king dedede #return to dreamland deluxe #kirby remakes #rick kine and coo

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maroonghoul · 6 months ago

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Summer of Slashers!

I'm back!

I've still been watching horror movies every week or so. In fact, I noticed that most of the ones on my watchlist have been slashers movies. So I sorta made a mini event out of it. I started a while ago actually so I'll catch you up on the three I've watched so far.

Intruder (1989)

Never let it be said grocery stores can't be interesting places. They certainty aren't the safest.

As good as the kills are in this, I have some reservations. First, the title's a red herring. The actual intruder, while a jerk, is hardly a killer. I guess this makes the true identity of the killer that much more unsettling, especially with it ended but still. Also, once the reveal happens, the climax goes on a bit long. Sure, the actor playing the killer has some fun moments. But either change the dynamic more or wrap it up guys!

But this is still pretty fun. Sam and Ted Raimi are in this longer then I expected actually. The filmmaking still has that grimy feel that actually reminds me more of slashers earlier in the decade. And like I said, the kills are creative and bloody as all hell. You have that, you can keep nearly anything afloat.

The House on Sorority Row

"I know what you did last Summer" who? I don't know her.

A murder cover up is definitely a nice change of pace for slasher movie set ups, compared to what was coming out at the time. Certainly feels likes it makes more sense to punish kids for then... drugs and pre-martial sex.

I still have a few problems. It's hard to keep track of all the girls. The killer's kind of a Frankenstein creation, not literally but in story elements. Backstory and name of Phantom of the Opera, killing while hiding in the attic like Black Christmas. Even Michael Myers' blue jumpsuit. It was almost disappointing compared to the idea the old crone went that crazy that. I would've preferred that he wore the jester outfit more then just in the climax. I don't care that it would've made hiding harder. Also, this movie ends too soon. Like it's literally missing a story beat where he gets back up after his eyes open.

Well, at least it still works as a metaphor for how college DOES NOT prepare you for the real world that well.

The Prowler

I'm not going to end up ranking these, but I will say this is my favorite so far. Maybe it's because it reminds me so much of the original My Bloody Valentine which I watch for the first time earlier this year and I really ended up enjoying. Though I feel like the only reason why this one's hasn't got a remake is that the mask..kinda sucks. I mean, the whole get up is great (A reminder that war trauma goes back farther then Vietnam), but the hood in this context just isn't scary like you want a slasher to be. Also, I'm kinda surprised that he's a bit of a farm boy given how much he uses that pitchfork. Even after the final scare, the movie ends rather awkwardly. Like on a weird shot.

But still, the set up is good enough for a 80 minute movie. Tom Savini is right to be proud of his work in this movie. Even the killer reveal, if a bit obvious, feels strangely satisfying. Because it's not a Harry Warden situation, where it's a copycat. It makes sense without insulting your intelligence and it doesn't drag for too long. It just feels complete.

Also, this film was shot in Jersey! Represent!

#intruder 1989 #the house on sorority row #the prowler #slashers

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sapphire-weapon · 10 months ago

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Hi! I had a question, how much would you take into the consideration the statements of developers when talking about the analysis’s of video games?

For example, I was having a conversation with someone regarding whether Laura from SH2 was real or just another manifestation. The person that I was talking to agreed with all my analogy but then disregarded it because apparently one developer said she was real. I’ve also had this type of conversation within RE fandom where they constantly bring up developer points rather than reading the text and it is frustrating because there’s no way for me to sort of answer back to a developer statement. I don’t know how VG development work, but surely there’s hundreds of them all working together and many would have different interpretations/opinions, so is it worth just looking at the text than the opinion of one developer?

It depends on:

1. The publisher

2. The studio

3. The person who said it

If it's an indie game, you can pretty much take anyone's word as canon law. Like, SuperGiant Games only has 26 people total working on their games. If literally any dev says anything about Hades, it's as good as the information being in the game itself, because every dev was involved in every stage of production.

If it's something like The Evil Within, which was developed by a Japanese studio (Tango Gameworks) but published by an American publisher (Bethesda), I don't necessarily take Pete Hines's word as law (Bethesda's PR guy) because not only did he not actually work on the game, he doesn't even speak the language of the people who actually did.

If it's something like Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it's Yoshinori Kitase talking, you disregard everything he says because he fucking lies. He lies for sport. He loves lying about his projects. Nomura is honest maybe half the time. Hamaguchi is generally pretty honest.

