So I was flipping through the playstation store to see if there were any good deals and I found Anthem marked down to something like $10.
So, Anthem is that big EA/Bioware game that was supposed to be the next big thing, but hilariously flopped. On launch it was a buggy mess. It didn't live up to expectations in story and characters. And people just did not care to be dumping time into yet another live service looter shooter game when there are already so many out there.
Up to the release of this game I had been watching it with an overwhelming feeling of "meh". I don't typically care for shooters, and I am wholly uninterested in online multiplayer. There's nothing like being dressed down by a foul mouthed thirteen year old for not being as good at the game as he is to put you off of that sort of thing. And though the game looked beautiful, they didn't really show off much of it before release. I don't know why people were expecting this to be the beginning of a new series like Mass Effect, but apparently they were. They hyped themselves up for it, and the game just didn't deliver on expectations. And pretty much about a month after the game's release no one was talking about it anymore, and a fraction of the people who bought it were still playing it.
So, I figured why not see the train wreck for myself. Now, keep in mind, that I played this game more than a year after release, and it has had some significant bug fix patches. So, for the most part, the game ran pretty well. I did run into some bugs, but they weren't anything exiting the game and restarting couldn't fix. The servers that the game runs on were, unfortunately, not very reliable. I kept dropping in the middle of missions with "unable to connect" errors, which is kind of aggravating.
Anyway, I played through the story, and a few of the side missions. And I had fun with it. For what it is, it's not a terrible game. The problem with it is that it's trying to be an online live service multiplayer looter shooter. Every problem the game has stems from that aspect of it. If this game were a single player story based experience with additional multiplayer for the people who wanted it, I think it would have done a lot better than it did. The story is okay, not the best thing Bioware has ever put out, but it's not terrible. The characters are fine. The gameplay is fun enough. The biggest problem it has is that it wants to be a live service multiplayer game, and it's kind of clearly not. I played through every story mission solo. On normal difficulty I died a few times, but made it through without needing anyone else. As a single player game, it wasn't bad. I never bothered with any of the endgame stuff, because, like I said, it's just not my thing. The thing is though, I just can't see why anyone would want to continue playing this game after the story is over? What's the point? Why should we care? That's where this game fails. It didn't give anyone a reason to continue playing the endgame looter shooter aspect after completing the story.
So, anyway, I feel that I got my $10 worth out of it It was a fun distraction for a few weeks. I have no desire to play further, and probably won't ever play through the story again, but I mostly enjoyed my time spent with it. I wish it hadn't been an online multiplayer game, but we can't have everything. I think one of the biggest reasons why this game failed was that people put Bioware on this high pedestal and that places unrealistic expectations on them. Not every game they make is going to be another Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic, and I think that people are now starting to realize that. They had their fair share of duds in the past. Dragon Age 2 anyone? Mass Effect 3 (even though that one's my favorite, despite everyone else in the world hating it for some reason). If you accept this game for what it is, and don't pile unreachable expectations upon it, it wasn't a terrible game. It was, maybe a little mediocre, but, I mean, people are allowed to be mediocre at times.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Friday, May 8, 2020
Memories of a Time Long Forgotten
So, as I finished Memories of What Never Was a bit ago, I found myself all hyped up to continue the story, rather than following my plan to finish up the first draft of the story I started for NaNo last year, called Carrying the Weight of the World. So, that one is going to wait for a bit while I finish up the rough draft of the second part of this trilogy thingy I started way, WAY too long ago.
So a couple years ago I started the first draft of this story. And back then I had it titled Shadows of What Might Have Been. It's a phrase that I used a few times during Memories of What Never Was, and I kind of liked the sound of it. But it doesn't really have much to do with what happens in the story. So I figured I'd stick with the memories motif and change the title to Memories of a Past Long Forgotten, which is a lot more indicative to what actually happens in the story.
The main reason I stopped working on it was that there were some pieces missing, and it wasn't coming together the way I wanted it. I back burnered it and went back to editing the two stories that were nearly complete. But I've been thinking a lot since that time about what I would do to fix it, and what more it needed to make it all work. And last week I started reading through what I had written (almost 100k words, about 2/3 of the story) and making a few edits, as though I were working on a second draft. I added in a lot of new chapters that were needed. Cut out about an equal number of other chapters that weren't working, and ideas that I didn't like, and now I'm ready to finish up with the finale.
Anyway, I'm a LOT happier with this story now that I've done some extensive fixing on it. And to be honest, a lot of what I already had written wasn't all that bad, either. Most of what I didn't like, some pretty bad character decisions I'd made, took some doing to remove and change, but now I'm pretty excited for how well these edits have turned out, and pumped up to write the rest of it. So, I'm expecting that in the next couple of months I'm going to have a full first draft to work with. And hopefully it won't take me 5 years to edit this one like it did the first one.
