A lot of updates recently, mainly because so many stupid shit is happening at once. What is persistent progression? Persistent progression is when the more you play the more achievements or unlocks or progress you get. For example, TF2 and its million of hats. This is different than experience points for MMOs. This is literally, the more hours you log into a game, the bigger your penis gets. A lot of people swear by it while others hate it. If they don't have any kind of progress whats the point of playing right? Whether its for unlocking that spiffy avatar or getting runes for LoL, its something that people can look forward to. A carrot in front of their head basically.
These can be done right, or they can be done wrong, most of the time though its done wrong. When you play a game, what is the most important thing when playing multiplayer? Fairness. Sure you can argue that skill is superior to progression but sometimes the advantage gets so big theres no point in trying. Its like fighting a max level guy as a brand new guy in a MMO. No matter how skilled you are, if you have to hit him 2000 times to kill him and he can kill you in 1 hit from across the map, you're fucked. An extreme example but unfortunately its not that far off. Look at something like League of Legends. A free to play dota-like made by the creators of the original dota. They wanted to innovate the game and added in persistent progression. The more you play, the more summoner (player) levels you can gain. Each time you gain a level you unlock a rune slot to add in permanent stats for all your champions and talent points to boost your champions. The more you play you can buy runes from the shop from points earned from playing the game. With these both you have a huge advantage over someone new, someone who didn't play as much as you. So high that they can literally kill you in 2 hits 20 seconds into the game while he can shrug off all your hits from the massive runes and talents he has. This makes it impossible to win.
What is the point of that? Why not have a skill based game rather than a MMO. If I want a game where I get more powerful the longer I play then I'll play a fucking MMO. Even FPS nowadays add shit like 10% more damage to guns or other retarded upgrades. Even if you think it looks tiny and insignificant, it can easily skew the game in your favor. Hell I talked about how Bloodline Champions completely fucked themselves over by adding persistent progression. It was a game where it advertised skill based arena style gameplay with no RNG. But they caved to the people begging on the forums. After adding that patch and milking money, most of the people quit. When the advantage is that big what can you possibly do to fight people that have already played for so long? All it does is alienate new players. What if tomorrow SC2 added a new talent tree that gives you permanent +2 damage +2 armor with 10% move speed for all your units for people who played over a year. Then double that bonus for people who played for two. How in the fuck do new people compete? By playing more? Eventually catching up them?
Another thing people insist on having is achievements. These are also part of persistent progression. The more you play the more you unlock these achievements to feel good about yourself. It may be something to do when you're bored, other times it unlocks items, but the biggest reason is to show off to all your friends. A bigger achievement completion means you have a bigger penis. This is what it all comes down to, E-Peen. People like persistent progression because it makes them look pro. It lures them into a false sense of superiority. And to reward them with a false sense of superiority are achievements that congratulate you every time you do something correctly like an aide for a retard. Each time the achievement pops up your friends and everyone around you go "congratulations!" and clap for you. Why? They're mocking you. You're a big fucking retard and you don't even know it yourself. And every time you do this they'll give you a little toy. A better toy than the other kids because you're special.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Ubisoft - Biggest supporters of piracy
Remember Ubisoft's awesome idea of always online gaming?
http://theorycrafting.blogspot.com/2011/11/ubisoft-pc-pirating-no-more-releasing.html
Remember how they hate PC gamers because they're all pirates? Remember how proud they are when they showed the world their always online policy? Guess what? They decided to move around some servers so their games will NOT be available for the next week or more. This includes both multiplayer and singleplayer games. Why don't they make a backup server or something so people can keep playing? Why? Because fuck them thats why. Why the fuck should they care about their customers. They should be lucky they get to rent Ubisoft games for 60 bucks. Those thieving fuckers even invite friends over to play with them. Thats fucking stealing. Assholes steal their games and they don't even have to pay 60 bucks to rent it! Such assholery needs to be punished the only way possible. By shitting on the servers for as long as possible. This should teach those shit ass customers not to steal Ubisoft games. They should feel happy Ubisoft is even letting them play whenever they want.
When a series start becoming unpopular, Ubisoft can just shut it down. Oh people still wanna play? Fuck you why you playing old shit! Go buy the next Ubisoft game, wait no my mistake, go rent the next Ubisoft game for 60 bucks! Customers are so stupid they'll just keep shoving money in Ubisoft's face right? Ubisoft is so smart they should go around publishing all the good games and drive them to the ground. Milk as much money as they can and then leave them to die. If people complain then they'll just blame the pirates. Thats whats causing problems anyways. Its the pirates fault. So all the customers should be mad at the pirates for this inconvenience. Never mind the fact that only pirates are able to play the game now. See how much as an asshole they are? Playing the game while you can't. Now you're forced to download cracks and pirate the games so you can play too. Ubisoft is the only company in the world where its easier to pirate a game from them than to buy it.
But why! Because by fucking over the customers will they earn the most money. A kid finished his game and he wants to resell it? NOPE. Don't think about doing that you little fucking piece of shit. Trying to sell the 60 dollar game you rented. RENTED. This shit doesn't belong to you asshole. You fucking leave Ubisoft's fucking property alone. Ubisoft doesn't take shit from assholes trying to resell. What else also stops resell? CD-Keys? WELL FUCK THAT SHIT! Why the fuck do they wanna waste their time making CD-Keys when they can fucking milk as much money out of the next person all while pissing them off and blaming the pirates. Because they need to make the customers mad at the pirates while milking their money for maximum effect. Pirates are the assholes here. Fuck them.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/28/ubisoft-our-drm-is-a-success/
Look at how fucking successful they are! Those fucker pirates can't touch the game with their grubby pirate hands now that they have the best DRM ever made.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/
Sales down 90%? Well those fucker pirates must have done something about it then! Ubisoft's DRM is foolproof. There is no way those fucker pirates got past! It must be a conspiracy the other companies must have roused up the pirates to fuck over the paying customers. Those assholes pirates are the cause of everything. Better not release games for PC anymore! Too many fucker pirates there. What about the PC gamers? Fuck them. There are no PC gamers there are only pirates. If their DRM causes people to pirate more then that just proves their point. Pirates are ruining games! Look at Ubisoft. Such a sad pitiful way to die. Get ripped to shred by the pirates they are so desperately trying to protect their customers from. Now these pirates will rape their customers with their illegal copies. Then infect the world with cracks and hacks. Oh the humanity. We're all lucky a company is trying this hard to fight the pirates.
http://kotaku.com/5881867/some-of-ubisofts-pc-games-wont-work-next-week-not-even-singleplayer
A small price to pay to beat the pirates!
http://theorycrafting.blogspot.com/2011/11/ubisoft-pc-pirating-no-more-releasing.html
Remember how they hate PC gamers because they're all pirates? Remember how proud they are when they showed the world their always online policy? Guess what? They decided to move around some servers so their games will NOT be available for the next week or more. This includes both multiplayer and singleplayer games. Why don't they make a backup server or something so people can keep playing? Why? Because fuck them thats why. Why the fuck should they care about their customers. They should be lucky they get to rent Ubisoft games for 60 bucks. Those thieving fuckers even invite friends over to play with them. Thats fucking stealing. Assholes steal their games and they don't even have to pay 60 bucks to rent it! Such assholery needs to be punished the only way possible. By shitting on the servers for as long as possible. This should teach those shit ass customers not to steal Ubisoft games. They should feel happy Ubisoft is even letting them play whenever they want.
When a series start becoming unpopular, Ubisoft can just shut it down. Oh people still wanna play? Fuck you why you playing old shit! Go buy the next Ubisoft game, wait no my mistake, go rent the next Ubisoft game for 60 bucks! Customers are so stupid they'll just keep shoving money in Ubisoft's face right? Ubisoft is so smart they should go around publishing all the good games and drive them to the ground. Milk as much money as they can and then leave them to die. If people complain then they'll just blame the pirates. Thats whats causing problems anyways. Its the pirates fault. So all the customers should be mad at the pirates for this inconvenience. Never mind the fact that only pirates are able to play the game now. See how much as an asshole they are? Playing the game while you can't. Now you're forced to download cracks and pirate the games so you can play too. Ubisoft is the only company in the world where its easier to pirate a game from them than to buy it.
But why! Because by fucking over the customers will they earn the most money. A kid finished his game and he wants to resell it? NOPE. Don't think about doing that you little fucking piece of shit. Trying to sell the 60 dollar game you rented. RENTED. This shit doesn't belong to you asshole. You fucking leave Ubisoft's fucking property alone. Ubisoft doesn't take shit from assholes trying to resell. What else also stops resell? CD-Keys? WELL FUCK THAT SHIT! Why the fuck do they wanna waste their time making CD-Keys when they can fucking milk as much money out of the next person all while pissing them off and blaming the pirates. Because they need to make the customers mad at the pirates while milking their money for maximum effect. Pirates are the assholes here. Fuck them.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/28/ubisoft-our-drm-is-a-success/
Look at how fucking successful they are! Those fucker pirates can't touch the game with their grubby pirate hands now that they have the best DRM ever made.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/
Sales down 90%? Well those fucker pirates must have done something about it then! Ubisoft's DRM is foolproof. There is no way those fucker pirates got past! It must be a conspiracy the other companies must have roused up the pirates to fuck over the paying customers. Those assholes pirates are the cause of everything. Better not release games for PC anymore! Too many fucker pirates there. What about the PC gamers? Fuck them. There are no PC gamers there are only pirates. If their DRM causes people to pirate more then that just proves their point. Pirates are ruining games! Look at Ubisoft. Such a sad pitiful way to die. Get ripped to shred by the pirates they are so desperately trying to protect their customers from. Now these pirates will rape their customers with their illegal copies. Then infect the world with cracks and hacks. Oh the humanity. We're all lucky a company is trying this hard to fight the pirates.
http://kotaku.com/5881867/some-of-ubisofts-pc-games-wont-work-next-week-not-even-singleplayer
A small price to pay to beat the pirates!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
CDs, Boxes, Manuals & More - Digital distribution's impact on physical copies
I like boxed copies. If I am doing a day one purchase then I exclusively buy physical copies. Theres something about holding a box in your hand and digging your fingernail into the tape and cutting it open. Then you stick your finger into the cardboard skeleton and pull out the inside but not before placing the opening to your nose and giving yourself a sniff of the new game smell. After you flip over the contents inside on the carpet and see a paper sleeve and a piece of paper, you remember why no one buy physical copies anymore.