If it's Resident Evil, the actual literal only person whose word I would take as Word of God is Shinji Mikami -- and that's only for the games up to and including OG RE4. And that's because he was the creative lead in charge of the series from the time of conception (the first RE1 was literally all his idea) through the GameCube release of OG RE4.

Anyone else working on RE? Throw out their opinion. It's garbage. Because there are hundreds and hundreds of people working on those games, and several of them are always in development concurrently, and there's no one central figure overseeing all of it anymore. Directors, producers, developers -- all of them come and go from title to title, with no sense of consistency between them.

RE is too fuckhuge and labyrinthine and does not, at any point, ask or require its player base to look outside of the games to understand what's happening. There are series that do do that. Final Fantasy is one of them. If you don't read the Ultimania or some of the novellas that get released as supplementary material for the games, sometimes huge chunks of the plot will come off as total nonsense. RE doesn't do that.

And so, when these games are being made, the only things that the current development team use to craft the game and the story are the games that came before them. None of them are combing through marketing materials and interviews and manga adaptations and what the fuck ever else. They're looking at the other games.

So, in fact, RE's plot and characters actually make more sense if you ignore literally everything the devs say.

When it comes to RE, if it's not in the games or CGI movies, it's not canon.

Period.

It has to actually be in the games. I should be able to put a game in and find the exact quote a person is talking about. Because if it was that important to know and that universally agreed upon by the bulk of the people working on the game, it would be in the game.

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arkus-rhapsode · 2 years ago

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Rambling about my anxieties about a potential FE4 Remake

So recently an interview with the developers of FE Engage had come out and it shed some interesting facts about the development like how it was meant for the 30th anniversary, it was being made at the same time as 3H and that the game was delayed for greater polish.

Now that might not seem at all extraordinary after all, if you were like me, the OG leaker for Engage basically said that all. But here’s the thing, not only is this behind the scenes look legitimizing more of the leaker’s insights, but that means there is an even higher potential of their claim that an FE4 remake is more believable.

Now its no secret that FE Genealogy of the Holy War is one of the most anticipated Fire Emblems to receive a remake treatment like Echoes and why wouldn’t it be? After all, its still the most popular FE in Japan and is considered to be Kaga’s magnum opus and the best of the Famicom era FE. It was also never brought over to the West legally so this’ll be FE fans chances to see it in its full glory. Hell, Im excited as all hell to see FE4 remade on modern consoles, but then I sorta stopped and began to think about it for a bit. Namely, could an FE4 remake ever live up to the hype?

Now look, any old FE getting remade should happen. Especially those never officially translated. It gives others in the fandom the chance to experience the game with modern convince and not be scared off by emulation. But just for a moment I thought what a remade FE4 would even look like.

Now Im sure anyone who played Echoes knows it is possibly one of the best produced FE’s ever. Its in game art was amazing, the sprites actually resembled people more than Awakening or Fates, fully voice acted, it was amazing. It was amazing by the standards of a 3DS. Its no secret FE has gone through a transitional period from the 3DS to the Switch. The flat 2D sprites are now 3D models and convos that took place on map painting backgrounds with character art laid onto of it, is now 3D models speaking in an open space. I think what every FE fan genuinely wants is for Fire Emblem to look the best it can on the console its on. Now Engage clearly has shown FE can look better than it ever has on switch, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. This is a console that’s 1st and 2nd parties can achieve visuals like breath of the wild, Kirby Lost World, and Xenoblade. So I don’t think its impossible to make pretty games on a switch. But FE and Insys really haven’t gone all the way to where is feels quite like its a next gen FE visually. And not to put all the blame on InSys, but I understand that even fans are split. Some will never be happy if we don’t get back to the old pixel art style and found it more visually appealing while others want to put the capabilities of FE on a home console. Any creative director is not gonna manage to appeal to both these sides and that’s honestly going to suck.

