After reading the post-mortem interview in Game Informer #204, here are some of my thoughts.

While reading issue 204 of Game Informer, I stumbled over the interview that GI did with Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama, the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIII. While GI glossed over much of the criticism that the game has received (the incredibly linear story, the low quality of the 360 port, and the absurd amount of time that it takes to open up, etc.), they did answer some questions that have been asked about the design of the game.

Here are two of the more interesting quotes from the article, and my thoughts on the answers:

Q: “Was adapting the game to the Xbox 360 a difficult process?”

A: “Transitioning Final Fantasy XIII to multiplatform was not a huge obstacle, as the Crystal Tools engine was created with multiplatform development in mind. The game data and CG data were shared between the two platform versions as well, so the workload for this part of the development never increased.”

I should preface my thoughts by acknowledging that the first question of the interview was in regards to the FFXIII team changing the game engine from the White engine to the Crystal Tools engine to make it more adaptable to other projects, such as FFXIV. The biggest problem that I’ve had with the 360 port is that it seemed like they didn’t attempt to make the CG cutscenes run smoothly on 360. The general consensus is that the CG cutscenes are absolutely gorgeous on the PS3, while they didn’t even bother to make minor changes or choose a codec that would have facilitated better playback on the 360. As a direct result of this, some of the cutscenes chug though they could have been easiy modified to benefit from some of the 360’s hardware differences. This carelessness is reflected in Kitase’s response, as he confirmed that the CG assets were just ported over to the 360 instead of making conscious design choices between the two.

Q: “At what point in the development process of Final Fantasy XIII was it decided that players would not be exploring towns in the same way as previous games in the series?”

A: “In Final Fantasy XIII, Lightning and the other main characters are persecuted and on the run within their world as dangerous l’Cie. The concept of exploring towns and shopping did not make sense in light of the plot, so from the very start of development we decided that “towns” would be incorporated in the form of a handful of large cities. Instead of adhering to the traditional style of RPG gameplay, we wanted to involve players by presenting one dramatic situation after the other. The residents of each town are fully voiced, which is something new to the series, and something we hope fans will have fun with.”

Well, I guess that’s a fair explanation for the lack of depth that the towns have in the game. I’m only in Chapter 9, but I think it’s fair to say that the towns, though good-looking, lack depth and interesting dialogue.

I never really thought about it in terms of the story, so I think I can excuse the lack of attention paid to the towns, but it still reeks of laziness. Why not have other Pulse l’Cie or anti-government rebels like Snow’s group team up with you or even exchange dialogue with you? Why was Nautilus so full of people that you couldn’t talk to, though they clearly had no idea you were a Pulse l’Cie? Why do the NPC’s eschew even casual Fallout 3-esque conversation in favor of just blurting out their lines as you approach or run by?

I don’t think that Toriyama’s explanation fully excuses the lackluster handling of towns and NPC’s, but it at least gives an in-universe explanation to those that wanted one. I do want to add that calling attention to the “fully voiced” residents is a little disingenuous, seeing as how you don’t actually talk to them, they just talk when you’re around.

To close, Final Fantasy XIII is a flawed game, and the 360 port earns all the scorn that it receives. What gamers cannot deny is that it tries to tell a story that falls well within the established FF style and that it’s a step in a different direction, if not advancing the game along the track that FFXII paved.

Over the Christmas break, I went to the theater with one of my old friends in LA, and watched Sherlock Holmes. The disconnect between my thoughts about the movie and the general consensus of the movie reviews really signaled to me that there is a gaping disconnect between movie reviewers and the general public. Click past the break for more!

While I was sick over the last few days, I did some quality catch-up work on some anime and movies. I re-watched the Star Trek (2009) movie, and was surprised at how much I still liked it. I ended up going to the Wikipedia page to look for more info on it, and this led me to the RottenTomatoes page for it. While the overall rating was fabulous, and there was a ton of positive reviews, there were also reviews that looked poorly upon Abrams’ work.

“Abrams manages quite well in making $150 million look like an episode of Babylon 5. Fistfights are poorly edited, and when he wants to create excitement and tension, Abrams simply has the camera shake around a lot in close-up.”

“A mindless, milling mess. Just what you would expect from somebody schooled in the Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer academy of bad directing.”

While these were hardly indicative of the majority of the reviewers, it really struck me that movie reviewers, even if they’re trying to be contrarians, really don’t understand what people reading the reviews care about. I would argue that most moviegoers don’t really care about how “artistic” or highbrow an action flick is—make no mistake, Star Trek is exactly that, just like Sherlock Holmes is.