What happened? I remember in the past you would get a huge box and inside you get a CD case with a mini manual and the game CD. Then you get a thick book of a manual, some of the even older ones are in leather and had a nice smooth touch and smell to it. There would also be non important things included like art, catalogs, and other useless stuff. I'm not old enough to know about the floppy disk games but aren't those in big huge thick plastic cases with a bunch of stuff? Even those are better than today's boxes. Nowadays you're lucky to even get a flippy cover on your box. Inside is a paper slip with your DVD shivering inside from exposure. A piece of paper called a manual and a catalog thats at least 10x bigger than the manual. Thats fucking it? You can totally see the effort they took.
Nowadays everyone is using digital distribution. Its fast, its easy, and you will never have the risk of losing your shit. Why drive down to your local store wait in line and buy a physical copy. Then you'd have to pull the DVD out and install. Digital distribution you can predownload it before the day it is released and you just wait until the clock hits midnight and start playing. I can see why its so popular. But for people like me who likes the feel and the looks of the boxes, we're willing to put up with having to drive down to the store. But with the game companies desperately trying to get as much money as they can, the boxes end up suffering.
I have never been a fan of collector editions. I don't know why but they just never really appealed to me. I can see why people would want them. Theres a lot of stuff in them that are pretty cool. Walking out the store while everyone is holding a tiny box and you are carrying a huge beast of a box makes you feel like either a huge dork or the king of nerds. But unfortunately, what is found inside the box are usually not worth the big price increase. Some exceptions like Witcher 2 and a few others give a ton of shit and their collector edition boxes are twice as big as the next. The rest like all the other lazy companies give a slightly bigger box with exclusive ingame items! Why the fuck do I want these retarded ingame items when they can either be modded in if its single player or in an online game be completely useless because they are nothing but vanity items.
Another thing about ingame items are preorder bonuses. Seems like every company is adapting that model. Preorder and you can get in our exclusive beta! You'll get garbage that no one gives a shit about! Honestly, the reason 90% of the people preorder is because of early beta access. Why? Because betas are nothing more than a marketing tool now. I mentioned it in my beta post before, betas are now used as demos and way to get preorders. They don't fix shit, they don't test shit, and theres no stress testing. Half the time betas keep what progress you did giving people who preorder a huge advantage. One game seems to take this to the next level. Tera a new action MMO coming out has preorders giving beta access. A beta that is 15 days long over a series of 6 weekends. Each weekend is 60 hour long of beta and after every weekend all progress is wiped and a new set of 1000 people are allowed in. What could they possibly test in that limited amount of time? Nothing. Its used for nothing but hype and to suck in preorders.
To make things worse. they even add a 10 dollar "mini preorder" which gives you beta access but not the game itself. Its deducted once you purchase the full game. Those who preorder get to get in all betas and allow you to keep all progress during the beta. And at the very end there is a 5 day head start where people who preorder can play. Is this what gaming has been reduced to? What happened to the boxes? What happened to the cool shit. Now its just ingame items and beta access. Even Blizzard is doing it. Buy 12 months of WoW subscription and get into Diablo 3 beta!
Then theres the digital collector editions. Those are laughable. You get more exclusive ingame items and digital artbooks and digital novels. Yes, those are very nice indeed. So nice I'm going to sit here and laugh at everyone who bought them.
Consoles on the other hand, haven't changed too much. In fact I think they gotten better. Before you get a box with a cartridge inside with a manual, then it changed to a tiny plastic CD case after the introduction of CD games, but now its a big plastic case with a bigger manual and cover art. Size isn't everything though, but at least they feel superior to the lame PS2 plastic cases. I like to admire cover art. Its getting rarer these days for nice cover art. Most games are just a big lameass title front and center with a bland single color background. Then there are those that are beautifully and artistically created. And of course there are the retarded ones that gives you second hand embarrassment just being in the vicinity of. Scariest part of that is where is says partial nudity. It could be anything from prepubescent girls naked or a hairy ogre ass.
I don't hate digital distribution, in fact I find it very convenient. It fits perfectly with today's fast paced world. I'm afraid after a few more years, these video game boxes might disappear completely. Never again will we be able to breathe in that new game smell, run your fingers through the pages of the manuals, or admire the visual art on the cover. Consoles might live on but digital distribution might be winning the fight for PCs.
What happened? I remember in the past you would get a huge box and inside you get a CD case with a mini manual and the game CD. Then you get a thick book of a manual, some of the even older ones are in leather and had a nice smooth touch and smell to it. There would also be non important things included like art, catalogs, and other useless stuff. I'm not old enough to know about the floppy disk games but aren't those in big huge thick plastic cases with a bunch of stuff? Even those are better than today's boxes. Nowadays you're lucky to even get a flippy cover on your box. Inside is a paper slip with your DVD shivering inside from exposure. A piece of paper called a manual and a catalog thats at least 10x bigger than the manual. Thats fucking it? You can totally see the effort they took.
Nowadays everyone is using digital distribution. Its fast, its easy, and you will never have the risk of losing your shit. Why drive down to your local store wait in line and buy a physical copy. Then you'd have to pull the DVD out and install. Digital distribution you can predownload it before the day it is released and you just wait until the clock hits midnight and start playing. I can see why its so popular. But for people like me who likes the feel and the looks of the boxes, we're willing to put up with having to drive down to the store. But with the game companies desperately trying to get as much money as they can, the boxes end up suffering.
I have never been a fan of collector editions. I don't know why but they just never really appealed to me. I can see why people would want them. Theres a lot of stuff in them that are pretty cool. Walking out the store while everyone is holding a tiny box and you are carrying a huge beast of a box makes you feel like either a huge dork or the king of nerds. But unfortunately, what is found inside the box are usually not worth the big price increase. Some exceptions like Witcher 2 and a few others give a ton of shit and their collector edition boxes are twice as big as the next. The rest like all the other lazy companies give a slightly bigger box with exclusive ingame items! Why the fuck do I want these retarded ingame items when they can either be modded in if its single player or in an online game be completely useless because they are nothing but vanity items.
Another thing about ingame items are preorder bonuses. Seems like every company is adapting that model. Preorder and you can get in our exclusive beta! You'll get garbage that no one gives a shit about! Honestly, the reason 90% of the people preorder is because of early beta access. Why? Because betas are nothing more than a marketing tool now. I mentioned it in my beta post before, betas are now used as demos and way to get preorders. They don't fix shit, they don't test shit, and theres no stress testing. Half the time betas keep what progress you did giving people who preorder a huge advantage. One game seems to take this to the next level. Tera a new action MMO coming out has preorders giving beta access. A beta that is 15 days long over a series of 6 weekends. Each weekend is 60 hour long of beta and after every weekend all progress is wiped and a new set of 1000 people are allowed in. What could they possibly test in that limited amount of time? Nothing. Its used for nothing but hype and to suck in preorders.
To make things worse. they even add a 10 dollar "mini preorder" which gives you beta access but not the game itself. Its deducted once you purchase the full game. Those who preorder get to get in all betas and allow you to keep all progress during the beta. And at the very end there is a 5 day head start where people who preorder can play. Is this what gaming has been reduced to? What happened to the boxes? What happened to the cool shit. Now its just ingame items and beta access. Even Blizzard is doing it. Buy 12 months of WoW subscription and get into Diablo 3 beta!
Then theres the digital collector editions. Those are laughable. You get more exclusive ingame items and digital artbooks and digital novels. Yes, those are very nice indeed. So nice I'm going to sit here and laugh at everyone who bought them.
Consoles on the other hand, haven't changed too much. In fact I think they gotten better. Before you get a box with a cartridge inside with a manual, then it changed to a tiny plastic CD case after the introduction of CD games, but now its a big plastic case with a bigger manual and cover art. Size isn't everything though, but at least they feel superior to the lame PS2 plastic cases. I like to admire cover art. Its getting rarer these days for nice cover art. Most games are just a big lameass title front and center with a bland single color background. Then there are those that are beautifully and artistically created. And of course there are the retarded ones that gives you second hand embarrassment just being in the vicinity of. Scariest part of that is where is says partial nudity. It could be anything from prepubescent girls naked or a hairy ogre ass.
I don't hate digital distribution, in fact I find it very convenient. It fits perfectly with today's fast paced world. I'm afraid after a few more years, these video game boxes might disappear completely. Never again will we be able to breathe in that new game smell, run your fingers through the pages of the manuals, or admire the visual art on the cover. Consoles might live on but digital distribution might be winning the fight for PCs.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Indie Games - Doing gaming right
I really like Indie games. I don't know whats about them that draws me to them. I spent more time playing games like Aquaria, Dungeons of Dredmore, Recettear, Dungeon Defenders or World of Goo than any of the recent AAA titles minus a few. I had more fun playing a 5 to 15 dollar game than a 60 dollar AAA title. What is it about these games that make them so freaking fun? Maybe because they have a niche audience and can cater specifically to them? Maybe they're a little old school but manage to make it new? Maybe because they listen to their fans? Who knows really. All I know is more developers need to start paying more attention to their fans, because it pays off in the end.
With the recent increase of digital distribution, more and more indie games are popping up. Some of you may be asking what are these mysterious "indie games" that are getting more and more popular.
"There is no exact widely-accepted definition of what constitutes an "indie game". However, generally indie games share certain commonalities. Indie games are developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies. And, typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles. Indie game developers are not financially backed by publishers and usually have little to no budget available."
What this means is, they are in control of everything. They can change everything on a whim, granted that the whole team agrees, if they wish to. Instead of having to appeal to a broad audience and dumbing down games or mechanics they can make their games as unforgiving as they want. There is an audience for that. They're called roguelikes where the gameplay is so frustrating and unforgiving but just the right amount that make masochists crawl back to play over and over again.
The only problem is that there is almost no marketing for these games. Most travel from person to person on forums and gaming sites. I read around on a gaming forum quite a bit always on the lookout for new games and information. What I noticed is how many indie developers hang around there. They post about their games show a little and then constantly change or update things based on feedback. That is where I find most of my games. I've already talked about Carpe Fulgur and their successes and they are just one of many. A recent one caught my attention as I was reading about an upcoming old school dungeon crawler game called Legend of Grimrock.
What exactly happened was a fan asked why there weren't any clickable arrow icons for movement like many of the old school games. When asked why, he replied that he was disabled. The developers upon hearing that spent a couple hours and added optional clickable arrow icons into the game. Just for one person. When this happened, a random guy on the forums decided to send this story to reddit and various gaming sites and soon it exploded out of proportion. Their website went down from massive traffic overload and their email were flooded.