Now, this isn’t just about graphics but lets also talk about mechanics. Its no doubt that FE4 has some legendary map design, as well as the precursor to the support system we have now. But it was a clearly unbalanced FE, cavalry has always been OP but this is the game where literally cavalry is the best. The map design is also pretty different. I know GBA era fans probably are used to the concept of an FE plot unfolding on a battlefield as opposed to more chapter long encounter then story cutscene as more modern FE, but if people forget, the maps in FE4 were huge with multiple narrative events occurring in a single map. So how do translate that? Do you get rid of the huge maps and make FE4 more like modern FE and break into smaller maps with cutscene driven stories? Engage has shown a willingness to use more cinematics than ever before, would that help moments like Sigurd’s father dying or the feeling of Quan arriving only to be ambushed? Personally, I don’t think so as moments like that make FE4 so remembered. The immersive moments of in real time plot elements playing out. Once again we arrive at some where I can’t really see how you’d do this without disappointing one end of the spectrum.

And then we have the support system. I feel pretty confident in saying that an FE4 remake will use the modernized FE support system. But as we’ve seen in Echoes, just because it may use the same system, doesn’t mean it’ll be like Awakening, Fates, or 3H level deep. Echoes support system was incredibly limited despite coming off of the more robust Fates. And As I’m sure you all recall, scaling back social sim elements are never really met with positivity like FE Engage walking back things from 3H. Im sure they’ll still let you pick who you end up with Seliph, after all he isn’t locked into an ending like Sigurd or Alm, but I am unsure if we’ll get the modernized support system we are so accused to getting retrofitted into an older game.

Oh my god are they even going to do turn wheel?

Okay okay moving away from the gameplay portion, the last thing that worries the fact any remake of FE4 has to live up to a near monolithic reputation. FE4 is an FE that never made it the states and the only way to experience it forever was through emulation and a fan translation. This lack of availability that seemed to only be accessed by die hard FE fans willing to play the Famicom era games while also being told to other western fans that this is Japan’s favorite FE coupled with things that more modern fans would recognize like FE4 serving as the inspiration for a lot of 3H has essentially mythologized FE4 as “The Greatest Fire Emblem Game”. Now this is my personal opinion but FE4 isn’t my favorite FE, nor is it one I consider the best written, but it is certainly an operatic entry that goes beyond what FE had ever done up to the point with moments that deserve to be apart of FE history. And do you see what I’m getting at here? Any remake of FE4 has sky high expectations to clear. It was a meme forever that FF7 Remake was taking forever, but we all know that if it was nothing less than beyond perfect, then FF7R would never live up to the hype. FE4 is very likely going to be in that situation and Im not 100% sure InSys can deliver if that’s the case.

Now look, maybe this is all just pointless lizard brain fear. I would love nothing more than to see and FE4 that flawlessly captured the spirt of the original while looking great, playing great, and living up to the bar of social simulation. I think that’s all any fan genuinely wants out of any FE game. But it just fills me with dread knowing the near herculean task the FE development team may be tasked with, and that even more fans who have never experienced FE4 are going to now have to see how “The Best FE” holds up to modern standards.

The potential of this remake ever happening is still not set in hard stone as of the writing. So there really is no point worrying about something before it even has a chance to materialize. But I do believe that any FE4 remake will now be facing a lot of up hill battles and while I’m not using that to protect poor game design (If the game plays or looks like ass I will call it out) I do hope that people think about what an FE4 remake really does mean.

#fire emblem #rambling #fire emblem genealogy of the holy war #fe4

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tybaltsjuliet · 2 years ago

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i am planning on seeing the little mermaid this week sometime, so, my current ranking of the live-action disney remakes that i've seen, to be updated following:

01. cinderella. god's perfect faery tale movie. it's so beautiful-looking, and -sounding. it's brilliantly cast. it adapted things like the mice in cute ways that weren't distractions or CGI abominations. (that said, my unpopular opinion about this movie is that the dress transformation moment actually *does* look a little too CGI for me. it could have looked WAY more interesting.) it expanded on the story without needing to act like cinderella and her prince were idiots, and most importantly, it does not treat people who enjoy this story like idiots, either.

02. maleficent. the codifier! the risk-taker! it's linda woolverton with the steel chair! the only time disney has put a Twist into one of these that WORKED and didn't feel like dumb fucking around with the audience because THE HEART IS THERE. the cursing at the christening is a perfect illustration of how *good* these movies can be when they want to at honoring what came before and literally bringing it to life. that scene gives me chills every time.

03. the sorcerer's apprentice. this counts as a disney live-action remake. to me. this is a very silly movie and i wish there were five sequels and a balthazar blake meet at disneyland.

