indigozeal

Sorry I declared my return a bit early - I'm concentrating on translation projects, plus my dog's health is acting up - but I wanted to drop by to post on my belated discovery of Pixiv's doujinshi market, Booth.pm, where Pixiv artists can sell their doujinshi items directly. It's a real intriguing concept, but there's not much to report, at least for the series I like: a sold-out 20th anniversary Lunar 2 doujin from Garden Garden (which is still at it, and which hasn't improved artistically); a few scattered Angelique tchotchkes, mostly of an Oscar/Lumi nature (and it goes to show how unaccustomed I am to that new Lumiale design, because I was looking at that charm and thinking: "who's that chick with Oscar; is she from another game?"); and...some picture (not a doujin; a picture) of Alis Landale and some other warrior chica biting a catgirl's ears. The most curious discovery was of a bunch of Clock Tower doujinshi, but I don't think I'll bite; it's predominantly Jennifer/Edward, with both characters drawn - well, I was going to say "very young," but the characters' physical ages during the game are 15 and 10 respectively. Yes, I know that Edward is an age-old demon, and hints of that dynamic are an effective creep factor in the novel, but...well, try explaining to that to customs, at the very least. Someone did make replicas of Yu/Alyssa's amulets, though, which is remarkable.

(I also came across this remarkable artist while searching for 999 stuff - which is nil, apparently. There are some very odd omissions in Booth's stock, though - no FF4, and no Ib, which was a cottage industry on Pixiv last time I looked.)

(Also, I feel obliged to mention that if you like FF6, you might enjoy these fan artbooks. For Chrono Trigger, have a Magus postcard set.)

(I must also link this.)

Of course, most of the series I enjoy have been around for a few years and are unlikely to see the release of many new books or items; you might have better luck yourself searching for the titles you enjoy. You'll have to use Tenso or another forwarding service if you decide to bite, of course.
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[Error: unknown template qotd]Just posting to note that I'm upset this poll isn't titled "Still the prettiest."
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I've been leafing through one of the Hobbit tchotchkes I picked up yesterday, a coffee-table art book for the first film entitled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles - Art & Design. I bought it mainly for the concept art of Rivendell, a movie locale dear to my heart, but I'm really impressed by the presentation of the book: just tons of beautiful Alan Lee and John Howe sketches & artwork, plus lavish photographs of props into which the usual Weta Workshop care & quality was put. The layouts & commentary got me engrossed in areas of Middle-Earth that usually aren't in my realm of interest; the photos of bearded Dwarven women and remarks on how the designers had taken inspiration from Renaissance portraiture, for instance, were terrific. (And there's even a detailed fold-out copy of Bilbo's burglary contract included.) It's a great way to experience the world of the film without...you know, the issues of the actual film. The clerk at checkout rung the wrong bar code at first, and I discovered that the book was originally $45, which initially shocked the heck out of me, since I paid only one-fifth of that (the book was on clearance). After a closer read, though, I can see that it's totally worth the original price.

(The bookstore also had the second, companion volume, subtitled Creatures & Characters, on clearance, but I skipped it because it focused mostly on the monsters. I'm all orcked out, thanks. I may live to regret that decision, though.)

The second item was a page-a-day calendar. I remember the ones I had for the LotR films fondly: big, glossy pages with striking & visually intriguing stills from the movies - someone really went over the DVDs with an artist's eye. I inevitably falter on keeping up with page-a-day calendars sometime during the year, but it's a nice little treat to be surprised with a new Middle-Earth image when you get up each morning - like an Advent calendar, but year-round.

Anyhow, I'm a bit disappointed by the Hobbit calendar. It's made by the same company as the LotR calendars, but the pages are newsprinty and dim, and the images consist just of promo shots taken from established sources, not anything "discovered" by the company itself, so to speak. Oh, well. The book was a pleasant anomaly, but I guess it's too much to ask a calendar company to escape the law of diminishing returns.
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So there was apparently an announcement regarding some next-gen Lord of the Rings game that Celebrimbor, grandson of Fëanor from The Silmarillion, is going to be a major character. Not the main character, evidently, but some wraith who can help Ranger McGeneric if he opts to follow the dark path, etc. I imagine this is big news in part due to the prominent use of Silmarillion material, which was previously off-limits by the Tolkien estate for the movies and their tie-in paraphernalia.