To quote one of the developers
"It's a bit sad to find out that even such a small gesture toward fans gets so much attention, because it says that there's a huge gap between the game creators and the audience in general, and people just aren't used to this kind of interaction,"
What he says is true. Its sad how many companies don't give a shit about their customers. Hell even some indie developers start drifting away from the community. Trendy Entertainment of Dungeon Defenders for one started going on a downhill slope. For one they decided that alienating their console players is a good idea. They stopped updating for consoles entirely. Next they started drifting away from their playerbase. They used to talk to their players often and update often. Now everyone is left in the dark then a patch comes out of nowhere with nerfs and bugs. People's characters get deleted, items are lost, and other things happen. When people sent emails for help it came back with a reply more than 3 weeks later saying they'll give them 10 million mana (not even worth 1 item) so they can start over. Really? Wait 3 weeks just for that?
I think what really attracts me to indie games is how approachable and human they are. I think thats what it comes down to. Love for their work, their fans, and their own game and it shows in the end product.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/27/indie-studio-almost-human-is-more-human-than-most/
With the recent increase of digital distribution, more and more indie games are popping up. Some of you may be asking what are these mysterious "indie games" that are getting more and more popular.
"There is no exact widely-accepted definition of what constitutes an "indie game". However, generally indie games share certain commonalities. Indie games are developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies. And, typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles. Indie game developers are not financially backed by publishers and usually have little to no budget available."
What this means is, they are in control of everything. They can change everything on a whim, granted that the whole team agrees, if they wish to. Instead of having to appeal to a broad audience and dumbing down games or mechanics they can make their games as unforgiving as they want. There is an audience for that. They're called roguelikes where the gameplay is so frustrating and unforgiving but just the right amount that make masochists crawl back to play over and over again.
The only problem is that there is almost no marketing for these games. Most travel from person to person on forums and gaming sites. I read around on a gaming forum quite a bit always on the lookout for new games and information. What I noticed is how many indie developers hang around there. They post about their games show a little and then constantly change or update things based on feedback. That is where I find most of my games. I've already talked about Carpe Fulgur and their successes and they are just one of many. A recent one caught my attention as I was reading about an upcoming old school dungeon crawler game called Legend of Grimrock.
What exactly happened was a fan asked why there weren't any clickable arrow icons for movement like many of the old school games. When asked why, he replied that he was disabled. The developers upon hearing that spent a couple hours and added optional clickable arrow icons into the game. Just for one person. When this happened, a random guy on the forums decided to send this story to reddit and various gaming sites and soon it exploded out of proportion. Their website went down from massive traffic overload and their email were flooded.
To quote one of the developers
"It's a bit sad to find out that even such a small gesture toward fans gets so much attention, because it says that there's a huge gap between the game creators and the audience in general, and people just aren't used to this kind of interaction,"
What he says is true. Its sad how many companies don't give a shit about their customers. Hell even some indie developers start drifting away from the community. Trendy Entertainment of Dungeon Defenders for one started going on a downhill slope. For one they decided that alienating their console players is a good idea. They stopped updating for consoles entirely. Next they started drifting away from their playerbase. They used to talk to their players often and update often. Now everyone is left in the dark then a patch comes out of nowhere with nerfs and bugs. People's characters get deleted, items are lost, and other things happen. When people sent emails for help it came back with a reply more than 3 weeks later saying they'll give them 10 million mana (not even worth 1 item) so they can start over. Really? Wait 3 weeks just for that?
I think what really attracts me to indie games is how approachable and human they are. I think thats what it comes down to. Love for their work, their fans, and their own game and it shows in the end product.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/27/indie-studio-almost-human-is-more-human-than-most/
Monday, January 16, 2012
Katawa Shoujo - What is a Visual Novel?
What is Katawa Shoujo you ask? Well it basically means Disability Girl or something of that sort. Its what people call a Visual Novel. Now what in the fuck is that you ask? Well, its like reading a book, but with stupid pictures moving around. Don't get me wrong, I love to read. But why is this categorized into a game? Seems like theres not much difference than those pick your own adventure books you read as a kid in the library, with assholes writing down the answers at the side or having to keep your finger on like 5 different sections in case you miss something or need to do backtrack and its a huge pain in the ass. Then eventually you go fuck this and skip to the end since losers already written down the page where you go for the ending read it and close it and go finally. But really, its nothing like that.
I first found this game, story, novel, whatever the shit you wanna call it while reading about Fortune Summoners and Carpe Fulgur. I have mentioned them before, they brought over games like Recettear and Chantelise by Easy Game Station for the western market. Now they are translating their latest game, Fortune Summoners by Lizsoft. But this isn't about that so we'll skip to the end. There were some mention about a game called Katawa Shoujo on the discussion about Fortune Summoners while I was looking for information about that game. Links were passed around and it was highly recommended. I checked it out downloaded and forgotten about it. Its a completely free game and you can download however you want. What interested me though was that it was made by a group of 20-22 individuals from all walks of life working on a visual novel on their free time. Some were adults, some were married, some were as young as 14. The only thing is common was that they went to the same forums and hung out around there. I love these stories, it was the reason I even paid attention to Carpe Fulgur as they were nothing but two individuals who couldn't find jobs and decide to make one for themselves.
The game took five years to make. Yes, five years. However they have said that the development took longer than that, more to a decade before finally starting it five years ago. They released the game free to download on their 5th anniversary just recently. Its a sorta westernized Visual Novel that takes place in Japan. Yes I know you're going, "well fuck that sounds retarded as shit! I hate anime! I hate Anime that take place in the west because they don't know shit and always fuck it up so horrifyingly because its a Japanized west." Exactly my thoughts. I hate anime but I used to watch it as a kid. It was fine back then when we were immature as shit. I ask my friends for recommendations and I get retarded shit like some dumb fuck loser guy with a harem of girls. Everything in anime has their own type of characters which pissed me off immensely. You get the dumb people who talk like they're lifeless, super cheerful airheads, super shy retarded assholes and the worst of all, tsundere. Holy fuck do I wanna choke anyone who mentions anything tsundere. I know you're reading this Cent and I know you're going to open your MSN and bitch at me but fuck you and read on first.
At first I thought it was going to be like that but I was strangely surprised. Its not my first Visual Novel, I've read/played/whatevered Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and Utawarerumono(fucking mouthful) all on recommendation by Cent. Sure its wasn't bad but it taught me a few things. I understand Utawarerumono is played like a tactics game, but why the fuck are the other two considered games? And why the fuck is it all high school bullshit like anime? Fate/Stay Night could have been adults going around blasting people with servants like a real game but instead its just dumb kids running around being all whiny and annoying. And if Tsukihime taught me anything is save before a choice because vampire girls will kill you out of love, and if you piss her off she'll kill you out of anger. Its a lose-lose situation. Thankfully Katawa Shoujo doesn't have vampire girls killing you. But it does have "bad endings." I like to think of Visual Novels as, writers that are too good for games, but not good enough for actual novels so they're stuck in some kind of limbo writing this shit. Of course thats not true because after reading this it changed my mind but I still like to consider these Visual Novels as a story other than a game.
I've been talking a lot and none of it has been about this game/novel. So after reading about this and leaving it somewhere at the back of my mind I found it again sitting on my desktop waiting to be installed. I was bored as shit so I gave it a go. I installed it and started playing. I gotta say the music and the art were kinda nice but what I enjoyed most was the writing. Its very well written, something you wouldn't expect from people on a forum known for their immaturity and trolling. The story focuses on a kid named Hisao who had an attack of arrhythmia when being confessed to by a girl he liked. Afterwards he was hospitalized and then had to enroll in a school for the disabled. There he meets the five main characters and how the story unfolds is up to the path you take. Each main character is written by a different writer. The novel itself is split into one main act where it can split into five different acts. Each act focuses on one character by one writer and that character has three acts of their own which equals to four acts per character. Its fairly long and I know I'm a fast reader. It still took me awhile to finish a character. Maybe because I didn't want it to end so fast. Maybe I was dreading it as I made it closer to the end and subconsciously slowed down.
The characters are as follows.
Emi - She's the always cheerful girl with amputated legs below the knee. She loves to run and will continue to run dispite her disability. She is considered the first path to take because its almost impossible to not be guided towards her path.
Hanako - Shes a disfigured girl who is suffering from extreme anxiety and shyness. She has almost no friends and has problems talking to anyone so she is ignored by everyone.
Lilly - Shes a blind Scottish girl. Shes sophisticated, calm and very friendly. She is the only one who talks to Hanako.
Rin - Shes a girl born with no arms. She is eccentric and talks in circles or asks very weird questions from time to time. Other than that shes an artist and is best friends with Emi
Shizune - She is a deaf and mute girl. Shes the class representitive and also head of the student council. She's strong and determined.
The first time I read through it I accidentally landed in Emi's route. I was going "Oh god not those super cheerful annoying cliches in anime." It wasn't as bad as I expected. One thing I noticed is Hisao changed between each route probably because of different writers. The reasoning for that was because if one person were to leave the team (common) then they wouldn't need to scrap the whole thing just scrap the route they worked on. Emi is cheerful and she's friendly with everyone but she has a secret. You first meet her because the nurse orders you to get exercise for your heart. If you wanna slowly kill yourself you don't do it but if you do you are locked onto her route. She runs with you every morning and you slowly see her more than just a friend. She's stubborn as hell and she refuses any help. I particularly like the banter between the two, its very realistic and cute. However as you get to know her more and more she pushes herself away further. The story focuses on your health and your relationship with Emi. You fight, you get together, you fight again, and you get back together again. She is stubborn, but so are you and you keep pushing forward when she pushes you back until you realize she has PTSD from her accident and cannot get close to people for fear of losing them. Even the bad endings are realistic, it brings back memories. Two people talking together normally, having fun dreading the inevitability that is coming. Then at the end, neither can look at each other in the eye and said goodbye for the last time. Just like that. Painless but painful all at once.
Its an emotional roller coaster from when she tells you to "Get the fuck out" of her house to the confession scene where she tells you every tiny little thing about her before breaking down. I like to point out that not every problem is solvable. Unlike Bioware writers, these people don't write stories where everyone has emotional baggage that gets magically fixed by a penis or someone with a penis. They have problems and you cannot solve them, but you can stand by them as they work through it. The endings are just the beginning of a story for our protagonists. Its bittersweet and I like it that way. Its even more evident in Hanako's route where you are protecting her and trying to fix her. If you do that then you fail and get the bad ending. I did the first time, I fell into the trap and I tried to help her but instead I failed to realize that she herself is strong and doesn't need you to help her. Shes quiet, and she avoids people because because her scars have traumatized her. She enjoys games like pool and chess, she enjoys reading in the library and she doesn't need you to watch her everywhere she goes. Hanako's route is written by a far superior writer in my opinion.