04. aladdin and alice in wonderland occupy a deadlocked middle ground for me. i enjoy them a lot and it's clear they were made with care and love by people who wanted to try something a little creative and different, and not just as soulless cash grabs by The Rat. but the execution still leaves things to be desired. why must the hatter be so goddamn annoying? why the Girl Power clichés? WHY DID YOU FIGURATIVELY AND LITERALLY DEFANG JAFAR?

05. dumbo. it tried. i can never decide if i think dumbo looks charming or terrible and the plot was insanely contrived but, hey. i love circuses and i whooped out loud when i saw the map beginning in sarasota, florida. colin farrell did NOT have to put his whole heart into this movie but god bless the man for it.

06. the jungle book. it was fine, and far be it from me to look a gift tiger voiced by idris elba in the mouth. but this was not necessary.

07. alice through the looking-glass. points for alice's dope chinese court outfit and the, what, sixty seconds featuring richard armitage and rhys ifans. demerits for literally everything else. possibly unfair to class this with the others since it's technically not a live-action remake but a sequel to one.

08. 101 dalmatians. even as a kid i thought it was silly that this movie got made, and i just don't find cruella very funny in this. plus i get annoyed every time i see that take about how she says SUCH feminist things.

09. beauty and the beast. how 'bout that dan stevens done up full rococo dandy? that's all i've got.

#;swan has a word.

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egg-emperor · 1 year ago

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Reposters, read this to understand me

What's crazy about the reposters that disrespect my wishes to give me an ounce of credit, practically run their accounts on my stuff, and continue to do so maliciously even after I ask them (before one specific person gets mad, this has happened multiple times) -

is that my videos on my YouTube channel like my cutscene compilations and stuff are free to use. I don't watermark my videos like that and never plan to. You're allowed to use the footage for your own stuff as much as you want (credit is appreciated but not required, as I've said to those who asked first to use it in their videos)

And you can screenshot it to high heaven, make edits out of it, whatever you want. So long as you don't just straight up reupload the entire video for the same purpose I already uploaded it of course. I recorded the footage and played through the games again to get it when theatre mode isn't available,

but it's an effort I don't mind being used transformatively after I've uploaded it, I'm happy to know it's useful. That's the point of my channel being a collection and archive. I never liked people slapping watermarks just on top of recorded cutscenes when there's not even personal gameplay in it because they didn't animate them themself (unlike how gif making and edits and such is a lot more personalized and wouldn't exist at all without that creative effort)

Even though a lot of effort goes into the compiling and editing, if you want to take screenshots and clips from my YouTube videos for any reason, you can. It's an archive and that's the point. The end product is identical to the official product, compiling aside, therefore I don't feel protective ownership, unless someone reuploaded my entire video as a copy with no changes or other purpose

But my blog isn't an archive. It's a personalized expression of my passion that my YouTube account isn't (aside from the long ass gushing descriptions on there lol), my gifs, screenshots, upscales, edits, compilations, collages, etc are not for people to just steal and practically run their account on with no credit. It makes me feel used and taken for granted

But here's the thing, I actually don't mind the odd screenshot or gif being used by people every now and then- especially if they don't know it's mine. Official Sega accs have used my gifs. Popular meme accounts have used them. I've just recently seen an artist you all love that hates my guts and blocked me use my Lost World Eggman CG "if you insist" gif on Twitter and I bet she didn't know it was me that made it.

(It was this one, just before I added this watermark)

And does it make me angry? No

I can always tell when people use images and gifs that have been on my blog from the frames and duration of the gif to the exact dimensions of a crop in an image. Then some people even take edits where I've made the arrangement myself from erasing backgrounds, upscaling, and compiling or have even drawn on it and so it's not even subtle and literally did not exist before I made it

But I know it's not always malicious and sometimes it might just be useful and a one off- or it's at least being used transformatively, for the sake of evidence or analysis of their own, or has interesting commentary, or something like that. I don't mind this. But if you're practically just remaking my exact posts or reposting my images without any transformative efforts and commentary at all, it becomes a problem

Especially when you run an account where it's practically just all my stuff back to back, with no commentary, or commentary where you're repeating things I've said or trying to talk like me because that's creepily happened before on Instagram while they were reposting my stuff. I know that if you do that then you're just visiting my blog and grabbing every image I post. I don't want to run your account for you

A lot of effort goes into what I make. people act like it doesn't matter if it isn't art but it does to me. I put a lot of effort into recording my own footage and compiling it, then turning them into gifs, making edits, taking screenshots etc. I have constant chronic pain and fatigue too to the point I've had fainting attacks when it becomes too overwhelming. And still I give what I make my all for my blog

