indigozeal

If I attempt to format this on LiveJournal, it'll end up an imbroglio, so I'll just link here: it strikes me, upon reblogging a bunch of the ending pics from Tumblr, how everyone's ( Cut )
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Just a selection of some of my favorite game box covers. A warning in advance here: LiveJournal's odd formatting and my general ham-handedness when it comes to HTML and working with graphics might lead to some presentation issues when pairing my text with the images. Hopefully, though, the art here speaks for itself.
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PSN was having a big sale on Square-Enix games about a week ago, which I took as a sign from the gods that I should get Chrono Cross freaking over with already. I discovered that I was out of space on my PSP memory card, so I ordered up a reasonably-priced 32 GB card online. It arrived promptly, but when I opened the envelope, I discovered a note explaining that the card I had ordered was out of stock and that my order had therefore been upgraded...to a whopping *1* GB. I brought up the listing, thinking I had been scammed, but no: I really did mistake the "M" in the listing for a "G," because I had never thought to consider that Sony might be making 32 MB flash cards in The Year of Our Lord 2014 (or even The Year of Our Lord Whenever the PSP Came out). So I have effectively paid eight bucks for 1 GB of memory, but I decided to keep the card on the idea that it makes for a better story if Chrono Cross is a complete inconvenience from beginning to end.

In case it's not obvious, I'm approaching Chrono Cross as a fiasco. Nothing I have heard about it tells me it would be a good sequel to Chrono Trigger - my impression is that it follows up a title that was sleek and elegant with needlessly, overly complex mechanics; that it substitutes Trigger's tight-knit, universally-likable cast with a host of nobodies differentiated primarily by their accents; and that its treatment of its Chrono Trigger plot elements is childishly grimdark. I understand, however, that it was made by the some of the same folks who made Baten Kaitos, and I've heard that some elements of its battle system herald Baten's, albeit in an extremely clunky form. We'll see if those impressions change, or if any interesting discoveries regarding Baten's heritage are made.

So far, a couple hours in, I don't have my hopes up. The primary vibe I'm getting from Chrono Cross is "desperate." It's desperate to establish itself as a Real Genuine Follow-up to Chrono Trigger, No, Honest, as it opens (after an initial dream sequence) with the exact same dialogue and steals several of its most prominent music cues and compositions from Trigger. It's desperate, in that early 32-bit era way, to establish itself as Edgy and Mature and Not for Kids, with awkwardly shoehorned-in cursing and tit jokes in the first fifteen minutes. The game's first big in-game cinematic is a vision of the hero standing over the heroine's dead body, smiling with a knife dripping blood (cue close-up of a fat, greasy drop plopping off the blade). It's kind of ridiculous.

The battle system is a turn-off as well. It's not explained well (and the instruction manual, hilariously, gives you absolutely no information on how anything in battle works), but from what I can grasp: when characters attack, they can choose from one of three types of attacks (weak, middle, and strong), each with a different likelihood to hit. Landing one hit will allow you go for another hit; missing will...well, sometimes end your combo, but sometimes not - who knows why. Landing enough hits gives you the ability to cast a spell on your next turn. If enough people have cast enough spells of the same element, you can cast even more powerful spells in that element; otherwise, you're limited to Level 1 stuff. The problem is that there are really only two patterns of attack (go for the basic weak-mid-strong arrangement, or go for strong all the way through), so there's very little variation when it comes to attacking, and I think (though I'm not sure yet) that any character can use any spell, so there's not really any inherent difference in characters besides attack strength. Baten differentiated its characters in interesting ways and gave you a vast array of character-specific and generalized cards, from which you could build a unique deck for each character. On top of it, Baten's cards just looked nice, whereas here, you're just highlighting a few dinky lines of text. Also, Baten Kaitos is fun and rewarding to play, whereas this...just isn't, at least so far.

Meanwhile, speed when it comes to game mechanics isn't as big a thing with me as it is with other players, but I can appreciate the efficiency with which Trigger opens a battle right on the map screen, cuts right through it, announces its results with just a few lines of text, and returns you right to exploring. Cross takes you to a separate battle screen with this huge, slow pan across the field, then walks you post-battle through several slow and clunky screens announcing changes in character status and asking if you want to heal up and informing you of the worthless trinkets you've won. It's a graceless and patience-trying production.

(Aside: What is it with 32-bit Square and its obsession with worthless trinkets? Legend of Mana had it, too. I can't say it's satisfying to be "rewarded" for winning a fight or finding a treasure chest with just a scrap of leather or shard of bone that you might, if you gather 50 or so other said scraps or shards, be able eventually to trade for a weapon that's half as effective as the one you currently have.)