In Hanako's route it focuses more about the disabilities. Your weaknesses and your disabilities and also Hanako's. If you stop being her protector and worry about your own future, your own life, Hanako starts approaching you more and more. You share your disabilities, your hardships and then you make love. I like to point out it was probably one of the most disturbing scenes for obvious reasons you find out at the end of the route. She made love to you because she wanted you to see her as more than an object to be protected. She doesn't want a knight in shining armor, she wanted a friend, a lover who would see her as an equal. Thats why she liked to play chess with you, because when the two of you are playing you are equal. Even the title for the act, Castling, is a move in chess where the king (one to be protected) and the rook (a powerful piece in chess) moves so they stand beside each other. Its symbolism for Hisao and Hanako moving together standing side by side and Hisao becoming even more protective. At the climax you realized everything and stop being her knight. The route ends there but the story is just beginning. You sit there tears streaming down your cheeks with a pile of tissue paper on your desk as the credits slowly roll. You then realize, "fuck this shit is good."
In high school, I had a few perverted friends who would talk about Japanese porn games where you click buttons endlessly though stories for porn to appear. They go "its so boring you just click click click then you jack off." Yeah, maybe thats what made me want to avoid this like a plague. But I was wrong. Its not porn. If anyone can masturbate to it they should chop off their dicks.
I haven't read the other stories but I finished two of the five and I can say its good already. Just don't finish it all at once like a sad drama. Its a love-hate thing for me. I love watching sad dramas and reading sad stories but I also hate it because once its over and I see the bittersweet ending, you know your week is ruined. You'll lie in bed thinking about it, it'll ruin your day as your in class. It'll fuck you over but you're glad you watched it. Thats what this visual novel is. I know its not a game, and I know I'm not bitching about how terrible a game is but I'm just talking about mostly what a Visual Novel is. It shouldn't be labeled as a game as theres no game play, yet it shouldn't be overlooked because its not a real novel. Give it a chance it might change your mind. It sure changed mine.
I first found this game, story, novel, whatever the shit you wanna call it while reading about Fortune Summoners and Carpe Fulgur. I have mentioned them before, they brought over games like Recettear and Chantelise by Easy Game Station for the western market. Now they are translating their latest game, Fortune Summoners by Lizsoft. But this isn't about that so we'll skip to the end. There were some mention about a game called Katawa Shoujo on the discussion about Fortune Summoners while I was looking for information about that game. Links were passed around and it was highly recommended. I checked it out downloaded and forgotten about it. Its a completely free game and you can download however you want. What interested me though was that it was made by a group of 20-22 individuals from all walks of life working on a visual novel on their free time. Some were adults, some were married, some were as young as 14. The only thing is common was that they went to the same forums and hung out around there. I love these stories, it was the reason I even paid attention to Carpe Fulgur as they were nothing but two individuals who couldn't find jobs and decide to make one for themselves.
The game took five years to make. Yes, five years. However they have said that the development took longer than that, more to a decade before finally starting it five years ago. They released the game free to download on their 5th anniversary just recently. Its a sorta westernized Visual Novel that takes place in Japan. Yes I know you're going, "well fuck that sounds retarded as shit! I hate anime! I hate Anime that take place in the west because they don't know shit and always fuck it up so horrifyingly because its a Japanized west." Exactly my thoughts. I hate anime but I used to watch it as a kid. It was fine back then when we were immature as shit. I ask my friends for recommendations and I get retarded shit like some dumb fuck loser guy with a harem of girls. Everything in anime has their own type of characters which pissed me off immensely. You get the dumb people who talk like they're lifeless, super cheerful airheads, super shy retarded assholes and the worst of all, tsundere. Holy fuck do I wanna choke anyone who mentions anything tsundere. I know you're reading this Cent and I know you're going to open your MSN and bitch at me but fuck you and read on first.
At first I thought it was going to be like that but I was strangely surprised. Its not my first Visual Novel, I've read/played/whatevered Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and Utawarerumono(fucking mouthful) all on recommendation by Cent. Sure its wasn't bad but it taught me a few things. I understand Utawarerumono is played like a tactics game, but why the fuck are the other two considered games? And why the fuck is it all high school bullshit like anime? Fate/Stay Night could have been adults going around blasting people with servants like a real game but instead its just dumb kids running around being all whiny and annoying. And if Tsukihime taught me anything is save before a choice because vampire girls will kill you out of love, and if you piss her off she'll kill you out of anger. Its a lose-lose situation. Thankfully Katawa Shoujo doesn't have vampire girls killing you. But it does have "bad endings." I like to think of Visual Novels as, writers that are too good for games, but not good enough for actual novels so they're stuck in some kind of limbo writing this shit. Of course thats not true because after reading this it changed my mind but I still like to consider these Visual Novels as a story other than a game.
I've been talking a lot and none of it has been about this game/novel. So after reading about this and leaving it somewhere at the back of my mind I found it again sitting on my desktop waiting to be installed. I was bored as shit so I gave it a go. I installed it and started playing. I gotta say the music and the art were kinda nice but what I enjoyed most was the writing. Its very well written, something you wouldn't expect from people on a forum known for their immaturity and trolling. The story focuses on a kid named Hisao who had an attack of arrhythmia when being confessed to by a girl he liked. Afterwards he was hospitalized and then had to enroll in a school for the disabled. There he meets the five main characters and how the story unfolds is up to the path you take. Each main character is written by a different writer. The novel itself is split into one main act where it can split into five different acts. Each act focuses on one character by one writer and that character has three acts of their own which equals to four acts per character. Its fairly long and I know I'm a fast reader. It still took me awhile to finish a character. Maybe because I didn't want it to end so fast. Maybe I was dreading it as I made it closer to the end and subconsciously slowed down.
The characters are as follows.
Emi - She's the always cheerful girl with amputated legs below the knee. She loves to run and will continue to run dispite her disability. She is considered the first path to take because its almost impossible to not be guided towards her path.
Hanako - Shes a disfigured girl who is suffering from extreme anxiety and shyness. She has almost no friends and has problems talking to anyone so she is ignored by everyone.
Lilly - Shes a blind Scottish girl. Shes sophisticated, calm and very friendly. She is the only one who talks to Hanako.
Rin - Shes a girl born with no arms. She is eccentric and talks in circles or asks very weird questions from time to time. Other than that shes an artist and is best friends with Emi
Shizune - She is a deaf and mute girl. Shes the class representitive and also head of the student council. She's strong and determined.
The first time I read through it I accidentally landed in Emi's route. I was going "Oh god not those super cheerful annoying cliches in anime." It wasn't as bad as I expected. One thing I noticed is Hisao changed between each route probably because of different writers. The reasoning for that was because if one person were to leave the team (common) then they wouldn't need to scrap the whole thing just scrap the route they worked on. Emi is cheerful and she's friendly with everyone but she has a secret. You first meet her because the nurse orders you to get exercise for your heart. If you wanna slowly kill yourself you don't do it but if you do you are locked onto her route. She runs with you every morning and you slowly see her more than just a friend. She's stubborn as hell and she refuses any help. I particularly like the banter between the two, its very realistic and cute. However as you get to know her more and more she pushes herself away further. The story focuses on your health and your relationship with Emi. You fight, you get together, you fight again, and you get back together again. She is stubborn, but so are you and you keep pushing forward when she pushes you back until you realize she has PTSD from her accident and cannot get close to people for fear of losing them. Even the bad endings are realistic, it brings back memories. Two people talking together normally, having fun dreading the inevitability that is coming. Then at the end, neither can look at each other in the eye and said goodbye for the last time. Just like that. Painless but painful all at once.
Its an emotional roller coaster from when she tells you to "Get the fuck out" of her house to the confession scene where she tells you every tiny little thing about her before breaking down. I like to point out that not every problem is solvable. Unlike Bioware writers, these people don't write stories where everyone has emotional baggage that gets magically fixed by a penis or someone with a penis. They have problems and you cannot solve them, but you can stand by them as they work through it. The endings are just the beginning of a story for our protagonists. Its bittersweet and I like it that way. Its even more evident in Hanako's route where you are protecting her and trying to fix her. If you do that then you fail and get the bad ending. I did the first time, I fell into the trap and I tried to help her but instead I failed to realize that she herself is strong and doesn't need you to help her. Shes quiet, and she avoids people because because her scars have traumatized her. She enjoys games like pool and chess, she enjoys reading in the library and she doesn't need you to watch her everywhere she goes. Hanako's route is written by a far superior writer in my opinion.
In Hanako's route it focuses more about the disabilities. Your weaknesses and your disabilities and also Hanako's. If you stop being her protector and worry about your own future, your own life, Hanako starts approaching you more and more. You share your disabilities, your hardships and then you make love. I like to point out it was probably one of the most disturbing scenes for obvious reasons you find out at the end of the route. She made love to you because she wanted you to see her as more than an object to be protected. She doesn't want a knight in shining armor, she wanted a friend, a lover who would see her as an equal. Thats why she liked to play chess with you, because when the two of you are playing you are equal. Even the title for the act, Castling, is a move in chess where the king (one to be protected) and the rook (a powerful piece in chess) moves so they stand beside each other. Its symbolism for Hisao and Hanako moving together standing side by side and Hisao becoming even more protective. At the climax you realized everything and stop being her knight. The route ends there but the story is just beginning. You sit there tears streaming down your cheeks with a pile of tissue paper on your desk as the credits slowly roll. You then realize, "fuck this shit is good."
In high school, I had a few perverted friends who would talk about Japanese porn games where you click buttons endlessly though stories for porn to appear. They go "its so boring you just click click click then you jack off." Yeah, maybe thats what made me want to avoid this like a plague. But I was wrong. Its not porn. If anyone can masturbate to it they should chop off their dicks.