So a couple years ago I started the first draft of this story. And back then I had it titled Shadows of What Might Have Been. It's a phrase that I used a few times during Memories of What Never Was, and I kind of liked the sound of it. But it doesn't really have much to do with what happens in the story. So I figured I'd stick with the memories motif and change the title to Memories of a Past Long Forgotten, which is a lot more indicative to what actually happens in the story.
The main reason I stopped working on it was that there were some pieces missing, and it wasn't coming together the way I wanted it. I back burnered it and went back to editing the two stories that were nearly complete. But I've been thinking a lot since that time about what I would do to fix it, and what more it needed to make it all work. And last week I started reading through what I had written (almost 100k words, about 2/3 of the story) and making a few edits, as though I were working on a second draft. I added in a lot of new chapters that were needed. Cut out about an equal number of other chapters that weren't working, and ideas that I didn't like, and now I'm ready to finish up with the finale.
Anyway, I'm a LOT happier with this story now that I've done some extensive fixing on it. And to be honest, a lot of what I already had written wasn't all that bad, either. Most of what I didn't like, some pretty bad character decisions I'd made, took some doing to remove and change, but now I'm pretty excited for how well these edits have turned out, and pumped up to write the rest of it. So, I'm expecting that in the next couple of months I'm going to have a full first draft to work with. And hopefully it won't take me 5 years to edit this one like it did the first one.
Monday, May 4, 2020
How NOT to write a buddy/rival character.
So, with all the staying home and not going anywhere or doing anything over the last few months, I've set my eyes upon the ever-growing list of video games I mean to play but never have time to between work, working on my writing, and the ever-continuing search for the future Mrs. Allen. So, the last couple months I decided to pick up a series of games that are a sequel to another series that I really liked. Trails of Cold Steel. The first two games are basically the same story cut into two parts because it was so huge it wouldn't fit in a single game.
So, you have this buddy character Crow who then becomes the rival character for the protagonist Rean. The first time you meet this utter douchelord, he tricks you and steals from you. And the game expects you to laugh it off and think, "oh, wow, this guy is really cool." Uh. no. That is not how reality works, game. Every interaction that you have with this guy for the rest of the first game is meant to make you think he's cool, but literally every single one of them ended with me thinking he was just an even bigger douchebag than before. He mocks people, he slacks off, he doesn't pay attention when anyone is talking to him, he manipulates and uses people. He's a complete and total sociopath. And through the whole first game the entire rest of the cast keeps saying how cool he is. Every single interaction you have with him makes him out to be an even bigger dick, but this game goes ALL IN on telling you his cool, when, by his actions, he's the furthest thing from it.
So, throughout the first game there's this mysterious masked terrorist that's bombing military bases, setting off bombs in crowded cities full of innocent people, kidnapping people, hijacking the mother of all small dick artillery guns to obliterate an entire city with, and several other unsavory things. Then he assassinates the guy in charge of the country, and sets off an enormous civil war. And at the end, this guy takes off his mask, and surprise, surprise, it's Crow. It's meant to be this huge shocking moment, where you feel all betrayed that this cool friend is actually the guy you've been fighting all along. But, I mean, the guy is HORRIBLE to you, and everyone else in the game. I didn't guess that it was him, but I wasn't shocked to find out that this horrible guy that is just the absolute worst, is actually this terrorist who has murdered a bunch of innocent people.
And then Rean, for the entire next game, keeps going on, and on, and on about how he's going to beat Crow, and bring him back to the good side. He keeps telling all of Crow's friends, don't worry, I'll save him. It's like his entire focus as a character in the second game is to find a way to beat Crow, and then force him back into the life that they had before the war. It's the biggest part of his motivation for the second half of the story.
There's a part where Crow captures Rean, and then tells him why he's doing all of these horrible things. It's because the guy he assassinated to start the war decided not to rebuild a bridge that was knocked out in a flood. that's it. That's his entire motivation for murdering innocent people, bombing civilian targets, and assassination. The guy didn't rebuild a bridge, and his hometown fell into poverty because of it. Oh boo-freaking-hoo!!!
So, to recap, this guy is a lying manipulative douchebag to everyone he meets. A total pervert. OMG the lengths this jerk goes to in order to see naked, underage girls is INSANE. He tricks and steels from random strangers. He murders innocent civilians. He sets off bombs in crowded cities during festivals. He bombs military bases. He assassinates world leaders and starts a massive civil war. And he does all of this because he's sad that his hometown couldn't survive without a bridge. He is a murderer, a war criminal, and a terrorist, on top of being a sociopath, thief, and all around asshole. And this game expects me to be, in any way, invested in "saving" him.