The story is not grabbing me, and while that wouldn't normally be a surprise, the off-putting plotline links to CT really haven't started in earnest yet. We're still establishing the backstory of the hero, who's suddenly pulled by unknown means to an alternate dimension where he passed away in an accident ten years ago. I actually thought that this part of the story could have promise; it'd be difficult to return to the time-travel gimmick after Trigger's history-spanning plot, but exploring alternate realities is an intriguing way of following up on and yet side-stepping a time-travel tale. The hook just isn't grabbing me in this case, though, and I think it's in great part due to the characters. Marle and Lucca were both likable firecrackers, but Cross sticks you with Leena, the hero's tiffy and kind of demanding girlfriend, and Kid, a loudmouthed thief who - spoilers - is the reincarnation or otherworldly projection or something or other of Schala, even though Kid is distinguished chiefly by a) her cheap Australian accent straight out of an Outback Steakhouse commercial and b) liberally sprinkling her dialogue with "piss" and "arse" and other PG-13 obscenities, traits which really don't apply to Schala. Both Leena and Kid are absent much of the time, though, and the hero's mute, which means that most of the story is relayed through your only other companion, this pink Poochie dog who speaks with a lisp.

Plus, there's a lot more happening in Trigger's first act - you're catapulted to 600 A.D., meet Frog, are thrown in prison and escape, and then dash off to 2300 A.D. and the real meat of the plot in short order. Two hours into Cross, and I'm still just wandering around the starting island, listening to all the characters in both dimensions wax melancholy about how everything changes and nothing lasts forever and the world sucks.

I had also forgotten that the tiny little hamlet of Porre from CT was the huge invading threat in this world. It's ridiculous, as if all of Lunar were under attack from Meryod or something.

One place where the game does resemble Baten Kaitos is in the brightly-colored and richly-realized settings. The hero lives in this seaside bamboo village festooned with colorful kite-like structures, while the sandy temple from the opening dream resembles something out of Myst. The whole game has so far looked like it takes place inside a coral reef, and it's easily the game's strongest point.

I also discovered the Littlest Gibari.

Not that you can pick him out there considering the size of the screenshot. (He's referring to the fish he caught, by the way.)
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You know The Twist. The twist from Shadow of the Colossus. The twist from No More Heroes and its sequel. From Off; from Spec Ops; from...I know there's another prominent example that I'm forgetting here. The twist where the goals of the game's protagonist are revealed to be actively harmful, and the game at the end indicts the player - not the hero; the player specifically - for throwing in with the protagonist without knowing or caring beforehand whether his or her goals were worth accomplishing. (Braid and the DS game Contact also trade in The Twist to lesser degrees, though Braid eschews most of the player-blaming, while Contact fingers the player as the sole malevolent presence and casts the in-game protagonist as an unwitting victim. I believe that Nier uses the Twist via its New Game+ function but am not familiar enough with its plot to be sure.)

We've had a good number of relatively prominent titles use The Twist in recent years, to the point where it's almost become a cliche. It's avoided that fate, though, because the games that have used it have done so skillfully, as part of a larger point. No More Heroes used it to examine the futility of living one's life vicariously through violent videogames. Off used it to underline the violence of a narrative that portrayed the aftermath of a failed coup in the terms of a shattered family.

I think, though, that the recent Gods Will Be Watching might have hit the breaking point, judging by reception: it's a brutal game about highly unpleasant subject matter at a punishing difficulty (the developers apparently fiddled with the RNG to make some scenarios unwinnable from the outset in certain iterations). Its ending also relies on The Twist, but I haven't seen many folks claim that the ending is an eye-opener or redeems the game's faults in any way.

This tells me two things. First, I'm not the only one for whom the novelty of The Twist is wearing thin. Second, you can't have The Twist and only The Twist as your narrative's endgame. You need to use it as a launching pad to something more. Otherwise, as with Gods Will Be Watching, it's just a "lol your stupid for playing" message - and if this follows a particularly grueling game, as it apparently does with Gods, then the reward-to-aggravation ratio dips too low. Furthermore, your game has no substance once it's delivered that payload. To paraphrase an old Roger Ebert review: it's a crossword puzzle, it's filled itself in, now it's just a worthless scrap.

A corollary: The Twist is often used to communicate the point that "hey, games shouldn't be so mindlessly violent." I heartily agree with that idea. This approach, however, runs into the same problem Kevin Spacey did in Seven, which is: over-the-top violence serves ultimately only to inure audiences instead of repulse them, so social commentary that relies on shock rarely accomplishes its goals long-term. (I think No More Heroes makes its point exceptionally well, but the point seems to have sailed over the head of most who played it.) Given how much praise titles like Journey and Gone Home have received, it seems that the best way to combat senselessly violent games...is to make nonviolent games. Make the game you want to see in the world.

