Can’t find the studio version of this, her voice sounds a lot better, but I had this one on my ipod for a while:
She’s got a good voice… except when live apparently lol
I always pictured him as some sort of office worker, maybe he comes home to a bitchy wife in a cramped ass tokyo apartment, little demon kids crying, demon dog shit on the floor everywhere. Voted ugliest japanese man 6 years straight. Loses his shit and goes off to do the stuff he does in street fighter, gets caught up with the Yakuza and Galactus trying to hustle him for his money.
nice, yeah the audio quality is kinda low on that vid. I just bought the soundtrack the other day, mostly just liked the film-- sadly wading through much dire j-pop has turned me off most Japanese stuff but every now and then you get something really good. The other group I like out of there these days is capsule. They got some jamz. This one is all noize, no time for sad chix:
I like it when a character is an established badass in both cutscene and game terms. I was just playing DMC4 earlier and that series in general reminds me of this. I mean yeah, Dante does crazy stuff in cutscenes, stuff that isn’t always in the game, but when you play Dante, you feel as if you are controlling this crazy powerful dude. Of course, this is in a game which is basically all about that narrow perspective, kinda like a single player fighting game. They always throw in some kind of token “depth” to the character (omg I miss my mommy wah wah I hate my brother waaaaah), but at the end of the day, the game is basically all about going around and being a badass with Dante, and he fits that role well.
Pretty good, I’ma have to check more of their stuff out. Kinda reminds me of this… if you’re into that kinda stuff Pretty Lights is awesome:
[media=youtube]xPbbVfTxEQY[/media]
I was actually thinking of Devil May Cry for an example when I was making my points about cut scenes since whatever is happening in that game is generally crazy whether it’s a cut scene or not. I wish more games were more focused on the deep gameplay like that and less on the deep story. They are games after all. Fighting games are my favorite genre and I can’t recall one EVER having a good story. After the first time playing through, story isn’t really important anymore. Every now and then it’s fun to play through a story driven game like Catherine, but at the core of it, the gameplay was still really awesome and backed up the well done story as well.
There’s nothing wrong with a story driven game, honestly. It’s just a matter of whether the story as a whole is good and whether or not the gameplay is engaging and seamless with the storytelling aspect.
DMC is definitely more of the gameplay side, with a story that borders on throwaway for how silly it gets. But it’s also a good example of what people were talking about earlier regarding games that are hard even when you know what to do. Play any DMC on Dante Must Die difficulty, even with all the pickups in the game, it’s really hard. You have to absolutely be a master of dealing max damage in as little time as possible or else you’re suddenly fighting powered up enemies who don’t stagger anymore and deal a ton of damage. Play DMC4 and fight a DTed Blitz. Even with how easy mode Nero is, that’s a huge pain in the rear.
It’s pretty much what Lucerne mentioned earlier, it’s more of a generation gap. Games back in the day were about gameplay, period. Now it’s about the experience, which is why most games are basically interactive movies these days. It’s the reason why we have DmC as a reboot from Ninja Theory instead of a legitimate sequel to the series. But we get the HD Collection next year anyway, so I think my action game addiction will be satisfied regardless.
@ Samurai, Yeah that gets a little too house/trancey for me but in the related vids they’ve done some stuff I’ll explore more of for sure.
Re: Dante, that’s a good call (especially because you can compare it the anime and see how much they had to ‘stretch’ him out to make the series work) Imo he’s one of the better action game characters for some of the reasons you noted. They give him a little drama, but they know their limits overall (Yeah, the fact that Trish looks just like his mother-- i dont think i want them detailing this) I think he manages to stand out from the hordes of other generic dudes we’ve played as though because he’s really self aware. Like he kind of seems in on the the joke, especially in 3-- and this carries over into the game itself and how he plays. All of his moves even have the same kind of flashy characterization, but they never push it. They don’t try to ‘force’ characterization with him.
A series that offers it all in that sense though, that’s much more rare; powerful characterization AND truly unnerving ‘badass’ shit? Berserk. Read Berserk. I don’t think I’ve seen a mix of these elements, this strong-- in any game yet.
I haven’t been keeping up with manga, which means I haven’t read Berserk in forever. That series is just amazing, period.
And yeah, I can kinda see how Dante is “in” on his role in the series. Most of the generic heroes do this nutty stuff and then try to act all hard boiled, it just doesn’t go over well. Dante’s role is corny and he knows it, so he rolls with it.
As silly as this will sound, another character I really like in terms of badass but somewhat fleshed out personality is Ragna from BB. I know that sounds ridiculous, as he is the epitome of the generic ‘cool’ protagonist, but the way he is characterized in the story, along with some of his in-game mannerisms, lends some additional life to him. I like how in the story mode he is essentially playing the straight man of the cast, walking around and constantly yelling about how stupid and crazy everyone else is, as if he’s the only one who isn’t in on the setting and plot. Things like his attitude when approaching the center of the city where all the bad guys are supposed to be hanging out, and he basically parodies himself through a formal introduction, using the ‘frightening’ titles the media has given him, in a voice dripping with sarcasm. Or even better, when he loses to Bang in Bang’s plot, only to get up afterwards and talk about how hard it was for him to pretend to lose to such a guy, showing full awareness of Bang’s position in the story as the ‘Dan’ of the game. In addition, his in-game quotes demonstrate that underneath the typical badass imagery and fighting style, he is basically just an angsty teen. I find it all highly amusing.