Uh, yeah, no. DO NOT care. I'm nearly at the end of the game. I haven't quite finished it yet. And, realistically, if Rean manages to beat Crow and bring him back to his side. He's just going to be executed for treason, murder, and war crimes anyway. But the game will probably just let him off with a slap on the wrist, because he's the main character's friend.
So, yeah. This is NOT how you write a buddy/rival character. You can't spend the entire story TELLING me that he's such a good friend, while SHOWING me that he is anything but. Any perspective writers out there, please, take this example, and learn from it. Because I see this sort of thing in all kinds of different media. Movies. Books. TV. Other Video Games. If you want me to believe that your buddy/rival is a good guy at heart, and has a true friendship with your main protagonist, he can't also be a murderer, terrorist, assassin, and all around douchelord at the same time. He actually has to have real motivation that makes sense. He actually needs to have a real bond with your protagonist that we see develop, and can feel that these two people are great friends. You can't show him doing all this horrible crap to everyone, and then tell me that, oh yeah, he's a real great friend though.
So, you have this buddy character Crow who then becomes the rival character for the protagonist Rean. The first time you meet this utter douchelord, he tricks you and steals from you. And the game expects you to laugh it off and think, "oh, wow, this guy is really cool." Uh. no. That is not how reality works, game. Every interaction that you have with this guy for the rest of the first game is meant to make you think he's cool, but literally every single one of them ended with me thinking he was just an even bigger douchebag than before. He mocks people, he slacks off, he doesn't pay attention when anyone is talking to him, he manipulates and uses people. He's a complete and total sociopath. And through the whole first game the entire rest of the cast keeps saying how cool he is. Every single interaction you have with him makes him out to be an even bigger dick, but this game goes ALL IN on telling you his cool, when, by his actions, he's the furthest thing from it.
So, throughout the first game there's this mysterious masked terrorist that's bombing military bases, setting off bombs in crowded cities full of innocent people, kidnapping people, hijacking the mother of all small dick artillery guns to obliterate an entire city with, and several other unsavory things. Then he assassinates the guy in charge of the country, and sets off an enormous civil war. And at the end, this guy takes off his mask, and surprise, surprise, it's Crow. It's meant to be this huge shocking moment, where you feel all betrayed that this cool friend is actually the guy you've been fighting all along. But, I mean, the guy is HORRIBLE to you, and everyone else in the game. I didn't guess that it was him, but I wasn't shocked to find out that this horrible guy that is just the absolute worst, is actually this terrorist who has murdered a bunch of innocent people.
And then Rean, for the entire next game, keeps going on, and on, and on about how he's going to beat Crow, and bring him back to the good side. He keeps telling all of Crow's friends, don't worry, I'll save him. It's like his entire focus as a character in the second game is to find a way to beat Crow, and then force him back into the life that they had before the war. It's the biggest part of his motivation for the second half of the story.
There's a part where Crow captures Rean, and then tells him why he's doing all of these horrible things. It's because the guy he assassinated to start the war decided not to rebuild a bridge that was knocked out in a flood. that's it. That's his entire motivation for murdering innocent people, bombing civilian targets, and assassination. The guy didn't rebuild a bridge, and his hometown fell into poverty because of it. Oh boo-freaking-hoo!!!
So, to recap, this guy is a lying manipulative douchebag to everyone he meets. A total pervert. OMG the lengths this jerk goes to in order to see naked, underage girls is INSANE. He tricks and steels from random strangers. He murders innocent civilians. He sets off bombs in crowded cities during festivals. He bombs military bases. He assassinates world leaders and starts a massive civil war. And he does all of this because he's sad that his hometown couldn't survive without a bridge. He is a murderer, a war criminal, and a terrorist, on top of being a sociopath, thief, and all around asshole. And this game expects me to be, in any way, invested in "saving" him.
Uh, yeah, no. DO NOT care. I'm nearly at the end of the game. I haven't quite finished it yet. And, realistically, if Rean manages to beat Crow and bring him back to his side. He's just going to be executed for treason, murder, and war crimes anyway. But the game will probably just let him off with a slap on the wrist, because he's the main character's friend.
So, yeah. This is NOT how you write a buddy/rival character. You can't spend the entire story TELLING me that he's such a good friend, while SHOWING me that he is anything but. Any perspective writers out there, please, take this example, and learn from it. Because I see this sort of thing in all kinds of different media. Movies. Books. TV. Other Video Games. If you want me to believe that your buddy/rival is a good guy at heart, and has a true friendship with your main protagonist, he can't also be a murderer, terrorist, assassin, and all around douchelord at the same time. He actually has to have real motivation that makes sense. He actually needs to have a real bond with your protagonist that we see develop, and can feel that these two people are great friends. You can't show him doing all this horrible crap to everyone, and then tell me that, oh yeah, he's a real great friend though.