I flicked over to the Sherlock Holmes RT page, and wasn’t really too shocked by the negative review score of 69%. I left that movie not feeling like I watched some great work of art, but I was really entertained by the concept of Sherlock Holmes being reinvented as more of an action character than a detective, and really liked the ending “revelation” scene, which gave me Dan Brown-esque chills.

I grudgingly accepted the lukewarm reviews and then decided to browse on over to the “RT Community” score, expecting to see more of the same. I was mildly shocked by the 87% score, which was substantially better than the average T-Meter and “Top Critics” scores.

The disparity between what highbrow movie critics and the movie-going public thought about the movie really shocked me, since the critics are supposed to be writing to give potential audience-members some kind of barometer on how they will receive the movie. When I think about buying a game or giving a movie a shot, I generally look at a review or two to decide if I’d enjoy the experience. However, the reviewer from the Sacramento News and Review (I live in Davis, so this is regional movie coverage that I’m likely to see) said this:

“… Sherlock Holmes for the ADD generation, jerking and twitching like a crank freak itching for his next sniff.”

I really didn’t get this kind of vibe from the movie, and had I seen this review beforehand, I probably would’ve suppressed by unbridled lust for all things Robert Downey Jr. and passed on it.

As a member of one of the more important demographics to the movie industry (16-40 with expendable income), I can’t even imagine how many people were exposed to negative reviews about Sherlock Holmes and skipped on it, probably having a big effect on revenue.

I’ve come to the realization that it’s important to listen to people who are in your general demographic and who share the same interests as you. After all, how much do you really have in common with some 50ish jaded movie critic? At times like these, I really appreciate stuff like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. These are all outlets offering opinions on movies and other forms of media from people who are like you, and this being the case, probably offer opinions that you are more likely to share.

Basically, the point of this ~700 word monstrosity is to beseech you guys to take professional movie reviews (both positive and negative) with a grain of salt and trust your friends’ opinions more than any aging fossil writing movie reviews for your newspaper.

So the first thing is that I’ve quit World of Warcraft (hopefully) for good. I’ve played since beta first on Tichondrius-A, and more recently on Gurubashi-H and Blackrock-H since TBC. It’s not that the game has declined immensely (of course it has to some degree, but it’s certainly still entertaining), it’s more that I don’t have the time, motivation, or hardware to play anymore.

I’m taking 16 units of classes, 10 hours of internship, and 13 hours of work every week, and just don’t want to come home and immediately start raiding.

Since the breakup of my guild at the end of TBC, I’ve just been wracked by nostalgia, which has really been cutting at my motivation to raid. The raiding in WotLK is certainly still top notch, but the people that I had been doing it with just weren’t of the same caliber as those in my old guild.

Finally, there’s the hardware issue. I’ve been playing on a netbook since TBC, and it really hasn’t been enjoyable. Trying to raid at ~5 fps on some fights is just impossible. I had to sit out on Brutallus fights in TBC because I couldn’t fountain heals properly on my paladin and it’s been cutting my dps as a rogue this go around.

That being said, I’m switching my gaming focus more towards the console for “real” games, and sticking with my PC for VN’s. I’m working my way through Fate/stay night, and I’m really enjoying the time I spend doing so.

I’m currently still on a GaGa phase, listening to her repeatedly (just look at my last.fm), with other random stuff sprinkled in. A couple of other songs I’m also totally stuck on are “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and “Whatcha Say” by Jason Derulo. Yeah, so they’re poppy–sue me.

Anime-wise, I’m currently watching Dance in the Vampire Bund, the new Nodame season, and Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. I’m working with #tortoise to sub the new season of Hidamari Sketch (aka longface (X’__________’) ) and looking forward to watching the F/SN Unlimited Blade Works movie and the new anime adaptation.

So that’s what’s new with me, thanks for reading and I hope 2010 is going great for you!

Anime

Bakemonogatari

I first encountered BMG when it was being discussed as a TL project for QQ. I ended up passing on it to focus more on my studies, and only ended up watching it at around the time episode 7 or 8 was coming out. Having said this, I regret not coming around much sooner, since I was completely enthralled by the quality of this anime.

BMG’s detractors will point out the “generic” nature of the anime, and the large number of placeholders instead of animations, but despite all this, I really developed a strong liking of the characters, especially the stapler-wielding Hitagi.

BMG also had my favorite OP and ED of the year, with OP4 (Ren’ai Circulation) and Kimi no Shira nai Monogatari. I think the entirety of Rizon is salivating over the prospect of the full OP being released, and I don’t think you’ll find many people who will argue that the ED was much worse.