It feels like a slap in the face when people download and repost knowingly and spitefully when I politely ask them to stop. I put my heart and soul into what I create and it hurts to see it taken for granted, especially when I don't get an ounce of credit and they get more traction and praise for the things I myself created. You think making it yourself is too much effort compared to stealing? Well try having chronic pain and fatigue and still making it yourself

If you're wondering what makes taking stuff from my blog different to my videos, it's because the final product of the stuff on my blog is more personalized and very different to the official product. The gifs, edits, upscales, compiling, and transformative efforts in my work is vastly different to me just recording cutscenes and slapping my watermark on the whole video

And that's the reason why I don't want the stuff on my blog to be taken and mass reposted, compared to my videos where you can screenshot and clip as much as you want because that's why they're there. Choosing to steal everything I personalized like that on my blog when you could literally just go to my videos and screenshot them as much as you want bothers me

Because then it seems like total laziness to me. Because they already take a lot of work to record and compile, yet I'll allow you to screenshot and clip them without watermarks and credit, but you'd rather just take them from my blog because you can't even be bothered to take screenshots or make gifs- when I do all of the above myself- and with chronic pain and fatigue making it extra effort

I deeply regret that I didn't watermark the contents of my blog from the start but I'm going out of my way to change that since people don't respect when I ask them not to repost

And to those who have just happened to use my images or gifs unintentionally a couple of times or you just had them on hand, I don't mind because I know you didn't do it maliciously. They're also free to save for personal use off the internet, I just don't want everything I ever make being reposted like some people do on purpose so they can practically run their whole account on me

But here malicious reposters, if you need content so bad, screenshot/gif/make edits/whatever you want out of these videos yourself. Because at least then you actually did part of it yourself and have something to be proud of instead of using my blog to run your account-

even when even at that it's using some of my efforts in my game recording and video editing/compiling :P

#my post

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planckstorytime · 6 months ago

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: A World Beyond Anger (Part Four)

IV. Crisis on Infinite Aeriths

Let’s get this out of the way: this game should not have ended at the Forgotten Capital. It makes little sense from a dramatic perspective. I defended the decision to center the entire first chapter around Midgar, because although that arc does not nearly comprise one-third of the original game’s length, it nonetheless fits well as the first act of a grander story. Additionally, Midgar contains a miniature three-act structure in itself: reactor bombings (act 1), meeting Aerith through the plate collapse (act 2), and the raid on the Shinra building (act 3). Rebirth doesn’t share this structure, partially because it’s adapting only part of the “road trip” that constitutes the second act of FF7. This results in a narrative that feels meandering, particularly because it cuts off prematurely.

The lowpoint of the original game – and consequently, where the second act really wraps up – is not Aerith’s death. It’s the Northern Crater. Cloud surrenders to Sephiroth’s control, believing all of his memories to be false. Sephiroth acquires the Black Materia and summons Meteor to eradicate all human life on the planet. The Weapons awaken to wreak havoc on the terrified populace. A cave-in sends Cloud tumbling into the lifestream, his fate unknown. Tifa and Barret awaken in custody of Shinra, awaiting public execution. Now that’s a cliffhanger!

But with all the “changing destiny” nonsense from part one, the flower girl’s fate became a central focus of fan speculation, and as such, an obnoxiously large part of the marketing.

As the “big payoff”, the developers naturally felt inclined to conclude Rebirth with the (very dumb) answer to this question. Catering to hype culture comes at the expense of a well-paced story. Several of the key setups within Rebirth, such as the destination of the robed men, could’ve been resolved had the game gone just a bit further. The same goes for the photographer that snaps a picture of the visiting SOLDIERS during the first hour. Proper pacing would’ve provided a bookend with the reveal of the real photo, and Cloud’s subsequent meltdown. In failing to reach the Northern Crater, the central axis of story just spins in place until it comes to an abrupt halt. Progressing to this point would’ve doubtlessly necessitated the developers to make a chunk of more content. However, they could’ve easily pivoted their priorities away from any of the open world locales, sidequests, or minigames to facilitate this. Hell, they could’ve trimmed down some of the critical path in order to get us there – they already omitted Wutai, Rocket Town, and Bone Village, after all.