Sunday, April 19, 2020
*does happy dance* IT'S DONE!!!! ERMAGERD, FINALLY!!!
So, I just finished the final draft of Memories of What Never Was, and if you feel the great urge to read it, you can do so for free at the bottom of this page.
So, about 20 years ago, I was writing my first novel length story. It was crap. The less said about it the better. And I was coming up with what would be my second novel length story at the time. That one was also crap. But while writing that second story I did a lot of thought on the backstory and how everything came to be in the world of that second novel length story. So naturally, I wrote a story that takes thousands of years later next, instead of the backstory for my third novel length story. It was REALLY crap. And then I came back to the backstory for that second novel length story and thought, yeah, I could do that one. So I wrote it out, and I called it Beyond the Lost Horizon. This was about fifteen or sixteen years ago. At the time, I thought it was pretty good. It wasn't. It was crap.
I had big plans for that book. It was a massive tome, almost 350k words. And it was to be the first book of a six book series. I even wrote a rough draft of what would have been the second book. Which was craaaaaaaaap. Anyway, I tried to sell that one. I tried HARD to sell it. I probably sent submissions in to about 300 different literary agents and publishers. I got one bite, but it turned out to be a scam in the end. Defeated, I set it aside, and went to work on my next project, which was the original version of Spires of Infinity. Which was actually not that bad, but did have some serious problems with it.
Once I finished Spires of Infinity, I looked back on Beyond the Lost Horizon, and thought to myself, you know what, self? I can do better. I really liked the world in which the story took place, but the characters were pretty bland and generic, and the story was cliche, generic, and just plain terrible, and the writing wasn't great either. I thought to myself, this world, and these characters deserve better than what I'd given them the first time around. So I set to rewriting the entire thing from scratch. I developed a TON of new lore, and gave the characters new, and better motivations. And I started writing it. And it turned out crap. So I set it aside again, and went to work on my next novel length story I Am Nobody, which, again, wasn't terrible, but wasn't great either. And all while working on that one, I was thinking how I could fix Beyond the Lost Horizon to make it work.
And so, about 5 years ago I started work on the current version. The original story was way, WAY too long at 350k words. I wanted something that was more in the 130k-170k range. So I took what was about the first third of the original Beyond the Lost Horizon story and completely reworked it with all the new lore, and basically completely new characters that just happened to have the same names, and I called it Memories of What Never Was, which would be the first book of the Beyond the Lost Horizon trilogy.
There was a lot of work that needed to be put into it to get it just right. I rewrote it probably three times before I came up with a first draft of something that I actually felt good about. And I had to put it on hold for long stretches due to burnout at my job with the Post Office, and needing to work through some story elements that weren't quite working before continuing. It's taken me about 5 years to get Memories of What Never Was to the point where I actually feel like it's finished, on top of all the other versions and incarnations that this story has been through before it. I've rewritten this book so many times I should get a medal for keeping my sanity.
I really like this version of the story, and of the characters. I feel like I've done a pretty good job of it. I'm actually pretty proud of the FINALLY completed book. I've been working on this thing, in some form or another, off and on, for half of my entire life now. And it's finally in a form that I feel ISN'T crap. ........and it's only 1/3 of the story....... *sigh* The good news is that I have the characters, the world, and the lore all figured out. It really took some doing to put it together and get it to this point, but the foundation is already there instead of being built from scratch, so hopefully, I don't take another 40 years to write the next two volumes.
Anyway, if you feel the great urge to check out the product of my blood, sweat, and tears, again, you can read it at the bottom of this page And a reminder that it is in manuscript format, which means 12 point courier font, double spaced, and all italics are underlined instead. Also, copyright, etc. I own it. It's mine. Don't steal it. I worked on it for twenty freaking years.
So, about 20 years ago, I was writing my first novel length story. It was crap. The less said about it the better. And I was coming up with what would be my second novel length story at the time. That one was also crap. But while writing that second story I did a lot of thought on the backstory and how everything came to be in the world of that second novel length story. So naturally, I wrote a story that takes thousands of years later next, instead of the backstory for my third novel length story. It was REALLY crap. And then I came back to the backstory for that second novel length story and thought, yeah, I could do that one. So I wrote it out, and I called it Beyond the Lost Horizon. This was about fifteen or sixteen years ago. At the time, I thought it was pretty good. It wasn't. It was crap.
I had big plans for that book. It was a massive tome, almost 350k words. And it was to be the first book of a six book series. I even wrote a rough draft of what would have been the second book. Which was craaaaaaaaap. Anyway, I tried to sell that one. I tried HARD to sell it. I probably sent submissions in to about 300 different literary agents and publishers. I got one bite, but it turned out to be a scam in the end. Defeated, I set it aside, and went to work on my next project, which was the original version of Spires of Infinity. Which was actually not that bad, but did have some serious problems with it.
