#the vicious circle and the studio elite

[theodoradove]

something something the true glory days of the garden of allah and the chateau marmont were when they kind of sucked as residences

[rwbyconversations]

RWBY LVL Up 2019 Expo Panel Summaries

So, first one of these for the 6-7 hiatus. This took place on the weekend of April 27th-28th, and saw two panels with the four RWBY girls. Most notably, the panel actually fielded questions from the r/RWBY subreddit prior to the Q&A. 

Saturday

Twitch VOD here. Keep in mind Twitch auto-deletes VODs so this link may be dead if you’re coming back to this in a few weeks The Twitch channel mentions a user called SoraKasaiSkyFire is going to upload them on Youtube. It’s a short little interview session done on the show floor.

This was Kara’s first time in Vegas.

The host is actually an long-time fan of RWBY and opens by talking about how Monty’s legacy has carried on. He highlights Grimm Eclipse and asks if we’ll see RWBY go into other games. Lindsay hopes for an MMO and mentions Amity Arena and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. Barbara also mentions the Combat Ready board game and Vicious Circle, an unrelated RT project.

What jobs besides being a Huntress do you think your character would have? Barbara thinks Yang would be a personal trainer. Arryn thinks Blake would be a civil lawyer. Kara thinks Weiss would become a Broadway star, and Lindsay goes for Ruby going into a bakery.

If you could bring back any dead character at the cost of a living one, who? Lindsay immediately offers Pyrrha in exchange for Salem (Kara gets ticked off because she was going to say that). Arryn jokingly says “Kill Zwei,” while Barbara mulls over Torchwick. Kara says kill Jacques and bring back Pyrrha.

What advice do you have for people who want to get into the entertainment industry? Lindsay talks about how it’s overwhelming that RWBY took off when they envisioned it as a small passion project and says to keep an eye out for more side-projects.  

Sunday

VOD link here. They’re playing some Smash during the Q&A.

Host Guy’s shirt offends me on a spiritual level. The whole “Stars of such anime like RWBY, Red Vs Blue and Camp Camp” line makes me snicker. That’s my token anime elitism moment out of the way.

Apparently it’s a semi-infrequent thing for the VAs where they’ll meet people cosplaying as RWBY characters and the cosplayers won’t recognize them.

What is the current biggest flaw your character has going into Volume 7? Kara thinks Weiss needs to learn how to get along with her family. Barb thinks Yang is a bit too caring for her friends and talks about how Yang is particularly going through some self-discovery and her abandonment issues in relation to Raven. 

What advice would you give aspiring voice actors? Barbara talks about how hard it is to get into VA work, but there’s always something out there, even if it’s just a car commercial or a friend doing some small animation project. It mostly comes down to being in the right place at the right time. Arryn quips that she could use some advice herself.  

They get interrupted a lot by the Smash play. 

What was your favorite volume to record for and why? Barb- Volume 5 because of Yang’s arc with Raven. Arryn- Volume 5 as well, since that’s when Blake heads home and has to work through the eternal problem of Daddy Issues, (”Since that’s what everyone has.”) and that Blake got to rally the troops. 

How do you deal with emotion in the studio? Barbara explains how challenging it is. Camera acting lets you act through your body language and face, but with VA work you have to carry everything through your voice. Arryn mentions how Blake is very monotonous in the early volumes and how she had to take a few tries to get that level without it falling into sounding asleep. 

If RWBY’s Aura had a scent what would it smell like? Barbara thinks Yang’s would smell like citrus. Arryn goes for a newly opened book. Lindsay and Kara were too distracted by Smash to answer so Barb and Arryn opine that Ruby’s would smell like cookies and Weiss’s Aura would smell like a waterfall or hot linen. 

What are the best and worst qualities of your characters in your eyes? Barbara thinks Yang’s best quality is how much she cares for the people in her life, but that’s also her weakness since she needs to learn when to draw the line and work on her temper. Arryn thinks Blake doesn’t talk about her feelings a lot and had a bad problem to run from her problems, but she’s unfailingly honest when she does stick around. 

Which outfits of Team RWBY do you like the most? Barbara holds a soft spot for her OG outfit but bluntly says that she’s looking forward to the new Atlas outfits (they’ve really not been trying to hide that Atlas will mark new outfits for RWBY at least). Arryn has apparently seen Blake’s new gear but thinks her favorite Blake outfit was her PJs. 

What jobs besides being Huntress would your character have chosen? This got asked the day prior. The only new addition is Barbara and Arryn joking a mechanic Yang would be sexy.

I think this was actually my question- I asked Arryn if she thought Adam was ever a good person or if he was always a psycho. Arryn firmly believes he was always a monster who “dissected animals as a kid,” like Sid from Toy Story. Arryn also mentions the people who were bitter at Adam not getting a redemption arc, while Barbara talks about how people try and find the good in villains.  