Missteps like this robbed us of a perfect opportunity to face a delirious, indoctrinated Cloud as the final boss. I think that would’ve been more heartbreaking and impactful than yet another tedious Sephiroth fight. As with Remake, the silver-haired villain’s portrayal fails to instill any semblance of fear or danger. His overuse has ballooned to critical mass, turning him into Final Fantasy VII’s very own Poochie. It should be obvious that for every time a villain shows up and fails to impede the protagonists, fails to slay his targets, fails to turn the emotionally frail to his purpose, he comes across as less and less competent. By the time you’ve beaten the now-multidimensional quasi-deity again, he literally flies away, promising to do better next time. It’s simply baffling how poorly the creative leads have handled Sephiroth throughout this project, and how little they understand the proper escalation of stakes.

He’s far from the only bungled character, though. Cid Highwind always posed a challenge to adapt, due to his verbal and emotional abuse of his live-in assistant, Shera. Heroically framing a domestic abuser would not fly as easily today as it did in 1997, so I understand the need for changes. But they didn’t need to change everything about him. Original Cid’s pathos comes from the fact that he, like much of the rest of the cast, carries the burden of a life destroyed by Shinra. The rusting hulk of his derelict rocket, once the source of his dreams, anchors him to a life of lingering regrets, reminding him of his failures. This is the immutable foundation of his character. Square could’ve expressed his anguish in any number of ways: depression, self-loathing, alcoholism, whatever.

Instead, their solution to avoid him abusing Shera was… getting rid of Shera. There’s nothing in Rebirth to suggest his background as a failed astronaut. Instead, he’s a “free flier” – literally the opposite of what he’s supposed to represent. His abrasive attitude has been toned down. He’s now a right proper gentleman, if a bit cocky. I’m sure that the third game will reintegrate Rocket Town and Shera in some capacity, but I can’t reconcile the new Cid with anything that might resemble his designated arc for the future. The man doesn’t even smoke anymore, despite his omnipresent cigarette previously serving as a running gag. God forbid we depict a good guy using tobacco; what would the children think?

In general, the remake games have shied away from their characters having grit to them. Cait Sith no longer holds Marlene hostage to gain leverage over the party. Avalanche’s members all commit themselves to strictly non-violent terrorism… despite getting booted from the main branch for their extremist tactics. Players face several instances of my least favorite trope in all of media: the protagonists’ refusal to kill the villains responsible for countless deaths, even though they have no qualm with slaughtering dozens of nameless mooks that get in the way. It’s not crossing some moral threshold for them, so instances where they object to killing President Shinra, Rufus, Hojo, and the Turks all feel forced and bereft of meaning. Far more stories are guilty of this than just the FF7R titles, but it drives me nuts every time I see it.

The fact remains that these two games consistently come across as insecure in their portrayal of violence and death, as if they’re worried of upsetting the audience. Remake was admittedly much worse about this sort of thing – refer to the evacuation of all named NPCs and countless others in Sector 7, or the omission of Sephiroth’s bloody rampage through the Shinra building. Rebirth’s still worried about those content rating guidelines, though. So no deaths among the Shinra-8’s crewmen, no explicit suicide for Dyne, no hanging from the neck, and no on-screen impalement. Individually, I don’t think any one of these faults are particularly egregious, but once you see the pattern, it becomes difficult not to roll your eyes at the constant sanitization.

Which leads us, at last, to Aerith’s death scene. Or whatever that was.

Whereas the ending of part one left me shaking with anger and repulsed by its pretentious, hypocritical, and indulgent messaging, the finale of Rebirth had me cackling like I was watching a Neil Breen movie. “Trainwreck” does not convey the fiasco’s enormity. Imagine a Rube Goldberg machine comprised of trains. Imagine some messed up Ouroboros train, perpetually crashing into its caboose, forever. That’s the ending of this game. In the span of an hour, we visit no less than four alternate dimensions, swap around an interplanar orb, subvert Aerith’s anticipated death (obviously), subvert that subversion, cut back and forth between a potential alternate timeline/hallucination throughout a bombastic Jenova fight, merge worlds (whatever that means and however it happens, your guess is as good as mine), fight Sephiroth with Zack in a fanservice brawl, fight Bizarro Sephiroth prematurely across three planes of existence, enter another world to be joined by Aerith’s Jedi ghost and clobber Sephiroth once more, then skip her funeral scene because who cares about that shit at this point?