Once I finished Spires of Infinity, I looked back on Beyond the Lost Horizon, and thought to myself, you know what, self? I can do better. I really liked the world in which the story took place, but the characters were pretty bland and generic, and the story was cliche, generic, and just plain terrible, and the writing wasn't great either. I thought to myself, this world, and these characters deserve better than what I'd given them the first time around. So I set to rewriting the entire thing from scratch. I developed a TON of new lore, and gave the characters new, and better motivations. And I started writing it. And it turned out crap. So I set it aside again, and went to work on my next novel length story I Am Nobody, which, again, wasn't terrible, but wasn't great either. And all while working on that one, I was thinking how I could fix Beyond the Lost Horizon to make it work.
And so, about 5 years ago I started work on the current version. The original story was way, WAY too long at 350k words. I wanted something that was more in the 130k-170k range. So I took what was about the first third of the original Beyond the Lost Horizon story and completely reworked it with all the new lore, and basically completely new characters that just happened to have the same names, and I called it Memories of What Never Was, which would be the first book of the Beyond the Lost Horizon trilogy.
There was a lot of work that needed to be put into it to get it just right. I rewrote it probably three times before I came up with a first draft of something that I actually felt good about. And I had to put it on hold for long stretches due to burnout at my job with the Post Office, and needing to work through some story elements that weren't quite working before continuing. It's taken me about 5 years to get Memories of What Never Was to the point where I actually feel like it's finished, on top of all the other versions and incarnations that this story has been through before it. I've rewritten this book so many times I should get a medal for keeping my sanity.
I really like this version of the story, and of the characters. I feel like I've done a pretty good job of it. I'm actually pretty proud of the FINALLY completed book. I've been working on this thing, in some form or another, off and on, for half of my entire life now. And it's finally in a form that I feel ISN'T crap. ........and it's only 1/3 of the story....... *sigh* The good news is that I have the characters, the world, and the lore all figured out. It really took some doing to put it together and get it to this point, but the foundation is already there instead of being built from scratch, so hopefully, I don't take another 40 years to write the next two volumes.
Anyway, if you feel the great urge to check out the product of my blood, sweat, and tears, again, you can read it at the bottom of this page And a reminder that it is in manuscript format, which means 12 point courier font, double spaced, and all italics are underlined instead. Also, copyright, etc. I own it. It's mine. Don't steal it. I worked on it for twenty freaking years.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
In 1997 Final Fantasy 7 came out. A friend of mine bought it and a Playstation on the release day, and we spend all night long playing through the Midgar section of the game. We were blown away by the graphics, and the characters, and the story. The game pulled us in, and only when it was like 3 or 4 AM did we stop for some much needed sleep.
I, like the genius that I was, had spent my money on a N64, rather than a Playstation, expecting the Nintendo console to continue to be where JRPGs were headed, and was not able to afford a Playstation for almost another year. (by selling my N64 to that same friend) I became obsessed with this game. When I finally got a copy of my own, I played it every single day for an entire year, looking for all of the little secrets held within. In my opinion, it is the last truly good game in the Final Fantasy series. The series never again reached the same scope and height that it did in Final Fantasy 7. Looking back, it's not my favorite Final Fantasy game, that would be 6, but it's the game in the series that most captivated my interest upon release.
When they remade the opening cinematic to show off what the PS3 was capable of, I freaked out over the prospect of getting a remake of the game with modern graphics and voice acting. I was sooooooo disappointed when I found that there were no actual plans for it. I bought a PSP just so I could play Crisis Core when it came out, and I played through Dirge of Cerberus when it was released. I jury rigged my laptop to hook up to my TV (that wasn't a thing back then) so that I could watch Advent Children the day it was released in Japan with fansubs. And I was generally disappointed by all of them except for Crisis Core. They just weren't the same, and seemed to have walked back all of the character development that the characters went through during the second half of the original game.
Anyway, fast forward to when they announced the Final Fantasy 7 Remake and I was very excited. But with each subsequent news update on the project I became more and more apprehensive. The game would be serialized. The first game would only be the Midgar section of the original. Despite all of the fond memories I have of that all-nighter my friend and I spent playing through the Midgar section, it's kind of the most boring part of the game. It's a prologue that drags on FOREVER before the actual story begins.