Anyhow: all this just makes me wish there were a version of The Silmarillion that wasn't horrible. Most folks stop reading the book because it allegedly reads too much like the "A who begat B who begat C" sections of the Bible, but I stopped because it was just too hateful and sadistic. Its gods are petty, cruel, and incompetent, and the book quickly devolves into a Saw-like recitation of the horrors and tortures that - rightfully, in the author's eyes - befall the sons and descendants of the one elf who calls these unjust deities out on their behavior. The "bad" elves have dark hair and darker complexions and work with their hands (and are deemed evil no matter what their actions); the "good" elves have golden hair and pale skin and are largely indolent (and are deemed good no matter what their actions); and the obeisance of mortals to gods - of serfs to masters - must be absolute. It's an indulgence of the worst of Tolkien's medieval classism, a big U-turn from The Lord of the Rings and its elevation of the most seemingly insignificant of Middle-Earth's peoples to a position of great heroism. This could partially be due to how The Silmarillion was pieced together by another party after Tolkien's death from decades of drafts written at different times in Tolkien's life; presumably, Tolkien's attitudes evolved in some respect, since the values systems of LotR and the Silm (while both retaining a degree of provincial royalism) are in crucial ways so opposed. But in The Silmarillion's existing published form...well, I'd like to get more involved with the history of Middle-Earth's elves, but the priorities evinced are just awful all the way on down.

I initially misunderstood Celebrimbor to be the hero of the new game, which was intriguing to me. While Fëanor's methods were wrong in many aspects, I feel the rationale behind his actions (possessiveness toward his prized Silmarils, yes, but also a stand for self-determination and justice, even in the face of near-certain defeat, instead of unthinking submission to tyrannical authority) is more identifiable to modern audiences than the values The Silmarillion espouses. Putting one of Fëanor's cursed descendants in a starring role might have signified an attempt to reclaim The Silmarillion, which would have been a noble endeavor: There's a nuanced story that could perhaps be told there (albeit still a very grim, bloody, and unpleasant one) if characters were taken on their own merits and actions instead of bound to their roles in a feudalist morality play. Alas.
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I was delaying posting this until I finished my reaction posts for the first half of Silent Hill 4. I'm not going to get back to that game in the next couple weeks, though, and I'd rather do one unbroken stream of commentary for it - so heck with it; let's get this out the door and take an accounting of the games I played in 2012.


Beaten:
Neo Angelique, PSP ("be an ordinary Aube Hunter" ending)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, PSP via Dracula X Chronicles
9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, DS
Glory of Heracles, DS
Silent Hill, PSP via PSOne Classics
Mystic Ark, Super Famicom (via emulator)
Earthbound, SNES (via emulator)
Ib, PC (RPGMaker title)
Eternal Darkness, Gamecube
Silent Hill 2, Playstation 2
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Gamecube (finished main campaigns, all three characters; finished Orthanc w/ Gimli & secret character)
Resident Evil, Saturn (finished Jill w/Chris rescued; you gotta give me more notice than that to get Barry out alive, game)
Phantasy Star III, Mega Drive (x4, via emulator & save states - I've given enough to/done my non-assisted time with this game already)

Little stuff:
Slayin', PC (finished as Knight and Mage; end boss keeps killing me as Rogue!)
Home, PC