Reactions to this conclusion have been mostly negative, which at least makes me feel less lonely in my criticisms than I did last time. The developers hoodwinked fewer folks this go around, and you’ll see fewer people calling this a “bold step in a new direction” than a “colossal fucking mess.” I almost admire how Square managed to unify the divided fanbase with this approach. Those who wanted Aerith to live this time got baited and shafted, and those who wanted the story done justice received a pandering succession of winks and gotchas that robbed the moment of its crucial meaning. A part of me wants to think the creators aimed to please both sides and failed miserably, but creative director Tetsuya Nomura seemed to know what they had on their on hands:

“But with Rebirth, I honestly cannot imagine what players will be thinking. For example, I set up the direction of the final scene in FFVII Remake that you asked about. I can’t really talk about it now, so I’ll just say that the final scene of the next game will have a very… different impact to the previous one. I’m even more nervous about how people are going to react to some of the things in Rebirth than I was for Remake.”

Any change to a sacred moment would have elicited controversy. I mean, who has a more iconic death than Aerith? Jesus, maybe?

Some might defend these choices, arguing that the sudden brutality of her demise and instant shock of having a loved one taken from you, as in the original, could not be replicated. Therefore, changing the plot here was necessary. I object to this premise on two points:

1. That’s an absolutely cowardly way to view art. It betrays a lack of confidence in your storytelling ability if you can’t think of ways to connect to the audience without resorting to ostentatious stunts.

2. If the original scene truly is inimitable, that does not automatically vindicate the execution of the new rendition. Ardent defenders of the FF7R titles tend to frame their arguments around a false dichotomy, where the only choices available were either a 1:1 remake or the precise end product that we received. Obviously, this isn’t the case – I can appreciate the improvements to Yuffie and Red XIII’s arcs without endorsing the plot ghosts or the Zack fanservice. I can, at all moments, visualize a game that could do better. Plenty of remakes tastefully walk the line of creative embellishments. Look no further than Resident Evil 4 (2023) for a work that worthily adapts a classic for contemporary audiences.

With strong source material to draw from, adaptations begin with half their work done for them. This boon comes balanced by the burden that any deviation will inevitably be compared to the original incarnation, and would need to justify its existence against that. As such, it’s completely fair to judge such choices strictly, especially if they result from foolhardy risks that don’t pay off. Bravado does not excuse failure.

What inspired the creative team to alter this specific moment, when the overwhelming majority of Rebirth follows a trodden path? Would that consistency not make Aerith’s death the natural culmination of events? If you’re keeping the story mostly the same, why make such a massive exception for a pivotal scene? I regret to say that I don’t think this decision arose from any genuine passion to enhance the piece, but rather a much more cynical philosophy.

Games take too long to make these days. The commitment to graphical fidelity, expansive worlds, and potentially hundreds of hours of content has stretched production times to untenable levels. Longer development cycles mean ballooning budgets. Ballooning budgets demand bigger returns. Bigger returns necessitate mass market appeal, which results in scope creep. And the cycle repeats. It’s an unsustainable path for the industry. These more distant deadlines aren’t the results of more ethical working conditions, either; crunch culture still dominates the workforce. Employees just crunch longer. In the past few years, we’ve seen several big projects throughout the entertainment sphere bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, only to financially disappoint. Many AAA games have swollen to such unwieldy sizes that they can’t conceivably make the cash they need. Since investors ubiquitously demand growth each quarter, audience retention is paramount.

But again, games take too long to make. Four years passed between the releases of Remake (2020) and Rebirth (2024). In that same amount of time, old Squaresoft gave us Final Fantasy VII (1997), VIII (1999), IX (2000), and X (2001). Obviously, a very different market landscape produced these titles, and I do not wish to imply that Square Enix’s employees are lazy or inefficient in any way. But how can you maintain not just brand interest, but also investment in an episodic story when installments are so spaced out? For comparison, the entire Mass Effect trilogy wrapped up in just over four years (late 2007 – early 2012). Few things can hold mass audience attention for so long without updates or unfeasible marketing.