I haven't read the other stories but I finished two of the five and I can say its good already. Just don't finish it all at once like a sad drama. Its a love-hate thing for me. I love watching sad dramas and reading sad stories but I also hate it because once its over and I see the bittersweet ending, you know your week is ruined. You'll lie in bed thinking about it, it'll ruin your day as your in class. It'll fuck you over but you're glad you watched it. Thats what this visual novel is. I know its not a game, and I know I'm not bitching about how terrible a game is but I'm just talking about mostly what a Visual Novel is. It shouldn't be labeled as a game as theres no game play, yet it shouldn't be overlooked because its not a real novel. Give it a chance it might change your mind. It sure changed mine.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The Binding of Issac - One big dead baby joke
You're probably asking why I'm bitching about an indie game. An indie game may have niche audiences but it doesn't mean it can't suck shit. The Binding of Issac is made by the same people who made Super Meat Boy. I have never played that game but I've heard praises of people who have played it. Having no idea what that is and no idea what this is I gave this a try. All I could say after all this was what the fuck. The story consists of you, Issac a 8 year old boy with a crazy religious mother. One day your mother hears the voice of God telling her to shelter you from the outside evils. You are then locked away naked in your room. Then she hears the voice of God telling her to kill you and you escape through the basement. That is the whole story. Inside the basement you meet a bunch of different creatures such as eyeless bleeding babies, babies with head filled with flies, headless babies, floating dead baby heads, zombie babies, maggots, giant vaginas, and more.
Edgy huh? I think the game focused too much on being edgy than to make the game better. The game isn't entirely bad. Its a rogue-like inspired Zeldaesque game. Basically you go around the dungeon shooting everything with tears and you find upgrades and you slowly mutate into some fucked up shit. The amount of blood puts Dragon Age to shame. Its grotesque but the replayability is there. The only problem is, why is this 5 bucks? Seems like this game is no different than those flash games you can play for free. A couple of years ago without steam and all these digital distribution sites it would be just another flash game forgotten somewhere. The game is made in flash and when the screen is filled with a bunch of shit (literally sometimes), it slows down and you start sliding around making the game difficult and impossible to play. Its more annoying than Odin Sphere's massive slowdown. The game is all about luck. Its like solitaire, you don't play to win instead you play for a chance to win.
When people wanted joystick support, what did these guys do? They make you google another program of course! There are more and more shit like if you leave the game on for long periods of time it automatically assumes you aren't playing and closes the game for you. The only reason they could get away with this kind of shit is because its an indie game. For 5 bucks you can get something better, something like Dungeons of Dredmor another rogue-like. Even Dungeon Defenders is cheap as shit and worth way more than this piece of shit. It has a few levels and the game doesn't last very long. The only reason replayability is high is the first few tries you'll end up dying a few minutes into the game. Its not bad becuase its hard, its bad because of how unoptimized it is and how its just a game where they shove as many dead babies and internet memes they can into it.
Edgy huh? I think the game focused too much on being edgy than to make the game better. The game isn't entirely bad. Its a rogue-like inspired Zeldaesque game. Basically you go around the dungeon shooting everything with tears and you find upgrades and you slowly mutate into some fucked up shit. The amount of blood puts Dragon Age to shame. Its grotesque but the replayability is there. The only problem is, why is this 5 bucks? Seems like this game is no different than those flash games you can play for free. A couple of years ago without steam and all these digital distribution sites it would be just another flash game forgotten somewhere. The game is made in flash and when the screen is filled with a bunch of shit (literally sometimes), it slows down and you start sliding around making the game difficult and impossible to play. Its more annoying than Odin Sphere's massive slowdown. The game is all about luck. Its like solitaire, you don't play to win instead you play for a chance to win.
When people wanted joystick support, what did these guys do? They make you google another program of course! There are more and more shit like if you leave the game on for long periods of time it automatically assumes you aren't playing and closes the game for you. The only reason they could get away with this kind of shit is because its an indie game. For 5 bucks you can get something better, something like Dungeons of Dredmor another rogue-like. Even Dungeon Defenders is cheap as shit and worth way more than this piece of shit. It has a few levels and the game doesn't last very long. The only reason replayability is high is the first few tries you'll end up dying a few minutes into the game. Its not bad becuase its hard, its bad because of how unoptimized it is and how its just a game where they shove as many dead babies and internet memes they can into it.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Muramasa: The Demon Blade Finale - Biggest waste of fucking time
This is a continuation of my previous part found here.
So you beat the game and you found the endings unacceptable. You want to know what the fuck happened and don't wanna end with those pitiful excuses for endings. There are four more endings. The true endings for either characters. And two alternate secret endings. For example in Momohime's ending Kongiku was punished for helping Junkuro and turned back into a normal fox and Junkuro died and sacrificed himself to save Momohime. Then Momohime wakes up with no memory and lives with an elderly couple until Oni's come and attack and she fucked them over with her Oboro style. She goes "what is this scary power" and goes around searching for the answer with Kongiku who is a normal fox. The end. WHAT THE FUCK. For Kisuke's ending you randomly meet Momohime out of nowhere and kill Junkuro's spirit and saves her. Then Torahime is like do me one last favor before I die and makes Kisuke Momohime's servant because Kisuke is madly in love with Torahime. Then Momohime goes "Lets go around and collect all the Muramasas!" The end.
You're thinking "Ok maybe the super secret super ending is better!" Nope! Its in fact worse. Worse than you can possibly imagine. First of all to get the ending you must first, beat the game with both characters. Then you must beat the White Monster Lairs which are only available after you beat the game with both characters. In here you fight series of challenges. You are rewarded with secret swords. Then you must equip two very specific swords and go fight the last boss with your two characters. Here you will find your true ending. Then after beating both you must get to maximum level wear the best sword in the game and fight again for the alternate ending. You must be going this is a lot of work. MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.
How would you like a game where you have to grind over and over again to reach the maximum level just so you can have a real ending. Because the regular endings go "this is not the end..." and tease you while giving you no fucking conclusion. To level you go fight challenge bosses. Theres one boss who is the easiest boss in the game but gives 12x the exp of every single boss in the game combined. So what you do is endlessly fight this guy until you level. Kill, save repeat. Kill, save repeat. I have to ask. Why do you need to level up to equip a sword? What is the point. If I got it just let me use it. The problem is, even after equipping it, it does nothing to help. Everything in the game scales to your level. A shitty ass boss does 7k damage a hit. What in the fuck is that? I thought the boss is level 35. How the fuck he do 95% of my health in a single hit when I'm max level.
Then you have fucking retarded pointless random encounters. I never pointed this out before but I'll point it out now because of how tedious it became when I realized how much running around there are. For example, Momohime's final dungeon will take at least five minutes to walk from beginning to the end without anything in your way. With random encounters this goes up to like an hour. Not exactly but it sure feels like it. Every four steps you take you fight enemies. I got a item from a challenge boss which says "greatly reduces random encounters." That item is a lie. Instead of fighting every four steps, you fight every six steps. Hardly any help. I did not notice any fucking difference with or without the item. You cannot run from combat either and while shit scales with your level you can't blow through them all instantly and move on. You're forced to fight and fight and fight. Why bother when you're max level? Nothing. You already wasted an hour grinding the boss so you can wear your fucking sword now you have to waste another hour walking to the last boss again.
So there I am pissed as fucking hell reach the final boss again make sure I have the final sword equipped, fight the guy. Notice he's scaled to fucking hell, beat his face in easily and then wait for the alternate ending. ONLY TO FIND OUT ITS A PIECE OF SHIT. Instead of Junkuro being killed by Fudoo-Mudoo, Buddha's bodyguard, you managed to kill him with your sword. Now you go back in time. You're Junkuro in human form and you see Momohime and her fiancée running from the castle that should have killed her. Instead of killing her and taking over her body like you did before. You let her go and walk away. Then you go into the future where its Momohime getting married with her fiancee and its hinted that Junkuro has taken over his body and is marrying you instead but since you went back in time Momohime never knew about Junkuro. Then the ending goes "It is said Momohime given birth three times and lived to be over 100. You have reached the end of The Pandemonium of the Oboro Sword."
WHAT IN THE FUCKING SHIT. I fucking did all that and this was what I got? WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY THINK THIS WOULD SATISFY ANYONE. First of all. Junkuro is like 60 years old and Momohime is 12. Fucking her finacee is like 35 years old. The worst part is that if I want to see Kisuke's alternate ending which would probably be just as fucking shitty, I would have to do all this again. But why would I? I would rather fucking play HoN, LoL, and DotA at the same time with 4 feeders on my team in each game while playing Persona 3 and 4 on the TVs while blasting Friday by Rebecca Black on repeat and having my dick sawed off by a chainsaw while cutting my stomach open with a knife. That is less painful that fucking playing this game again.
DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME.
EVER.
Save yourself from the years of nightmare and torture you get from playing this game.
So you beat the game and you found the endings unacceptable. You want to know what the fuck happened and don't wanna end with those pitiful excuses for endings. There are four more endings. The true endings for either characters. And two alternate secret endings. For example in Momohime's ending Kongiku was punished for helping Junkuro and turned back into a normal fox and Junkuro died and sacrificed himself to save Momohime. Then Momohime wakes up with no memory and lives with an elderly couple until Oni's come and attack and she fucked them over with her Oboro style. She goes "what is this scary power" and goes around searching for the answer with Kongiku who is a normal fox. The end. WHAT THE FUCK. For Kisuke's ending you randomly meet Momohime out of nowhere and kill Junkuro's spirit and saves her. Then Torahime is like do me one last favor before I die and makes Kisuke Momohime's servant because Kisuke is madly in love with Torahime. Then Momohime goes "Lets go around and collect all the Muramasas!" The end.
You're thinking "Ok maybe the super secret super ending is better!" Nope! Its in fact worse. Worse than you can possibly imagine. First of all to get the ending you must first, beat the game with both characters. Then you must beat the White Monster Lairs which are only available after you beat the game with both characters. In here you fight series of challenges. You are rewarded with secret swords. Then you must equip two very specific swords and go fight the last boss with your two characters. Here you will find your true ending. Then after beating both you must get to maximum level wear the best sword in the game and fight again for the alternate ending. You must be going this is a lot of work. MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE.
How would you like a game where you have to grind over and over again to reach the maximum level just so you can have a real ending. Because the regular endings go "this is not the end..." and tease you while giving you no fucking conclusion. To level you go fight challenge bosses. Theres one boss who is the easiest boss in the game but gives 12x the exp of every single boss in the game combined. So what you do is endlessly fight this guy until you level. Kill, save repeat. Kill, save repeat. I have to ask. Why do you need to level up to equip a sword? What is the point. If I got it just let me use it. The problem is, even after equipping it, it does nothing to help. Everything in the game scales to your level. A shitty ass boss does 7k damage a hit. What in the fuck is that? I thought the boss is level 35. How the fuck he do 95% of my health in a single hit when I'm max level.