Played, not finished:
most of the NES Mega Mans, Gamecube compilation - I had part of a separate post all typed up about this, but long story short: I discovered I don't really have the patience anymore for try-try-again platforming bullshit of any stripe. I enjoy the Robot Master stages but lose interest in the Wily levels. I haven't finished a single game, sadly.
Lumines II, PSP
Every Extend Extra, PSP
Metroid, NES - Yeah, about this. I made another go at Metroid this summer and actually made considerable progress over my earlier attempts. I hit a complete wall, though, at Kraid - I must've gone at him an Arino level of times and can't really beat his (frankly ridiculous) pattern. I thought more energy tanks might help (I had three), but I soon learned that to find the other energy tanks in Metroid, you have to shoot walls. All the walls. Every inch of all the walls - and there's nothing that differentiates wall sections that might hold items from those that don't. I mean, there're 100 to 1000 wall tiles per room, and I've uncovered about 60 rooms to date. I could look up the answers - but I've uncovered so much on my own that I feel (stupidly, I know) that resorting to an FAQ at this point would be giving up, even though the game is patently unfair. So I'm at an impasse where I'm too stubborn to get help but won't progress on my own. Bah.
Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon, PSP
Girl's Garden, SG-1000 (but you can never finish this)
Silent Hill 4: The Room, PS2



Best: Silent Hill 2 by a wide mile.
Symphony of the Night is a good runner-up. Honorable mention goes to Ib, a neat small game with strong art design that does a lot in its limited space.

Worst: Objectively, it's probably Phantasy Star III, but I knew all about that going in. And at least it's trying. In some parts. Kind of. Earthbound, on the other hand, was an aggravating and frustrating play experience that didn't deliver on its vaunted charm and humor and had open contempt for the player. Second was Glory of Heracles, a big "why bother?".

Surprisingly Good: Ib takes the cake here, a sprightly little game that's smarter and more elegant that it ever had to be. Girl's Garden also figures in: '80's arcade games weren't supposed to be outright pretty, and "girls' games" weren't supposed to be actually good. On the LP front, I'll steal from the Something Awful thread and note that MODE, an FMV dating/party/conversation sim where the positive/neutral/negative tone of your responses rather than a formal dialogue tree dictates story development, is in the Deadly Premonition framework: a game that arrests your attention with sheer, seemingly-amateur bizarreness but gradually betrays legitimate quality and stimulating originality.

Miscellanea: 999 is very good, compelling and tense with likable characters and great music. That said, it's gotten a Deep Space Nine/Firefly-type fandom that aggressively proselytizes, and its flaws - the pseudoscience; the demand for excessive replays; how the final twist is kind of a leap too far - are shortsold. Eternal Darkness finishes strongly and has some good environments at the end but is rarely scary and kind of stupid for most of its length. I'm making peace with Silent Hill as time goes by, but I'd put in the "interesting curiosity" basket before the "classic"; its attempt at a story hinted at, not directly told, is done miles better by its sequel.

I can't really think of a single moment or place in Home that I can point to as a standout, but its commentary on how the choices available to the player must work to form a coherent narrative deserves recognition.

Great characters: James Sunderland and all his entourage. Angela in particular - despite all her mental scars, it's she who goes to her fate with eyes wide open. The J.D. plotline, what I got to play of it, was done refreshingly well, taking the revelation of J.D.'s true nature and going from there instead of ending with it - examining what it meant for this truly kind person to be an artificial, created being, and how he consequently felt apart and "different" from the rest of society despite all his warmth and good cheer because of it. I didn't finish the game or even get up much past his intervention in the plot, but I can't overlook Silent Hill 4's Walter Sullivan: he who has done the unspeakable, has had the unspeakable done to him, who within himself contains multitudes and paves a bloody trail in his quest for eternal love and safety.

Making room for 999 and its wealth of contradictory descriptors for the best of its cast. Snake: intelligent, given to cheerfully smutty remarks, omnicompetent yet still overconfident, devoted in all humility to his sister. Lotus: a techie, a mom, a coward, a shrewd thinker, a romantic. Clover: At first an innocent ball of genki; later a deep brooder who takes duty and proactivity to impressive lengths. Seven: a consummate professional, a gregarious goof, a physical force, yet more often than not the smartest man in the room.