Controversy to the rescue! By eliciting controversy, speculation, and discourse, companies can keep material fresh in fans’ minds for years, especially in the age of social media. Arguing with pedants on Twitter and making an ass of yourself in the process is among the most cherished pastimes – and the one most likely to get you invested in future outcomes! Folks will never move on as long as they’re bickering, and they’ll bicker as long as there’s divisive stuff to bicker about. In this way, writers can cater to the larger economic forces at play. This might explain why Remake concludes on such a provocative note, only to amount to little beyond the following game’s last minute encore. An interview with Julien Chièze revealed that Kitase wished for audiences to scrutinize and debate the endings and the potential upcoming changes (despite all of this supposedly leading back to Advent Children anyway). Varietyalso conversed with Hamaguchi, who said:

“Now, we anticipate having various conjectures about this ending and many different interpretations from players as this game is released, which will create some healthy debate. I will also be observing the players’ responses, which will allow us to perhaps feed those into, you know, as we look to create the third title as well.”

I suspect that these alterations did not originate via a natural evolution within the narrative, but as a gimmick to perpetuate consumer interest. It’s the classic “mystery box” formula returning to wreak havoc. After seeing this engineered controversy, I wish this project had not been divided into multiple parts.

Most of this financially alluring speculation revolves around the nature of the other “worlds” (delineated by Stamp, the dog mascot) showcased throughout the finale, and whether or not Aerith survives in one of them. To make sense of what we witnessed, enthusiastic players have resorted to complicated diatribes or digital cork board charts, such as this popular one by Reddit user Recklessavatar:

Audiences must be fatigued by multiverses at this point, I feel. Specifically, I’m referring to stories where characters interact with alternate versions of themselves, or travel in between a plethora of divergent continuities, all butterflying away from one another. It’s been the big thing to do in popular media for the past several years – particularly because it allows for stories with “infinite possibilities”, which usually just means an absence of consequences. Superhero stuff, in its waning cinematic renaissance, focuses on multiverse narratives more than ever: the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off the “Multiverse Saga” with films like Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022); Sony Pictures graced us with Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) and Across the Spiderverse (2023); and Warner Bros vomited out The Flash (2023) as a desperate continuity reset. Let’s not ignore the prevalence of the concept in shows like Rick and Morty (2013-ongoing), or its encroachment into otherwise concluded series like Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake (2023). Multiverse mania even wormed its way into an Academy Award Best Picture winner with Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Recent games certainly haven’t escaped this trend. Mortal Kombat 1 (2023) masquerades as a series reboot (again), before turning into a clash between all past continuities and innumerable alternate worlds. Bayonetta 3 (2022) dives headfirst into the concept as well – unfortunately, it’s proven to be an increasingly shallow sea. You’re bound to break your neck if you do that.

It’s not hard to see what makes this premise so attractive to producers. You can connect to older media properties and past interpretations of characters. The tangled web of continuity canonizes old stuff that you liked, baiting that nostalgia cortex in your Lizard Brain and assigning proverbial “required reading” to those less familiar. Existing content can be recombined to generate spin-offs ad infinitum. This phenomenon extends to mushy conglomerates of IPs, where characters are removed from their original context and absorbed into some kind of media katamari. Ready Player One (2018), Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), MultiVersus (2022), and the various Lego movies (2014, 2016, 2018) count among these. And hey, Final Fantasy VII is connected to Disney through Kingdom Hearts (2002-ongoing)…

The point is, multiverse junk has saturated popular culture lately. Not all of these works are bad, but patterns emerge between them the longer you stare. Common blunders include the erosion of stakes, selective continuity, and the collapse of cohesive worldbuilding. The worst offenders foreground the notion that, inherently, nothing in the diegesis matters whatsoever.

The introduction of several parallel universes to Final Fantasy VII would prove exhausting even if it was implemented well. Piling science-fiction-timeline-balderdash onto a deeply spiritual world of transcendent knowledge and ethereal souls promises to poke holes in the worldbuilding. But it’s not just sloppy – it’s antithetical to the fundamental themes of FF7. In a game about the fragility of life and the frailty of our planet (we only have one of each), you can’t suddenly introduce distinct, alternate versions of the same people across an endless ocean of permeable realities. It annihilates everything for which the original stood.

When I think about this sort of thing, I fear that my pessimistic instincts might’ve been right all along. I worry that I’m somehow betraying myself for finding any value in Rebirth.

All that said, I do see a narrow path forward. Building off my previous psychoanalytic reading, I came to an interpretation of the ending that’s somewhat more palatable, and might even save the franchise for me.

FULL ESSAY: https://planckstorytime.wordpress.com/2024/05/11/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-a-world-beyond-anger/

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