Then you have fucking retarded pointless random encounters. I never pointed this out before but I'll point it out now because of how tedious it became when I realized how much running around there are. For example, Momohime's final dungeon will take at least five minutes to walk from beginning to the end without anything in your way. With random encounters this goes up to like an hour. Not exactly but it sure feels like it. Every four steps you take you fight enemies. I got a item from a challenge boss which says "greatly reduces random encounters." That item is a lie. Instead of fighting every four steps, you fight every six steps. Hardly any help. I did not notice any fucking difference with or without the item. You cannot run from combat either and while shit scales with your level you can't blow through them all instantly and move on. You're forced to fight and fight and fight. Why bother when you're max level? Nothing. You already wasted an hour grinding the boss so you can wear your fucking sword now you have to waste another hour walking to the last boss again.
So there I am pissed as fucking hell reach the final boss again make sure I have the final sword equipped, fight the guy. Notice he's scaled to fucking hell, beat his face in easily and then wait for the alternate ending. ONLY TO FIND OUT ITS A PIECE OF SHIT. Instead of Junkuro being killed by Fudoo-Mudoo, Buddha's bodyguard, you managed to kill him with your sword. Now you go back in time. You're Junkuro in human form and you see Momohime and her fiancée running from the castle that should have killed her. Instead of killing her and taking over her body like you did before. You let her go and walk away. Then you go into the future where its Momohime getting married with her fiancee and its hinted that Junkuro has taken over his body and is marrying you instead but since you went back in time Momohime never knew about Junkuro. Then the ending goes "It is said Momohime given birth three times and lived to be over 100. You have reached the end of The Pandemonium of the Oboro Sword."
WHAT IN THE FUCKING SHIT. I fucking did all that and this was what I got? WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY THINK THIS WOULD SATISFY ANYONE. First of all. Junkuro is like 60 years old and Momohime is 12. Fucking her finacee is like 35 years old. The worst part is that if I want to see Kisuke's alternate ending which would probably be just as fucking shitty, I would have to do all this again. But why would I? I would rather fucking play HoN, LoL, and DotA at the same time with 4 feeders on my team in each game while playing Persona 3 and 4 on the TVs while blasting Friday by Rebecca Black on repeat and having my dick sawed off by a chainsaw while cutting my stomach open with a knife. That is less painful that fucking playing this game again.
DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME.
EVER.
Save yourself from the years of nightmare and torture you get from playing this game.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Muramasa: The Demon Blade Part 2 - More filler content than actual gameplay
This is a continuation of my previous one found here.
Now that I went back and finished Kisuke's route, the only thing I can say is what the fuck. At first I thought Kisuke's story would be related to Momohime's story but no. These two are completely irrelevant. They don't cross over except you see them in hot springs and say one word to each other. A lot of games do the finish the game with two or more characters to have the full story shit. I always hated those. You are already attached to your first character. Why do I have to beat the game again to see the full story? Why not have multiple paths and endings so we can discuss with others and see what we got differently? Instead we get one confusing half of a story with no ending and no fucking answers. Until you play the other half you're in the dark. When you play the other character you notice that he or she is a giant dipshit and you don't feel like playing it again.
For example something like Mana Khemia 2 where you have to pick between the slave guy or the country bumpkin. I started off with the slave and you are forced into school by this girl who is your master and she literally drags you around everywhere. You reluctantly do whatever she says because hey she owns your life. Basically the whole half of the game is how you hate Manas and how she has a crush on you but you are oblivious as all fuck. If you play the country bumpkin you are this dipshit chick who is a giant airhead and pisses you off every opportunity she gets. Her story is about raising a Mana egg. The stories cross over a lot as both of these teams are rivals at school and you often fight against or with each other. Their team often joins your party as a guest and you are often helping the other team in quests or stuff. Thats alright. I get the majority of the story and each team has their own individual storyline.
Something similar but a little different is Arc the Lad where you play the story of two brother separated at birth. You have to play both of them at the same time as the storyline switches between them from chapter to chapter. One goes from one side of the world the other goes from the other. They never meet and just barely miss each other. One person is fighting for the monsters one person is fighting for the humans and they all hate each other. Until finally at the climax you both meet for the first time and then find out whose behind all that shit and team up brother with brother and fuck them up. That game had a nice story and combat was fun as heck.
But I'm getting carried away from the main point. Muramasa is neither of those. Its two confusing halves of two confusing stories with no ending no climax no character development. Hell the fucking filler content is more than the actual gameplay. You spend more time walking to the next location than actual storyline or boss fights. I finished Kisuke's route in a little over three hours. THREE FUCKING HOURS. And funny part is, over 75% of the game was walking from one side of the world to the other. The storyline is pathetically short. You must be asking, how do you develop characters in an RPG in three hours? The answer is you don't.
I liked Momohime's route a lot more than Kisuke's mainly because Momohime is always travelling with Junkuro who taken over her body and using it to kill gods and demons. Then theres the foxgirl Kongiku the servant of Junkuro and her fox friends who faithfully does everything Junkuro says. Basically her story is Junkuro is out to find the evil sword to gain unlimited power and fuck the world. You actually get travel companions with you and actual dialogue. Kisuke's route is you are this dipshit ninja who lost his memory. How cliche. You're this loner who travels around trying to find your memory and beating up the wrong people like a retard because you're being tricked. Following you is the foxgirl Yuzuruha who tells you that her master sent her over to help you by giving you swords to collect souls of the slain and forge demon blades. Yuzuruha is way better than Kongiku. First of all Yuzuruha doesn't talk like a dumbass, have breasts exploding out her clothes, and doesn't refer to you as master. She does do the little spin-around thing while holding her paper umbrella which is a little distracting but its forgivable. She doesn't really help you or do anything to aid you really. Shes hardly even in the story and only appears to say something then disappear. Kisuke is always and forever alone.
Kisuke's story is mainly about Torahime, Momohime's elder sister who died and was resurrected for 49 days. In those 49 days she's looking for revenge for the death of her entire family and clan. What I found retarded is Torahime is related to Momohime and Kisuke is related to Junkuro yet neither of their stories overlap at all. You would think its perfect to come together eventually but no. Its just two stories doing their own shit. The worst part is it still gives you half a story. So in total you get a quarter of the game in each route. Fuck this game.
One thing I have to point out is this game lets you forge a ton of swords. These names are all impossible to remember you just have to look at the stats. Each sword has a different secret art, basically skills unique to that sword. They also have a special stat such as +1 strength, +10% more damage to all swords, 50% fire resistance. Then theres the attack power of the sword itself. As cool as that sound, most swords you get and use for less than five minutes before you toss them for a better one. You might consider keeping one for their stats or secret art but no you rarely ever need to use them. Normal random mobs are too easy to need it. You might use it once or twice to wipe them out fast but your normal hits can kill them just as fast. For bosses you don't use the secret arts because you need to keep your sword power to block attacks. You can carry three swords with you at a time and you can switch at anytime during combat. Each sword has its individual health bar which is drained by blocking or from using their secret arts. Once a sword breaks your damage is neutered and you cannot block. When you sheathe a sword, it will slowly recover their health. A broken sword needs to wait until it gets full health before its fixed. Therefor the only reason you get a sword is for their attack power. Then you slash the boss until it breaks and switch to another.
Another thing is cooking. I pointed out how slow and tedious it is to make food. But there are actually two types of food. One type of food is shit that you can carry like rice balls you can make out of a pot and then gently knead it in your hands, baked potato by cooking yams under leaves, and grilled squid by sticking a fucking squid into the fire. These take forever to make but are cheap easy healing when needed. You can carry them with you into battle. The other type are hotpots. You cook them but you have to eat them right away. These are pure shit. You cannot cook in combat so the only reason to use them is if you are low on health from random mobs and you wanna heal up. They are also expensive a shit to make so you're better off eating a squid or something. However unlike the other type of food, hotpots always gives buffs. These buffs only last like 30 seconds so if you use it then fight a boss it wears off by the time it actually starts. Using it to clear random mobs are pointless because how easy they are. So what are the use of these? Nothing. Just for the food porn where you watch it get eaten away bite by tiny bite and comments on how good it taste. Fuck just go to a restaurant instead. At least you get to taste it.
Most good games you don't want the story to end yet, while shitty games you can't wait for it to actually end. For this game I'm torn between the two. I want the game to end but since theres no story or real ending I want it to keep going so it can actually give me something. I think even Blade Kitten has more story and depth to the game than this. You should just think of this game as a side scrolling action platformer than an RPG. The combat is fun. Yes its easy but its fun. Some people may find it a bit difficult but I was around 9-18 levels below the recommended levels the entire game and I managed to beat it fine. I was like level 23 by the time I finished the game on Kisuke's route. I couldn't even use half the swords I got from bosses because I was so underleveled. Funny thing is this is supposed to be the "hard mode." The real hard mode is unlocked by beating a game on either character.
There was some confusion from what I said before. When you start a new save, you automatically have two saves on your one save. One is Momohime's one is Kisuke's. By selecting your save you are able to pick between the two. The time spent and swords collected in either save gets totalled into your main save. If you wish to play the hardest mode you must start over after you beaten either Momohime or Kisuke. That is complete bullshit. Why fucking tease us with a mode we will never play. Should just enable it so on your second playthrough you can feel challenged. And after beating the game on both characters you can finally unlock the blocked monster lairs. All fucking three of them. In there you fight the same bosses as you fought in the main game but this time you fight more than one at a time! Gasp! Fucking too lazy to make real content and have to resort to repeating content into filler content. This game is pathetic and I take back anything good I said about it in part one of my review.
One last thing about this game before I'm done. When you play this game you'll learn that all Japanese women can't or refuse to fight and will whine at every opportunity they get. Seriously when you first meet Torahime you tell her that a woman wearing armor and going off into battle is stupid and should stay home. Then you kick her ass. Momohime cannot fight and will whine at every opportunity. In Momohime's route you fight a thunder god which you would think would be powerful as fuck but no. You just smack her then she falls down from the sky and reveals her ass and you have to spank her while she moans for maximum damage. Then she loses and the other lightning god is like stop being stupid or I'll stop liking you and she's all like what thats mean waaaah whineee whineeee. Fucking horrible portrayal of women in this game. Then again this is Vanillaware, known for their extreme sexism.
Now that I went back and finished Kisuke's route, the only thing I can say is what the fuck. At first I thought Kisuke's story would be related to Momohime's story but no. These two are completely irrelevant. They don't cross over except you see them in hot springs and say one word to each other. A lot of games do the finish the game with two or more characters to have the full story shit. I always hated those. You are already attached to your first character. Why do I have to beat the game again to see the full story? Why not have multiple paths and endings so we can discuss with others and see what we got differently? Instead we get one confusing half of a story with no ending and no fucking answers. Until you play the other half you're in the dark. When you play the other character you notice that he or she is a giant dipshit and you don't feel like playing it again.