Music

Lady GaGa

Just looking at my last.fm, this is a definite shoe-in. As of the time of this writing, I have 1,022 plays of her music, making her my top overall artist by over 150 plays. While the music that she cranks out may not be the most complex, there is definitely enough there to make me want to just veg out at my computer, close my eyes, and just enjoy it. As an added bonus, a lot of it makes me want to dance as well.

Of her work, I’d probably put “Just Dance” right at the top, just because I’ve spent so many hours listening to just that song. I’ve taken some time to listen to her new album, and I really like some of it, but none of it is as hypnotic as that.

Game

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

This was too easy. I’d love to just give the award to BioWare in general, because I’ve really come to enjoy a lot of their works. KOTOR is not a new game, but I didn’t get to play it until I bought it off Steam on Black Friday. I loved every little bit of it, from the plot, to the characters (besides the whiner with the double blasters), to the way you could flourish your lightsaber while you ran.

I really dig BioWare’s branching dialogue trees and it’s definitely something that I also enjoyed in Jade Empire. KOTOR2 has definitely proven to be a disappointment (gg to my save game bugging out and being unplayable after NINETEEN hours), but I’m definitely looking forward to The Old Republic. Go BioWare!

]]> http://huntfornovember.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/the-a-list-2009/feed/ 2 sakagami http://huntfornovember.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/fall-watch-list/ http://huntfornovember.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/fall-watch-list/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:28:17 +0000 sakagami http://huntfornovember.wordpress.com/?p=189 ]]>

So apparently people actually read this blog, so I’ll do my best to keep you guys entertained with tidbits from my life as I enjoy time off from fansubbing. To start this off, here’s what I’m watching this season. Lemme know what you guys think and tell me what you guys think could be good!

Well, this season looks pretty bare for me. I have two shows that I’m watching right now (not counting the continuation of Bakemonogatari), and one that I’m following in my free time.

The first of these is the second season of Darker than BLACK. This show was introduced to me by some of my friends on rizon, and I loved the first season, though I felt it ended pretty abruptly. This second season has not disappointed me at all thusfar, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

The other one I’m following seriously is A Certain Scientific Railgun. I liked the “main” series that this was an offshoot of (A Certain Magical Index), despite it’s many faults, and I really feel like this offshoot executes a lot better on the promise that the universe has. It features Mikoto as the protagonist and I feel like her personality (hello, tsundere-chan) is a lot more compelling than either Touma’s or Index’s, who really should have been supporting characters in the first place. The battles thusfar lack the ludicrous amount of dialogue and time-stretching, and I’m really loving the humor (both intented and unintended).

I’m also watching the second season of The Secret of Nogizaka Haruka as a “why not?” anime. I thought the first season was absolutely adorable, and the second one promises to follow in it’s predecessor’s footsteps. Mika is still the best character in the anime, and I really hope the other characters get more depth as time goes on.

I dabbled a bit with Seitokai no Ichizon and Kimi ni Todoke, but ended up dropping it because I realized that for character-driven anime, I really didn’t feel an attachment to any of them.

Anyways, what do you guys think? Am I missing any diamonds in the rough?

So what do you guys think will be good this summer?

So I’ve looked at the schedule for summer, and I’m not really interested in anything beyond Spice and Wolf 2. Bakemonogatari has a good VA cast, but it looks like it’s gonna be a summer of reruns and dota for me…

Best line I’ve ever seen during a QC pass.

After finishing my epic marathon (well sorta, fifty eps over 3 days or so is nothing to sneeze at!), I was struck by a few things in this anime that will stay with me for quite a while. Would I like to share them with you? Of course! Of course, there will be spoilers, so if you haven’t watched, but are planning to, do not click. This will be the first part of a (probably) two part retrospective. (EDIT: realized the original image was too spoilery, so replaced it with a SS from ED4)

I first got the idea to watch Eureka Seven after looking up Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch on anidb.net and using their link to “similar anime” at AnimePlanet. Eureka Seven was the sixth in the list, behind animes like Death Note, Black Cat, and Full Metal Panic! (which I still have yet to watch). What caught my eye about the Eureka Seven were the tags:

• Mystery,
• Mecha,
• Sci Fi,
• Romance,
• Military

Now, I had just come off of re-watching Code Geass (both seasons) and a healthy dose of Macross Frontier ahead of that, so a mecha-romance with a light coating of miltary sounded like fun. After asking around in IRC, people told me to watch it, so I proceeded to download the torrent.