But FF7 fanboy that I am, even in my 40s, I was, of course, going to buy it no matter what. And I did. And I was pleasantly surprised by it. The graphics are amazing. The English voice cast do a pretty great job. The music is a mix of completely new tracks and reimagined old tracks, some of which have several different versions, like the original fight music, or the bombing mission music. And there is this completely epic medley of, basically, all of my favorite tracks from the original game that plays during the amazingly cinematic motorcycle chase at the end of the game. I felt the combat was a little clunky, but eventually got the hang of it when I realized that you could keybind abilities. I played through on normal difficulty, and on that difficulty level there were some bosses that were exceptionally hard to beat. One of them I did end up lowering the difficulty to easy to be able to get through.
The story has been fleshed out, and we get to spend a lot more time with all of the characters to better learn who they are as people. I like what they did with the characters, for the most part, and I also really liked that we got to spend more time with Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, to build them up as people, rather than those NPCs that don't really have much going for them at the beginning of the original. Mostly, the additions to the story are pretty good, but I don't really like the Kingdom Hearts-ization of the story much, with those annoying Whisper things. I DO NOT enjoy Kingdom Hearts AT ALL, and I felt that Nomura's trying to force some of its BS into Final Fantasy 7 was not great, especially in the ending. While I do like the ending, I'm also a bit afraid of what it might mean for the rest of the FF7 remake series. Because to me, it seems as though it was meant to be a, we broke the ties of fate, and now this story can go off in a completely different direction and leave the old game behind so we don't have to tell the same story again, sort of thing. I really, REALLY hope that they do not decide to go that route, because if the rest of the story of the original gets the same treatment that the Midgar section did in this first game of the remake, I will completely love them. If they go off in a completely new direction, I may like it, but I will probably be a bit angry that I am not getting what I was promised all those years ago when they announced that they were, in fact, remaking the game.
So, all in all, I really enjoyed it, and I hope that the rest of the remake episodes are handled as well as this one. If you like the original, and were maybe a bit on the fence on whether or not you wanted to spend the time and money on the remake, I'd say go for it. It's not an exceptionally long game, I finished in just under 40 hours, but at the same time I did not even come close to 100%ing it. I do feel that I got my money's worth out of it, and look forward to the next, with the hopes that they do not do what I'm fearing that they will with it.
I, like the genius that I was, had spent my money on a N64, rather than a Playstation, expecting the Nintendo console to continue to be where JRPGs were headed, and was not able to afford a Playstation for almost another year. (by selling my N64 to that same friend) I became obsessed with this game. When I finally got a copy of my own, I played it every single day for an entire year, looking for all of the little secrets held within. In my opinion, it is the last truly good game in the Final Fantasy series. The series never again reached the same scope and height that it did in Final Fantasy 7. Looking back, it's not my favorite Final Fantasy game, that would be 6, but it's the game in the series that most captivated my interest upon release.
When they remade the opening cinematic to show off what the PS3 was capable of, I freaked out over the prospect of getting a remake of the game with modern graphics and voice acting. I was sooooooo disappointed when I found that there were no actual plans for it. I bought a PSP just so I could play Crisis Core when it came out, and I played through Dirge of Cerberus when it was released. I jury rigged my laptop to hook up to my TV (that wasn't a thing back then) so that I could watch Advent Children the day it was released in Japan with fansubs. And I was generally disappointed by all of them except for Crisis Core. They just weren't the same, and seemed to have walked back all of the character development that the characters went through during the second half of the original game.
Anyway, fast forward to when they announced the Final Fantasy 7 Remake and I was very excited. But with each subsequent news update on the project I became more and more apprehensive. The game would be serialized. The first game would only be the Midgar section of the original. Despite all of the fond memories I have of that all-nighter my friend and I spent playing through the Midgar section, it's kind of the most boring part of the game. It's a prologue that drags on FOREVER before the actual story begins.
But FF7 fanboy that I am, even in my 40s, I was, of course, going to buy it no matter what. And I did. And I was pleasantly surprised by it. The graphics are amazing. The English voice cast do a pretty great job. The music is a mix of completely new tracks and reimagined old tracks, some of which have several different versions, like the original fight music, or the bombing mission music. And there is this completely epic medley of, basically, all of my favorite tracks from the original game that plays during the amazingly cinematic motorcycle chase at the end of the game. I felt the combat was a little clunky, but eventually got the hang of it when I realized that you could keybind abilities. I played through on normal difficulty, and on that difficulty level there were some bosses that were exceptionally hard to beat. One of them I did end up lowering the difficulty to easy to be able to get through.