(On another note: does anyone know where the spindly-legged character style used by Gods originated? Sword & Sworcery used it, too, and I've seen enough T-shirts featuring it as "retro-style" art, but I can't think of any game from the pixel golden age that actually used it.)
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Sekai de Tatta Hitotsu no Basho e ~home green home~
(To the One Place in the World ~home green home~)

moshimo yume ni tsukarete   doko ka tooku e yukitai toki
futto omoidaseba ii   kono home green home

   If you tire of dreams   and wish to go somewhere faraway
    just think back   to this home green home

namida kawakanu mama no   sugao de
nimotsu nado wa motazu   hitori omoide ni notte

   Come just as you are   with your tears yet undried
    unburdened   ride alone on memory

saa   kaette kinasai   koko e
hizashi ga ima   dakishimeru
rays of the sun
natsukashii yama   ano kawa
omae no koto o matte iru darou
ano hi no mama

   Oh,   come back   here, to a place
    embraced   by the rays of the sun
    those mountains so dear;   that river...
    I know they are waiting for you -
    just like that day

eki ni oriru omae o   kaze to   unazuku shiroi hana to
soshite watashi ga mukaeru   kono home green home

   When you arrive at the station   the white flowers   nodding in the breeze
    and I will greet you in this home green home

hito wa chizu ni nai basho   sagashite
tabi o tsuzuke   yagate kako o oite yuku keredo

We all are in search of a place   not on the map
    we journey on;   at length leave our pasts behind - and yet...

moshi sabishii toki ni wa   koko e
haha no mune ni kaeru you ni
sekai de tatta hitotsu no
omae ga umare   yume o sodateta   kono basho e to

If you are lonely,   come back
    just like returning to your mother's breast
    to the one place in the world
    where you were born   where you nurtured your dreams   come back here

saa   kaette konasai   koko e
hizashi ga ima   dakishimeru
natsukashii yama   ano kawa
yasashii egao   soko ni wa mieru

Oh,   come back   here, to a place
    embraced   by the rays of the sun
    those mountains so dear;   that river...
    a kind smile   waits for you there

moshi sabishii toki ni wa   koko e
haha no mune ni kaeru you ni
sekai de tatta hitotsu no
omae ga umare   yume o sodateta   kono basho e to

If you are lonely,   come back
    just like returning to your mother's breast
    to the one place in the world
    where you were born   where you nurtured your dreams   come back here
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( Cutting for spoilers just in case )
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Yeah, it's taking me forever to write up my feelings on Silent Hill 3 - just like with 2, even though my feelings on 3 aren't nearly as positive as they were with that game. One aspect of SH3 near the endgame that did pique my interest, though, was a series of paintings in the cult's chapel that portrayed the religion's creation myth. I'm not signing up for the 21 Sacraments, but I found the story curiously insightful as to the desires and needs that fuel religion and interesting to examine from a mythological perspective.

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In TSS, Ghaleon's hair seems to be a steely blue-greenish silver (verdigris?). Meanwhile, in EB, his hair's more dullish straw, part of his washed-out, weary palette (hat tip to steelstrings for pointing this out). Ghal's the archetypical silver-haired ~~ojiisan~~ bishounen now, but when I first got into Lunar, I found his "initial" hair color memorably unusual and pretty.

TSS Dyne, meanwhile, has hair so light in his portrait you could call it red. TSS Laike does, rather. Perhaps it works for Laike's Scottish-inspired design, but Dyne's so earthy that I can't see him with such an unstable palette.

In those heady SNES days when sprites did not have to match chara art, overworld and battle Cecil had lavender-looking hair (though maybe it's supposed to be a muddled grey, who knows). Doesn't work on him - it's an obvious stylistic choice to avoid a "boring" all-white palette in his sprites, one of those attempts to craft instead the illusion of white through the use of several soft pastels. Good thing we all agree the portrait image is the default!

Then again, by that logic, Cid has a big, bushy blue beard, and I always pictured him to be a brunet, like his sprite.

I rolled my eyes when RE5 turned Jill blonde (and teenage), but looking back at her REmake chara model and even her live-action roots, the question isn't cut-and-blowdried, is it.

Amano says Terra doesn't have green hair, but come on, now. These illustrations look better with the white, though.

It's not like I can't picture Simon Belmont as a redhead, though his old-school Conan image is pretty well fixed in my old-school mind. But I can't picture him this red, this Hot Topicky, and he's never had red hair in a non-ridiculous outfit.

The 7th Saga's Wilme pulls perhaps the ultimate hair-change trick - while his Japanese art identifies him as a furry tigerman, his U.S. art renders him an insectoid alien with no hair at all! His battle sprite can be interpreted either as striped tiger or hairless golem. His hairy form must make that flaming-arm attack of his much more chancy, though.

I think (PS2 spoilers in this video) that Mama Brain outshines us all, though. (It's 2012, and no one's made an anigif of this? Really?)
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