They go off topic and talk about games for a long bit. Barbara used to love Smite and played in a few tournaments in-house in RT, while Arryn loves Animal Crossing and Borderlands. Lindsay has been undefeated for the entire Q&A to this point.

What’s the hardest challenge your character’s faced. Kara thinks just going to Beacon was a big challenge for Weiss, and also her confrontation with Jacques at the fundraiser. Barbara mentions confronting Adam at the end of Volume 6. Arryn talks briefly about going home to her family in Volume 4 before getting interrupted by Lindsay’s winning streak being broken.  

The guy host decides to ask a few questions exclusively to Ruby- she agrees with how Ruby’s Aura would smell. Ruby’s greatest challenge has been trying to find herself and move out of her socially awkward/lone wolf shell through becoming a leader and finding that inner strength, which manifested in Volume 6 with her arguing with Qrow.

Final question- any common fan opinions about your characters you don’t like? Kara refuses to let White Knight die and is sure that Weiss has a small crush on Jaune. Barbara isn’t very fond of when people’s headcanons or theories are proven wrong and they criticize the show because of it. “Difference between criticism and hate.” Arryn hates that some people still ship Blake and Adam. Lindsay doesn’t enjoy some people’s takes of characters being bad and that they shouldn’t be in the show, it’s more than just black and white for some characters (someone tell whoever’s writing Cinder that -_-).

[ramajmedia]

Remnant: From the Ashes Review - Soulslike Gunslinging Takes Root

Remnant: From the Ashes brings guns and friends to the Soulslike table, and playthroughs remain engaging despite its several flaws and bad tendencies.

Darksiders 3 developer Gunfire Games' Remnant: From the Ashes is the newest Soulslike, introducing high-intensity gunplay and online co-op to the well-trodden genre while still aping a sufficient amount of Dark Souls series elements to fit the trendy criteria. This surefire formula means that combat and exploration are decently rewarding, but the game inherits its antecedents' worst annoyances in the process. Its post-apocalyptic story settles itself somewhere between the dark fantasy of the Souls games and the gritty sci-fi setting of The Surge without borrowing much from either, but its efforts to craft the caliber of universe, lore, and characters that defines the genre cumulatively miss the mark. Luckily, Remnant: From the Ashes's core gameplay loop is engaging and difficult enough to carry both solo and co-op players through to the end of a semi-randomized campaign, but it's a far cry from the infinitely replayable adventure that Gunfire touts.

Setting the stage on an alternate history Earth ravaged by an alien force known as the Root, a hive mind of tree-like lifeforms hellbent on the complete entropic destruction of life across all worlds. Minus the tree thing - which, at the very least, makes for some interesting enemy and world design on Root-infested Earth - Remnant: From the Ashes's story isn't exactly groundbreaking, retreading a tired premise that's been explored to far greater effect by the likes of the original Halo and Mass Effect trilogies. Of course, the Soulslikes' main quests are rarely particularly imaginative or well fleshed-out, so the unoriginal concept deserves a pass here. What moves players from one area to the next is the search for the Founder of Ward 13, the only one who knows how to stop the Root at its source on Earth.

Related: Vicious Circle Review - Messy Multiplayer With Potential

There are many attempts by Gunfire to contrive the mandatory lore that Soulslike fans crave and a few heavy-handed text logs that spell stuff out, but its the search for the Founder - the only one who knows how to stop the Root at its source - that sends players on a circuitous journey across multiple worlds to kill almost everything they meet. Most of the game is a blur of near-constant monster slaughter, and interspersed among protracted combat sections are a few moments where Remnant: From the Ashes's creativity is allowed to shine through. However, none of these moments really pertain to or enhance the main storyline. It's expected that the drama should take a backseat to gameplay, but even the most seasoned and cynical players will likely be surprised at how anticlimactically and abruptly the central plot thread slams the door shut on playthroughs after hyping up the ending over a lengthy course of playtime.

The barebones story's lackluster payoff does sour the final hours of a Remnant: From the Ashes playthrough, but the focal point of the game is obviously combat, which does a more than serviceable job of delivering players from start to finish without descending into monotony. Its emphasized gunplay is punchy and satisfying, and it feels consistently great to stagger rushing enemies with shotgun blasts and devastate harassers at range with precise headshots. Though weapon variety is fairly limited during a significant portion of most initial playthroughs, the six starting guns can be outfitted with a diverse assortment of mods that temporarily alter weapon behavior or grant player abilities after filling a damage meter. Melee combat is also an option, but it's far more situational than in other Soulslikes due to its lack of power and zero stamina usage, relegating it to crowd control and a risky method of ammo conservation.