The story has been fleshed out, and we get to spend a lot more time with all of the characters to better learn who they are as people. I like what they did with the characters, for the most part, and I also really liked that we got to spend more time with Biggs, Wedge and Jessie, to build them up as people, rather than those NPCs that don't really have much going for them at the beginning of the original. Mostly, the additions to the story are pretty good, but I don't really like the Kingdom Hearts-ization of the story much, with those annoying Whisper things. I DO NOT enjoy Kingdom Hearts AT ALL, and I felt that Nomura's trying to force some of its BS into Final Fantasy 7 was not great, especially in the ending. While I do like the ending, I'm also a bit afraid of what it might mean for the rest of the FF7 remake series. Because to me, it seems as though it was meant to be a, we broke the ties of fate, and now this story can go off in a completely different direction and leave the old game behind so we don't have to tell the same story again, sort of thing. I really, REALLY hope that they do not decide to go that route, because if the rest of the story of the original gets the same treatment that the Midgar section did in this first game of the remake, I will completely love them. If they go off in a completely new direction, I may like it, but I will probably be a bit angry that I am not getting what I was promised all those years ago when they announced that they were, in fact, remaking the game.
So, all in all, I really enjoyed it, and I hope that the rest of the remake episodes are handled as well as this one. If you like the original, and were maybe a bit on the fence on whether or not you wanted to spend the time and money on the remake, I'd say go for it. It's not an exceptionally long game, I finished in just under 40 hours, but at the same time I did not even come close to 100%ing it. I do feel that I got my money's worth out of it, and look forward to the next, with the hopes that they do not do what I'm fearing that they will with it.
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Memories of What Never Was Draft I forget what number I'm up to
Okay, so, even though it's April, I'm still feeling burnt out from Christmas. It was THAT BAD last year. As a mail man, my job is considered to be an essential service, so I am still out working, while everyone else is working from home, or losing their jobs. I am very grateful that I still have a job, don't get me wrong, but I could really use a month or so off to recover from Christmas.
So, being so burnt out, it's really hard to find motivation to do much of anything, which is why I've taken so long to get back to work on Memories of What Never Was. But I've been forcing myself to do it over the last few weeks and have finished another draft of it. I forget what number I'm up to. It's 7 or 8... or maybe 9. Something else that had me dragging my feet was that this draft was a very tedious one to get through, because it's the one where I was fixing all of my sentence structure, to make sure I don't have too many sentences with the same structure in a row. And doing that can be extremely mind-numbing.
There were also a few character changes I wanted to make with Kriss. This is a story about her overcoming her past, and learning to live with it. And I felt that she didn't have enough agency in that, so I've done some big changes regarding her. I also felt that her redemption at the end felt a little forced and anti-climactic, and needed both a more conscious decision on her part to move on and be better, and a little more of something to push her toward it. This required rearranging a few of the events during the ending, and rewriting a few of her earlier introductory chapters, as well as an almost entirely rewritten climax.
Anyway, I have one draft left to do, which is basically just a read through to make sure everything jives correctly, and I didn't miss any big grammar mistakes, or create any new ones with my changes. Once that's over with, I'll be done, and since that'll only take a week or two, I'll post the finished thing then, on my crappy little website, instead of the latest draft now.
So, being so burnt out, it's really hard to find motivation to do much of anything, which is why I've taken so long to get back to work on Memories of What Never Was. But I've been forcing myself to do it over the last few weeks and have finished another draft of it. I forget what number I'm up to. It's 7 or 8... or maybe 9. Something else that had me dragging my feet was that this draft was a very tedious one to get through, because it's the one where I was fixing all of my sentence structure, to make sure I don't have too many sentences with the same structure in a row. And doing that can be extremely mind-numbing.
There were also a few character changes I wanted to make with Kriss. This is a story about her overcoming her past, and learning to live with it. And I felt that she didn't have enough agency in that, so I've done some big changes regarding her. I also felt that her redemption at the end felt a little forced and anti-climactic, and needed both a more conscious decision on her part to move on and be better, and a little more of something to push her toward it. This required rearranging a few of the events during the ending, and rewriting a few of her earlier introductory chapters, as well as an almost entirely rewritten climax.
Anyway, I have one draft left to do, which is basically just a read through to make sure everything jives correctly, and I didn't miss any big grammar mistakes, or create any new ones with my changes. Once that's over with, I'll be done, and since that'll only take a week or two, I'll post the finished thing then, on my crappy little website, instead of the latest draft now.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Mass Effect 3
Well, I finished Mass Effect 3. I’ve been vaguely aware since this game came out that people were disappointed with it. I have to ask, what the hell is their problem? This game is BY FAR the best of the series. It completely blows all others away. There isn’t even a question of competition here. This is the game that I was expecting Mass Effect 2 to be. Imagine my disappointment when it was Mass Effect 2 instead.
This is the only game in the original trilogy that actually feels like a story, rather than a collection of things that happen. The whole thing feels sufficiently apocalyptic and epic in scope. Even the side quests feel like they’re a part of the greater story, and serving the overall narrative. Right from the beginning it starts off with a bang in the Reaper invasion of Earth, and you head through, resolving the conflicts of the people who have been with you from the beginning to pull everyone together to fight in the last battle to save all life in the galaxy. I loved it. Despite being the shortest game in the series—I didn’t even break 20 hours of gameplay on it—this was a GREAT end to a story that has been kind of mediocre up to now, if I’m being honest.