LP-wise, Dietrich Troy and the revelations about him in the true ending, crystallized in one perfect scene, the one on the bike. (I know supergreatfriend's Spy Fiction LP was from 2011, but I just got into it last year.) Shadows of the Damned's Garcia Hotspur: "I'm a Mexican, Johnson, not a Mexican't." (Yes, I know that line was stolen from a movie, but it fits Hotspur best.) MODE's Mohawk mobster Riel Attaychek is an infuriating conversationalist but a kind of fascinating jerk. He seems to genuinely like people and have a healthy roll-with-the-punches outlook on life but is nonetheless abrasive, self-absorbed, and materialistic, which is an interesting and refreshing choice for a game's Guide to Inner Wisdom.

Great Moments: Silent Hill 2: "I got a letter." The opening walk. Angela on the staircase. "...It's all the same once they're dead!" Mary's ending monologue in the Leave ending. Pretty much everything from rowing across the lake onward.

Ib: The doll room. Eternal Darkness: The final battle. 999: Safe ending: The laugh, and the transformation afterwards. Glory of Heracles, of all games: The death where you learn the truth about the Heracles situation, which I thought was the one graceful note in an empty game.

Silent Hill: The arrival of Kaufmann in the ending, where a tertiary character oversteps the boundaries of his role and changes the entire game, and the jokey end credits. Silent Hill 4: Looking out the peephole during Apartment World, which signals a drastic change in Henry's participation in the narrative. Look into the abyss...etc.

LP greatness: Spy Fiction: The scene on the motorbike, and the ending revelation/confrontation. Shadows of the Damned: I'm not sure this falls into greatness, but I was stricken by the backstory of the songstress Justine, who remolds herself through supreme force of will in response to social mores that aren't even there. It's tragedy and triumph all at the same time, and I'm still not sure what to make of it - except that it's very Suda. MODE: Again, not sure if it's great, but learning what the DOMEs did in the second MODE stream was memorable, and participating in SGF's stream itself was great.

Great places: The Myst-like outside of Silent Hill 4's water prison. Ib's art gallery, and the style of the "town" near the end. Silent Hill 2's fog-covered walk and last location. Mystic Ark's still and silent Myst-like hub island, and its awesome world 6. (Lotta Myst goin' around, but there're far worse visual references.)

Great music: Well, nothing's going to top this.

Most fun: Knocking down ladders atop the Hornburg in Helm's Deep in The Two Towers. Running back 'n' forth poppin' enemies with your little pixel sword in Slayin'. Swinging the sparkly Jewel Sword, or happening across the Valmanway and wondering "what's this?" just before you activate your Win Button in Symphony of the Night. Taking out enemies with one whack of Silent Hill's mighty emergency hammer, particularly after all the skin-of-your-teeth fighting in the first half of the game. Executing spell overkills in Glory of Heracles and getting back more MP than you doled out for it. Dropping blocks to "Regret" or "Black Tambourine" in Lumines II. Romping around collecting purty flowers in Girl's Garden. Navigating Ib - the neat visual puzzles, what artworks you'd encounter next, combined with frequent save points, made playing a delight.

Lessons learned: I am always right and should not second-guess myself when I've decided it's time to cut my losses from a title. Earthbound.

That's it for 2012! Will 2013 be even better? (Spoilers: ehhh.)
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Beautiful space-themed jewelry. Also a lookbook featuring the whole collection, including pieces that are currently out of stock. I want that solar system necklace on pg. 22.

The perfect gift for the Clock Tower fan on your list. Er, one month late? Think of it as 11 months early instead!

I'd love to get something at the Tokyo Pen Shop, but I hardly write anything worth pricier stationery, I don't know the differences between the various styles, and I lose so many pens as it is. I find it hard enough to pony up for a Le Pen.

Continuing the complaints about a movie I haven't seen: this is a great discussion of what makes a movie feel "videogamey" in the perjorative sense.