Berserk really was amazing. The development throughout the entire series was on point. Not just with Gatsu, but with Griffith and the Band of the Hawk
as well.
I’d also add Teresa (Claymore) to the badass character list.
Wish there was a BB manga, lol. Never actually knew the story behind the characters…Just playing through story mode in fighting games is usually so painful. D:
I know this sounds fanboyish but if we’re on the topic of main characters, the main character from versus 13 looks amazing. He’s rich bad ass and he kills people, brutally I might add. I don’t remember a main character in any square game that was like that before, really looking forward to that game, it’s so dark looking.
Also Lucerne, I just got up to Ornstein and Smough, got Ornstein to transform into giant mode on my first try and he wrecked my shit so 2 more tries later and I tried lightning Smough… man… fuck. I take too much damage in light armor and I can’t run away from both of them fast enough in heavy armor. Pretty sure I can get it with a few more attempts but I’m going to bed. Will try run away spamming homing soulmass tomorrow and see how that works.
Thanks man, I had heard of Salyu before but never heard her music. I really like her style, reminds me of back in the 90’s when Japanese music had so much verity and sense. Now a lot is cookie cutter crap. Capsule is BOSS!!! I listen to them sometimes on my Ipod. I really need a break from Video games, I have been neglecting some of my other passions such as Music, Language studies,Dancing, and Art. Yea gotta get my brain back in shape,lol
I used to really be into J-pop/K-pop and the fact that my asian friends either didnt listen to them or thought they were cheesy made me somehow feel pretty cheesy as well.
Its like trying to open up to another culture and a representative from there is basically like “why? this sucks.”
I do still love me some Crystal Kay tho. I have all her albums.
Yo zombie Brent, might try to make it out sometime. Haven’t been on AH3 like I thought I would, but maybe I’ll finally get my infinites down sometime.
Count me out then if it’ll probably just get canceled. More time for Gears.
Working on that now.
In other news…
The fact that nobody here has played or even heard of “The Magic of Scheherazade” breaks my heart.
Games such as Drake or DMC tell a story that you get to interact with. You can’t do anything outside the boundaries of the story. This is where excellent writing and gameplay play a huge role. The story makes you want to progress and the gameplay helps give you a sense of accomplishment in whatever you do along the way. The story may be about a fictional character, but you feel as if you’re growing along with the character. Take MGS for example. Snake has to sneak around and ultimately stop metal gear, but you as the player have to survive until the end to ensure this happens. So the entire time you’re ducking and hiding for dear life, obtaining the necessary tools to progress further, and disposing of those who forcibly stand in the way. Snake’s mission becomes your mission. Snake’s success is based upon your success. You both are in this together.
Games such as Oblivion or Fallout you are placed in the shoes of the character. You feel as if you did “this” or you accomplished “that” or it was you who completed “this” quest. All these things you associate with yourself, not a fictional character. You feel you are going through this journey first hand, so just like anything else you have to explore, gain as much information as you can, and utilize your knowledge to progress further. 10 people can play the same game, but have completely different experiences along their completion. Some may go straight to save the day while others feel they have to be a hero and save everyone. Some may only do things that will help them increase in a certain skill while others may go through it to gain skills to help others. You’re more aware of your surroundings because you don’t feel like (insert character) will be in trouble if you don’t, but instead its your butt that’s on the line. So just as different people think differently, so is their progression through these types of games.
RVA has changed the next tourney date from 11/19 (SAT) to 11/20 (SUN), therefore anyone who wanted to come but couldn’t because of the Elite Zone conflict can now do so.
Donnie (CriminalUpperHaHa), Torrence (another BFP guy), and myself attended our first ReSe Wednesday Night Bar Fights. Really glad we made the trip down from Greensboro. It’s crazy how rapidly I am falling in love with the fighting game scene/community in general and it was good to attend an NC event. (It will be the first of many)
Shoutout to Tactiks for the hospitality. I dig the Charlotte scene and the people. Wish I would have recorded some of that lol.
But yeah we plan on being regulars. Next time I’ll bring my Xbox controllers. I honestly expected it to be all/mostly PS3 down there because up here I’m in the minority playing AE on 360. The players and the matches I saw really made me want to get further into the game (currently still scrub-tastic…2 months in total…1 month total on learning Ken and less than a week on Adon…sooooo yeah…but I know the best remedy is to jump in but I didn’t wanna waste anybody’s training time lol.)
It was also very comforting knowing that some people preferred controller over arcade stick.
An all around great time and mini-road trip.
request to join groupthumbs up
Also, since our session is Friday 11.11 (planned purposefully to be that day) I am going to push as many of the guys as possible to attend the monthly tournament the next day. NC UNITE! Donnie and Torrence are required b/c I am their “manager” (guy that likes pushing people to try things) and they must learn to eat lightning and crap thunder.
And I’ll train my Ken and Adon undercover in the background.
Who in Charlotte is wanting to carpool to G-Vegas Beatdown in Greenville, SC this Saturday? I have 2 spots in my car available (3 if your oompa loompa sized to sit in that middle back seat in a civic).