The combat and leveling systems are a step up from the previous games, and this is the first game in the series where I really noticed the music, which was really good. My only real complaint is that the character and facial animations are horrible in this game. It’s like they took a huge step backward from the previous game in that regard. People make fun of Mass Effect Andromeda for the character and facial animations, but anyone who does must not have ever played Mass Effect 3.
I did not play any of the DLC for the game, though I did get the free extended cut. I just didn’t want to pay double what the game costs to be able to play three stories that are probably pretty short and not worth the money. If they ever cut the price on them, maybe I’ll pick ‘em up, but until then I’ve got better things to spend my money on.
Anyway here’s my rankings for the series, best to worst:
1.) Mass Effect 3 - The story, in my opinion, is the best of the bunch, and I liked the narrower focus on a smaller group of characters. It gave the game the time and room it needed to flesh them out more than previous games.
2.) Mass Effect Andromeda - A very good open world game with a crapton of things to do, the best combat of the entire series, an interesting story, and some good characters.
3.) Mass Effect - Though the characters are pretty wooden and one dimensional, and the controls are pretty broken, once you get a good team put together with enough abilities, you can pretty much just overpower your way through the deficiencies in the gameplay. While the story feels less a story and more a collection of random things that happen, it had a great villain, a pretty epic climax, and was a good setup for things to come.
4.) Mass Effect 2 - Yes, that’s right, everyone’s little darling is my least favorite game in the series. Why? IT’S FREAKING BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Too many characters. Not enough story. The game doesn’t even have a villain. It’s 5 hours of story, and 30 hours of playing psychiatrist to boring people I just don’t care about. While the combat, controls and visuals are better than the first game, the more I think about it the less I actually liked it. For all the choices and consequences for those choices there are in the game, it just didn’t have a story to back it up with.
Okay, there. Now I can say I’ve played the Mass Effect series. Now people can stop harassing me about it. I played your stupid games, now leave me alone!
This is the only game in the original trilogy that actually feels like a story, rather than a collection of things that happen. The whole thing feels sufficiently apocalyptic and epic in scope. Even the side quests feel like they’re a part of the greater story, and serving the overall narrative. Right from the beginning it starts off with a bang in the Reaper invasion of Earth, and you head through, resolving the conflicts of the people who have been with you from the beginning to pull everyone together to fight in the last battle to save all life in the galaxy. I loved it. Despite being the shortest game in the series—I didn’t even break 20 hours of gameplay on it—this was a GREAT end to a story that has been kind of mediocre up to now, if I’m being honest.
The combat and leveling systems are a step up from the previous games, and this is the first game in the series where I really noticed the music, which was really good. My only real complaint is that the character and facial animations are horrible in this game. It’s like they took a huge step backward from the previous game in that regard. People make fun of Mass Effect Andromeda for the character and facial animations, but anyone who does must not have ever played Mass Effect 3.
I did not play any of the DLC for the game, though I did get the free extended cut. I just didn’t want to pay double what the game costs to be able to play three stories that are probably pretty short and not worth the money. If they ever cut the price on them, maybe I’ll pick ‘em up, but until then I’ve got better things to spend my money on.
Anyway here’s my rankings for the series, best to worst:
1.) Mass Effect 3 - The story, in my opinion, is the best of the bunch, and I liked the narrower focus on a smaller group of characters. It gave the game the time and room it needed to flesh them out more than previous games.
2.) Mass Effect Andromeda - A very good open world game with a crapton of things to do, the best combat of the entire series, an interesting story, and some good characters.
3.) Mass Effect - Though the characters are pretty wooden and one dimensional, and the controls are pretty broken, once you get a good team put together with enough abilities, you can pretty much just overpower your way through the deficiencies in the gameplay. While the story feels less a story and more a collection of random things that happen, it had a great villain, a pretty epic climax, and was a good setup for things to come.
4.) Mass Effect 2 - Yes, that’s right, everyone’s little darling is my least favorite game in the series. Why? IT’S FREAKING BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Too many characters. Not enough story. The game doesn’t even have a villain. It’s 5 hours of story, and 30 hours of playing psychiatrist to boring people I just don’t care about. While the combat, controls and visuals are better than the first game, the more I think about it the less I actually liked it. For all the choices and consequences for those choices there are in the game, it just didn’t have a story to back it up with.
Okay, there. Now I can say I’ve played the Mass Effect series. Now people can stop harassing me about it. I played your stupid games, now leave me alone!
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