For example something like Mana Khemia 2 where you have to pick between the slave guy or the country bumpkin. I started off with the slave and you are forced into school by this girl who is your master and she literally drags you around everywhere. You reluctantly do whatever she says because hey she owns your life. Basically the whole half of the game is how you hate Manas and how she has a crush on you but you are oblivious as all fuck. If you play the country bumpkin you are this dipshit chick who is a giant airhead and pisses you off every opportunity she gets. Her story is about raising a Mana egg. The stories cross over a lot as both of these teams are rivals at school and you often fight against or with each other. Their team often joins your party as a guest and you are often helping the other team in quests or stuff. Thats alright. I get the majority of the story and each team has their own individual storyline.
Something similar but a little different is Arc the Lad where you play the story of two brother separated at birth. You have to play both of them at the same time as the storyline switches between them from chapter to chapter. One goes from one side of the world the other goes from the other. They never meet and just barely miss each other. One person is fighting for the monsters one person is fighting for the humans and they all hate each other. Until finally at the climax you both meet for the first time and then find out whose behind all that shit and team up brother with brother and fuck them up. That game had a nice story and combat was fun as heck.
But I'm getting carried away from the main point. Muramasa is neither of those. Its two confusing halves of two confusing stories with no ending no climax no character development. Hell the fucking filler content is more than the actual gameplay. You spend more time walking to the next location than actual storyline or boss fights. I finished Kisuke's route in a little over three hours. THREE FUCKING HOURS. And funny part is, over 75% of the game was walking from one side of the world to the other. The storyline is pathetically short. You must be asking, how do you develop characters in an RPG in three hours? The answer is you don't.
I liked Momohime's route a lot more than Kisuke's mainly because Momohime is always travelling with Junkuro who taken over her body and using it to kill gods and demons. Then theres the foxgirl Kongiku the servant of Junkuro and her fox friends who faithfully does everything Junkuro says. Basically her story is Junkuro is out to find the evil sword to gain unlimited power and fuck the world. You actually get travel companions with you and actual dialogue. Kisuke's route is you are this dipshit ninja who lost his memory. How cliche. You're this loner who travels around trying to find your memory and beating up the wrong people like a retard because you're being tricked. Following you is the foxgirl Yuzuruha who tells you that her master sent her over to help you by giving you swords to collect souls of the slain and forge demon blades. Yuzuruha is way better than Kongiku. First of all Yuzuruha doesn't talk like a dumbass, have breasts exploding out her clothes, and doesn't refer to you as master. She does do the little spin-around thing while holding her paper umbrella which is a little distracting but its forgivable. She doesn't really help you or do anything to aid you really. Shes hardly even in the story and only appears to say something then disappear. Kisuke is always and forever alone.
Kisuke's story is mainly about Torahime, Momohime's elder sister who died and was resurrected for 49 days. In those 49 days she's looking for revenge for the death of her entire family and clan. What I found retarded is Torahime is related to Momohime and Kisuke is related to Junkuro yet neither of their stories overlap at all. You would think its perfect to come together eventually but no. Its just two stories doing their own shit. The worst part is it still gives you half a story. So in total you get a quarter of the game in each route. Fuck this game.
One thing I have to point out is this game lets you forge a ton of swords. These names are all impossible to remember you just have to look at the stats. Each sword has a different secret art, basically skills unique to that sword. They also have a special stat such as +1 strength, +10% more damage to all swords, 50% fire resistance. Then theres the attack power of the sword itself. As cool as that sound, most swords you get and use for less than five minutes before you toss them for a better one. You might consider keeping one for their stats or secret art but no you rarely ever need to use them. Normal random mobs are too easy to need it. You might use it once or twice to wipe them out fast but your normal hits can kill them just as fast. For bosses you don't use the secret arts because you need to keep your sword power to block attacks. You can carry three swords with you at a time and you can switch at anytime during combat. Each sword has its individual health bar which is drained by blocking or from using their secret arts. Once a sword breaks your damage is neutered and you cannot block. When you sheathe a sword, it will slowly recover their health. A broken sword needs to wait until it gets full health before its fixed. Therefor the only reason you get a sword is for their attack power. Then you slash the boss until it breaks and switch to another.
Another thing is cooking. I pointed out how slow and tedious it is to make food. But there are actually two types of food. One type of food is shit that you can carry like rice balls you can make out of a pot and then gently knead it in your hands, baked potato by cooking yams under leaves, and grilled squid by sticking a fucking squid into the fire. These take forever to make but are cheap easy healing when needed. You can carry them with you into battle. The other type are hotpots. You cook them but you have to eat them right away. These are pure shit. You cannot cook in combat so the only reason to use them is if you are low on health from random mobs and you wanna heal up. They are also expensive a shit to make so you're better off eating a squid or something. However unlike the other type of food, hotpots always gives buffs. These buffs only last like 30 seconds so if you use it then fight a boss it wears off by the time it actually starts. Using it to clear random mobs are pointless because how easy they are. So what are the use of these? Nothing. Just for the food porn where you watch it get eaten away bite by tiny bite and comments on how good it taste. Fuck just go to a restaurant instead. At least you get to taste it.
Most good games you don't want the story to end yet, while shitty games you can't wait for it to actually end. For this game I'm torn between the two. I want the game to end but since theres no story or real ending I want it to keep going so it can actually give me something. I think even Blade Kitten has more story and depth to the game than this. You should just think of this game as a side scrolling action platformer than an RPG. The combat is fun. Yes its easy but its fun. Some people may find it a bit difficult but I was around 9-18 levels below the recommended levels the entire game and I managed to beat it fine. I was like level 23 by the time I finished the game on Kisuke's route. I couldn't even use half the swords I got from bosses because I was so underleveled. Funny thing is this is supposed to be the "hard mode." The real hard mode is unlocked by beating a game on either character.
There was some confusion from what I said before. When you start a new save, you automatically have two saves on your one save. One is Momohime's one is Kisuke's. By selecting your save you are able to pick between the two. The time spent and swords collected in either save gets totalled into your main save. If you wish to play the hardest mode you must start over after you beaten either Momohime or Kisuke. That is complete bullshit. Why fucking tease us with a mode we will never play. Should just enable it so on your second playthrough you can feel challenged. And after beating the game on both characters you can finally unlock the blocked monster lairs. All fucking three of them. In there you fight the same bosses as you fought in the main game but this time you fight more than one at a time! Gasp! Fucking too lazy to make real content and have to resort to repeating content into filler content. This game is pathetic and I take back anything good I said about it in part one of my review.
One last thing about this game before I'm done. When you play this game you'll learn that all Japanese women can't or refuse to fight and will whine at every opportunity they get. Seriously when you first meet Torahime you tell her that a woman wearing armor and going off into battle is stupid and should stay home. Then you kick her ass. Momohime cannot fight and will whine at every opportunity. In Momohime's route you fight a thunder god which you would think would be powerful as fuck but no. You just smack her then she falls down from the sky and reveals her ass and you have to spank her while she moans for maximum damage. Then she loses and the other lightning god is like stop being stupid or I'll stop liking you and she's all like what thats mean waaaah whineee whineeee. Fucking horrible portrayal of women in this game. Then again this is Vanillaware, known for their extreme sexism.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Gender Inequality - Character Gender Roles
Video games have always been male dominated as I have already said before in another post. Its pretty chauvinistic but its nothing like the pure shit that is anime. Its the most misogynistic shit ever and anyone should be ashamed for watching it. But moving on from that video games seems to be doing better and better. Maybe more women started picking up games or maybe more women are developing games. There are always talk about how badly women are portrayed in video games yet no one really knows what makes a strong character. Not even the developers that made the character.
Men in video games have more variations. You have the hyper masculine tough guy like Duke Nukem and any other action game. You have the suave smart guy in like L.A. Noire, fat bald angry guy NPCs, feminine wimpy main males in JRPGs, and even homosexual guys like in Shadow Hearts. Theres a huge variation from main characters to NPCs. There are a lot more that I haven't said but then we get to women in video games. They all have one thing in common. They are always attractive first, then you add whatever else next. This holds true in all forms of media too. Watch a movie, watch the TV, look at a magazine. Anything. Just like how minorities aren't properly portrayed, women aren't properly portrayed either. You don't see many minorities in video games. Whens the last time you saw an Asian in a video game outside an Asian themed game that wasn't a martial artist or old wise man? What about a Hispanic that wasn't a gang banger? Like women, when is the last time you saw a non attractive women in a video game outside of background characters?
Women are used for sex appeal for the gamer. You see chain mail bikinis on women who somehow magically have more defense than a man wearing a full plate armor. Yet somehow those swords that stab her exposed flesh are magically deflected. Impractical? Fuck that show more cleavage. Zoom in on that ass. Put on some bondage gear. I already said a lot about this before. There is no need to go into more detail. Sure you get the occasional shirtless male with ripped abs but those are uncommon because they don't want the player base to start feeling insecure about their sexuality.
Men are usually the main characters and women are usually forced into the supportive role in games. Sometimes women are the main characters and men are the support but a lot of developers say they don't like to make games with a female main character because their fans complain about having to play a girl. But that is mostly because anything meant to appeal to both genders are male. A girl can be a tomboy an be socially accepted but as soon as a parent finds out their son is doing or watching anything girly they automatically assume he caught the gay and will put an end to it right away. Society says men have to be manly. And because of that, we have mostly male leads in video games. And since the lead is a male, the support roles are shoved onto females. Then you have the love interest role and the damsel in distress role.
A few games let you play as either gender. For example in Mass Effect you are able to choose a male or female Commander Shepard. People argue that the female Shepard is nothing more than a chick with a dick and shouldn't even be considered in any discussion about characters. Why? I thought feminism was all about equality. If both the male and female versions are doing exactly 100% the same thing minus the romance whats wrong with it really? But Mass Effect also has the worst portrayal of women in gaming. The Asari, an all female race of prostitutes and sluts. Then theres Jack a crazy psycho angry bitch you have to cure her broken life with your penis. Miranda who is the genetically engineered superhuman perfect sex doll who you cure her of her insecurities with your penis. And Tali the naive waif who you cure her of her shyness with your penis. Then Kelly your secretary who you can sexually harass and then molest with your penis. Basically everything else was badly done in the game.