A few things caught my eye immediately, the first being how young the character was. Renton was only a 14 year old kid, a bit younger than most of the protagonists in the anime that I have watched recently. He came off as a really naive and impressionable guy who had never seen much of the world and was still full of hopes and dreams. Living in the shadow of a “heroic” father and apparently stuck in a dead-end town, I saw a few things that I could relate to.

The anime soon shifted gears as Eureka was introduced, and instantly I knew I’d enjoy this anime. Renton was obviously smitten with her, and she seemed like an incredibly likeable character. Add in Nirvash and the few mecha combat scenes, and I was good to go.

Fast forward to last night, when I finished off Eureka Seven, and I was struck by a few ideas.

The first message that the anime sent that really resonated with me used the Vodarac as a vehicle. The Vodarac were reviled by the general public in the anime, and were generally regarded to be terrorists. Obviously, this parallels the problems that Muslims face today, as the actions of a few extremists have caused the public to fear and hate all Muslims.

I’m a tremendously judgmental person–this is a fact that I have never tried to hide, as I feel like it’s an integral part of my value system. I don’t follow a religion; rather I have my own code of ethics, where I carefully pick and choose my actions based on one simple question. That question is: “Can you look yourself in the mirror tomorrow?” I’m ignorant of many things, the intricacies of Islam being one of them. Yes, I have feared Muslims inside after the events of 9/11 and as an effect of pop culture devices like Call of Duty 4.

However, after seeing the horrible things done to innocent Vodarac who had nothing to do with any kind of terrorist acts, I think I now better understand the troubles of Muslims in the United States, and my fears are replaced with compassion, something that I believe has made me a better person.

The second thing I took away from this was the harsh realities of warfare. Renton joins Gekkostate as a wide-eyed adolescent, ignorant of the horrors of war or the consequences of Gekkostate’s actions. Gekkostate is an independent paramilitary organization that wages a private war with the state military, in the name of their ideals. Renton sees this, yet he does not realize that there are real human casualties in battles until he learns of Eureka’s past career in the military and when he goes berserk while saving Holland.

Eureka Seven is clever when depicting warfare, because it shows many aspects of it. The first is from Gekkostate’s point of view, which sees its actions as necessary to protect “the future of the world.” The LFO pilots of Gekkostate feel no guilt when killing soldiers of the military, seeing them as nothing more than obstacles in their path.

The second would be from Renton’s point of view, which evolves over the course of the series. Renton first sees the battles as nothing more than wonderful displays of mecha and ingenuity, much as we ourselves see. However, he realizes the toll that war takes on the human soul, when he sees Eureka still scarred from her past, when she was a remorseless killer for the military, and when he sees how pathetic the Vodarac are.

The third would be from Dewey’s view, who saw warfare as nothing more than a tool to further his own goals. Dewey coldly orders his “Orange” attacks, knowing how many civilian casualties would be inflicted. To him, the death toll was meaningless and the numbers were only significant in that it would capture the imagination of the public. Dewey was the embodiment of the sentiment that “the ends justify the means”.

The last would be from the eyes of the public. Through media manipulation, Dewey is able to cleverly hide the truth from the public and instead incenses them to support his coup and the resulting government, with him at the head. Despite this, ray=out is able to publish the real “truth” of the events, and a portion of the public is able to shake off the mass media story and see the truth version of the events.

I have long believed that war was a good thing. Not because of the glory or the destruction, but because it has historically driven innovation for humanity. Huge leaps in the fields of medicine, electronics, and warfare of course are achieved through human ingenuity driven by the needs of war. However, I can no longer wholeheartedly support any war, as I have realized, just as Renton did, that the cost to the psyche is tremendous. I know that warfare is necessary in many situations, but if it can be avoided, it should be. No capital gains are worth the losses and damage inflicted on the soul.

I hate to end this first part on a low note, but I promise that I’ll make a rosier post on romance next time. Thanks for reading!

QQ has undergone some huge changes, and we’re excited for our future projects, starting with K-ON! in Spring 2009.

First things first, we’ve parted ways with ilifin. In our minds, he’d decided to prioritize his IRL over his fansubbing (which is perfectly alright), so we decided to go with Thoreau as our chief translator. We’ve picked up some new faces, MisterHatt as our encoder, as well as adding Blue-kun as a timer and Plorky as TS. We’re still sticking with me at editor, Cat_Megex/Kaze/windex/Disland as our QC team, though we’re also adding the fabulous CC to bolster our QC corps. In my mind, we let down a lot of people with the Toradora project, and I hope we see K-ON! to the end,  though it seems to be way oversubbed.