Although it misses the chance to flip the script on Bloodborne's brilliant fusion of ranged and melee combat, Remnant: From the Ashes isn't shy at all about lifting most of its mechanics and ideas straight out of FromSoftware's other titles. Though most lack the nuance of their inspirations, there are tough-as-nails boss battles (blocked off by fog gates, even), an obligatory stand-in for Estus Flasks, a stamina meter, and a Bonfire-like system of World Crystals and checkpoints that enable fast travel at the cost of global enemy respawns. The prescribed approach is slightly subverted by exchanging risk-reward Souls for permanent experience and Traits, though it's hardly an imaginative change. Its biggest additions are gunplay and online co-op, the latter of which makes the game innately more fun despite seriously killing atmospheric tension and tipping gameplay balance severely in the favor of bosses.

In picking what Souls elements to incorporate, Remnant: From the Ashes chose to take after its forebears' worst habit: padding out boss fights with droves of cheap fodder. Confoundingly, this mistake was entirely avoidable. It was most present in Dark Souls 2 before being addressed in its sequel, meaning Gunfire had five years' worth of hindsight and still actively chose the worse alternative. It's a shame, too, because Remnant: From the Ashes has great boss designs and a few with some truly formidable move sets. Rather than give players a genuine sense of accomplishment after mastering more intimate battles against hulking opponents dangerous in their own right, the game instead over-relies on overwhelming players with frustrating quantities of common enemies. Remnant: From the Ashes's best bosses are those that deploy only a small number of additional elite minions at a time, but these gratifying encounters are too few and far between.

This approach of throwing large waves of enemies at players works a lot better in Remnant: From the Ashes's regular environments, and the difficulty here also scales much better based on player squad size. Mowing down scores of grisly adversaries is the name of the game here, and it's obvious that Gunfire went to great lengths to ensure that the core combat remains engaging dozens of hours in. The act of clearing areas of common enemies in normal ARPG fashion is regularly punctuated by the appearance of elite enemy types that require advanced tactics and greater firepower. These stronger combatants keep players on their toes and contribute to a consistently frenetic experience, and it never fails to spike one's pulse slightly when hearing the distinct warning sound and seeing the sudden Left 4 Dead-like rush of lesser foes that herald their arrival.

That said, this core gameplay loop quickly grows predictable, but that gripe can be attributed more to overly simplistic level layouts than to enemy patterns. Whereas most Soulslikes pride themselves on cleverly funneling players around complex, interconnected areas that build a sense of real place within their worlds, Remnant: From the Ashes instead settles almost exclusively for series of corridors of varying dimension. Coupled with the relative small size of disparate areas within each world, it becomes apparent that the game is so densely populated with hostiles in order to artificially lengthen the amount of time and resources needed to reach the next checkpoint. The feeling of being a monster exterminator is further reinforced by the inclusion of a mini-map that reveals paths as they're navigated. This concession was likely made to cater to the game's online nature, but it considerably dulls the thrill of exploring the unknown.

While its environments are shallow, enemy design in Remnant: From the Ashes is the full package. Non-boss enemies leave little to be desired in terms of their disconcerting visages and solid variety, and they're an effective vehicle for effective environmental storytelling. Each world sports unique collections of foes, and no faction outshines the Iskal on the primordial swamp planet Corsus. Brainwashed and enslaved by the manipulative Fairy Queen, the once peaceful Corsans have been made hosts to an incredibly aggressive species of parasite. When first exploring this world, shambling humanoids with amputatable legs at first seem like generic aliens. That is until later on while encountering eerily familiar Corsans that have yet to fully turn, culminating in the introduction of their more heavily affected peers that degenerate into their fully devolved form mid-battle. Gameplay-driven discoveries like are far stronger plot devices than anything found in the main story or flavor texts, and the game would be stronger overall if it had shifted its focus more toward this direction.

Even though it won't set the Soulslike genre alight with its well-implemented but ultimately minor additions and tweaks to the formula, Remnant: From the Ashes is an intensely compelling gameplay experience, doubly (or triply) so when played with friends. Even when it sabotages itself with its abortive narrative, cheap boss tactics, and undervalued enemy design, it still emerges from the ordeal as a solid shooter with a high amount of polish and decent replayability. Though it remains to be seen if Gunfire can fix the present issues and expand the game into the infinite time sink that the studio promised, Remnant: From the Ashes will no doubt inspire genre fans to hang up their swords and shields for some time in order to dive into a chaotic universe, guns blazing.

Next: Telling Lies Review - A Thoroughly Immersive, Interactive Story

Remnant: From the Ashes is now available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Screen Rant was provided a PC code for this review.

source https://screenrant.com/remnant-from-the-ashes-review/