The Character Assassination of Ivan Drago by the Coward Apollo Creed.

I'm impressed by the bananas + peanut butter = ice cream. But this is the second time today that I've seen a frosting-based fudge, and that's just gross. It's just gross, son!

I like the light effects on this T-shirt but find it kind of creepy in a distasteful way. (Also: I kind of like this shirt but am not sure it would work for a woman's figure; I like this shirt, but it would not work on my figure.)

This is a huge cheap shot, and I have not seen a single episode of the show in question, but I find this utterly hilarious.
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If your first game was widely criticized for not breaking completely free from its Lord of the Rings roots, is it wise to start off your trailer for the sequel with a "MARCH TO HELM'S DEEP!" sequence, complete with Deeping Wall explosion?

(No, I'm not enticed to stick around by the prospect of 'roid-rage Alucard.)
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I just finished Victoria Finlay's Jewels tonight, a popular-science tome on precious gems, and there's a passage that brings to mind a bit of LotR lore.

I remember speculation on how the Frodo-Sam relationship was made less servile in the movies allegedly because U.S. audiences wouldn't understand the British master-servant relationship that informed Tolkien's writing. (I personally think the writers realized Sam worked better as a full-fledged character rather than as an accessory to his "master," but whatever.)

All right, so in the chapter about jet, Finlay early on how jet was made popular in Victorian England through Queen Victoria's conspicuous mourning jewelry. She later goes on to discuss Cybele, the dark ancient earth goddess herself associated with jet, and observes an altar carved with a scene of Cybele lamenting the passing of her lover, Attis.

At the front of the altar of Cybele is pictured between two priests, a large female figure swathed in heavy clothes and deep, almost tender, gloom. She does not appear to be the vengeful angry goddess of myth, nor the literally petrifying proto-gorgon she is sometimes thought to have been. I was reminded of another ruler who, like the mythical Cybele, made the jet stone famous. On this ancient shrine, the Eastern goddess bore a startling resemblance to a more recent personification of mourning: Queen Victoria. Perhaps the nineteenth-century passion for jet was more than the desire for a gemstone for a symbol; perhaps it was the desire for an archetype.

Now: Nienna's always seemed like an eternally lame character, hasn't she? Her big character trait is that she's perpetually crying. Why would you give your figure of divine mercy such a patience-trying form? Finlay, a Brit, applies the word "archetype" to the image assumed by Victoria and Cybele (and Nienna). But the mourning-mother, the female leader whose grief lends her moral authority, isn't something that is in my cultural vocabulary as an American. Is whatever Nienna embodies another of those suppposed Tolkien Anglicisms that're lost on a larger audience?
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I've been very diligent in staying pointedly uninformed on the production status of The Hobbit, but when I heard mention that the latest promotional video had footage (a whole second's worth!) of Hugo Weaving in character as Elrond, I went running. He nails that kind as summer etc. etc. aspect of the character cushioned in a weary bitterness garnered from a hundred lifetimes' worth of disappointment. I can't help but be a fan of Weaving's portrayal, which is making it so hard to be so leery of this project.

In Yavanna's words, "Even for those who are mightiest under Ilúvatar there is some work that they may accomplish once, and once only." (Well, Fëanor says it better a bit later on, but this version serves our purposes.) The magic of a great work lies in transient factors like the person the main creator was at the time, the collaborators surrounding him or her, happenstances that led to the presence or absence of certain personnel/inspirations/resources etc. that you usually can't recapture. I haven't seen anything to justify my lapse of confidence yet (though bringing back Figwit in a major role might be pushing it), but I just can't shake the specter of the Star Wars prequels. But then again, there's Weaving's Elrond. I don't want to see this in theaters - I can't bear to see my beloved LotR films tainted with even the slightest stench of bad movie, even retroactively - but it's looking increasingly as if I have might have no choice.

(Those're some sweet Second Age statues outside Rivendell, though.)
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I've linked to the art of Bohemian Weasel before, but it must be said...

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...she does Fall well.
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