Then there are the "great female characters" like Alyx Vance from Half Life 2 that men claim to be the best. However almost all women agree she is terrible. I have never played that game so I cannot comment but most agree that shes completely dependent on the main character and she just magically falls in love with him without any development. She also becomes a damsel in distress. Just because its a supportive character doesn't mean that she is automatically bad. Just because she plays the role of a damsel in distress doesn't mean shes bad. They don't need to be non feminine to be a good character either. What they need is character depth.
As long as they don't go into this.
Lets take a look at Aveline from Dragon Age 2. Yes I know the game is a piece of shit but she isn't. She is probably one of the most likable female characters in video games. She is well developed, she is a strong female character. She has her own life, her husband died early in the game but that doesn't stop her. She does what she feels is right and isn't afraid to voice her opinions and do what she sets out to do. Eventually she becomes the captain of the guard. She watches over you like a guardian would but at the same time she isn't without flaw. She has a crush on a subordinate but doesn't have the courage to do it even though she is strong when it comes to anything but love. It becomes downright embarrassing yet a little cute at the same time. Eventually she overcomes that hurdle and captures her love. I also like to point out she cannot be romanced by the main character. People go "oh shes ugly she looks manly she doesn't show any cleavage blah blah blah." So what? Do they have to be attractive to be female? Because of that she is overlooked a lot.
Just because it is a damsel in distress or even a supportive character, it doesn't mean they should be devoid of any personality or development. A lot of JRPG's do this. You get weak girls as casters and the males are hotheaded fighters. Most characters are one dimensional and are basically defined by one particular trait. Persona 4 I thought did a good job on the main characters. Yes the game was terrible like Dragon Age 2 but the main characters grow, they have their own lives they do their own shit. They have their own goals and own opinions. Which I thought was quite progressive for a JRPG. But outside the main characters its just horrible.
Games like Skyrim have both men and women in all roles. Gender does not stop you from doing anything. There are Jarls that are women. They can lead, they don't whine in their keeps waiting for a man to do their job. Despite what feminist may or may not agree, you don't have to be ugly, you don't have to be doing a usually male dominated role, and you don't have to be devoid of any sexual attraction to the main character to be a strong female character. One example is Fall-From-Grace from Planescape Torment. She's a succubus, and right away alarm bells go off your head. But she isn't.as bad as you would think. She's a chaste succubus who owns a brothel for intellectual lust over physical lust. She has a dairy that she always holds which you cannot read or get rid of.
There are motherly female characters to female characters who relies on the male lead. That is fine. She can be a prostitute, a mother, a warrior, an independent woman anything you want and still be a strong character. It's not that she has to fulfill these roles to be a good character, it's that she is a good character who doesn't sacrifice these roles in order to appear interesting. It bolsters her character, not defines it. Roles don't make a difference in character. Hell Bayonetta is like the epitome of everything wrong in a video character and she's a strong character. Sure I find her annoying as shit and over the top but I won't deny that she is a strong character.
So why all the fuss about strong female characters in video games? There are tons of weak male characters right? Yes but there are also a ton of strong male characters. Strong female characters are a rare breed and when people see it they notice it. And when its lacking people don't bat an eyelash.
Men in video games have more variations. You have the hyper masculine tough guy like Duke Nukem and any other action game. You have the suave smart guy in like L.A. Noire, fat bald angry guy NPCs, feminine wimpy main males in JRPGs, and even homosexual guys like in Shadow Hearts. Theres a huge variation from main characters to NPCs. There are a lot more that I haven't said but then we get to women in video games. They all have one thing in common. They are always attractive first, then you add whatever else next. This holds true in all forms of media too. Watch a movie, watch the TV, look at a magazine. Anything. Just like how minorities aren't properly portrayed, women aren't properly portrayed either. You don't see many minorities in video games. Whens the last time you saw an Asian in a video game outside an Asian themed game that wasn't a martial artist or old wise man? What about a Hispanic that wasn't a gang banger? Like women, when is the last time you saw a non attractive women in a video game outside of background characters?
Women are used for sex appeal for the gamer. You see chain mail bikinis on women who somehow magically have more defense than a man wearing a full plate armor. Yet somehow those swords that stab her exposed flesh are magically deflected. Impractical? Fuck that show more cleavage. Zoom in on that ass. Put on some bondage gear. I already said a lot about this before. There is no need to go into more detail. Sure you get the occasional shirtless male with ripped abs but those are uncommon because they don't want the player base to start feeling insecure about their sexuality.
Men are usually the main characters and women are usually forced into the supportive role in games. Sometimes women are the main characters and men are the support but a lot of developers say they don't like to make games with a female main character because their fans complain about having to play a girl. But that is mostly because anything meant to appeal to both genders are male. A girl can be a tomboy an be socially accepted but as soon as a parent finds out their son is doing or watching anything girly they automatically assume he caught the gay and will put an end to it right away. Society says men have to be manly. And because of that, we have mostly male leads in video games. And since the lead is a male, the support roles are shoved onto females. Then you have the love interest role and the damsel in distress role.
A few games let you play as either gender. For example in Mass Effect you are able to choose a male or female Commander Shepard. People argue that the female Shepard is nothing more than a chick with a dick and shouldn't even be considered in any discussion about characters. Why? I thought feminism was all about equality. If both the male and female versions are doing exactly 100% the same thing minus the romance whats wrong with it really? But Mass Effect also has the worst portrayal of women in gaming. The Asari, an all female race of prostitutes and sluts. Then theres Jack a crazy psycho angry bitch you have to cure her broken life with your penis. Miranda who is the genetically engineered superhuman perfect sex doll who you cure her of her insecurities with your penis. And Tali the naive waif who you cure her of her shyness with your penis. Then Kelly your secretary who you can sexually harass and then molest with your penis. Basically everything else was badly done in the game.
Then there are the "great female characters" like Alyx Vance from Half Life 2 that men claim to be the best. However almost all women agree she is terrible. I have never played that game so I cannot comment but most agree that shes completely dependent on the main character and she just magically falls in love with him without any development. She also becomes a damsel in distress. Just because its a supportive character doesn't mean that she is automatically bad. Just because she plays the role of a damsel in distress doesn't mean shes bad. They don't need to be non feminine to be a good character either. What they need is character depth.
As long as they don't go into this.
Lets take a look at Aveline from Dragon Age 2. Yes I know the game is a piece of shit but she isn't. She is probably one of the most likable female characters in video games. She is well developed, she is a strong female character. She has her own life, her husband died early in the game but that doesn't stop her. She does what she feels is right and isn't afraid to voice her opinions and do what she sets out to do. Eventually she becomes the captain of the guard. She watches over you like a guardian would but at the same time she isn't without flaw. She has a crush on a subordinate but doesn't have the courage to do it even though she is strong when it comes to anything but love. It becomes downright embarrassing yet a little cute at the same time. Eventually she overcomes that hurdle and captures her love. I also like to point out she cannot be romanced by the main character. People go "oh shes ugly she looks manly she doesn't show any cleavage blah blah blah." So what? Do they have to be attractive to be female? Because of that she is overlooked a lot.
Just because it is a damsel in distress or even a supportive character, it doesn't mean they should be devoid of any personality or development. A lot of JRPG's do this. You get weak girls as casters and the males are hotheaded fighters. Most characters are one dimensional and are basically defined by one particular trait. Persona 4 I thought did a good job on the main characters. Yes the game was terrible like Dragon Age 2 but the main characters grow, they have their own lives they do their own shit. They have their own goals and own opinions. Which I thought was quite progressive for a JRPG. But outside the main characters its just horrible.
Games like Skyrim have both men and women in all roles. Gender does not stop you from doing anything. There are Jarls that are women. They can lead, they don't whine in their keeps waiting for a man to do their job. Despite what feminist may or may not agree, you don't have to be ugly, you don't have to be doing a usually male dominated role, and you don't have to be devoid of any sexual attraction to the main character to be a strong female character. One example is Fall-From-Grace from Planescape Torment. She's a succubus, and right away alarm bells go off your head. But she isn't.as bad as you would think. She's a chaste succubus who owns a brothel for intellectual lust over physical lust. She has a dairy that she always holds which you cannot read or get rid of.
There are motherly female characters to female characters who relies on the male lead. That is fine. She can be a prostitute, a mother, a warrior, an independent woman anything you want and still be a strong character. It's not that she has to fulfill these roles to be a good character, it's that she is a good character who doesn't sacrifice these roles in order to appear interesting. It bolsters her character, not defines it. Roles don't make a difference in character. Hell Bayonetta is like the epitome of everything wrong in a video character and she's a strong character. Sure I find her annoying as shit and over the top but I won't deny that she is a strong character.
So why all the fuss about strong female characters in video games? There are tons of weak male characters right? Yes but there are also a ton of strong male characters. Strong female characters are a rare breed and when people see it they notice it. And when its lacking people don't bat an eyelash.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Ubisoft - PC pirating = no more releasing PC games
Ubisoft recently announced they weren't porting games onto the PC because of piracy. They claim that 90% of the players are playing pirated copies of their games which is ironic because when they implemented the always online DRM they claimed that it was working and helped their sales and that was the reason they kept their DRM. Who are Ubisoft anyways? They're a publisher that is known for their hatred for PC gamers and their use of draconian DRMs in their games. DRMs that break people's cd/dvd drives and other stupid shit making paying customers suffer. Why? All because of their irrational fear of pirates.
PC games must be completely horrible and a dying industry right? Everyone should stick to consoles! Nope. In fact PC games seems to be higher than ever right now. Especially with the release of games like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. You don't see them whining that their games are being pirated. Why? Because they're still making money even after they got pirated. The problem isn't piracy itself, its if they can still make money. Its about turning pirates into potential buyers. Have you ever heard stories of pirates pirating a game then finding out that game is the best shit they ever played and decided to buy a real copy? Perhaps not now but later in the future for their future games? Yes you have because its not as uncommon as developers like to think.
To quote Gabe Newall, the co-founder of Valve and Steam:
"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.
Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe."
Full article can be found here.
That sounds familiar. Didn't my last post on piracy mention something like that? Oh yeah! CD Projeckt Red and Witcher 2. Guess what? Witcher 2 is the most pirated game in history because they don't have DRM and yet they managed to sell over a million copies. How? I thought no DRM means no profit because everyone would pirate it! Not everyone is a cheap ass. People want to support you guys but when you make it hard for them they don't. Your DRM encourages pirating. The problem isn't to stop people from playing your game for free, the goal is to make money in the end isn't it? Would crazy ass DRM really help?
Look at GoG, a niche digital distribution company like Steam except for one distinction. THERE ARE NO DRM FOR ANY OF THEIR GAMES. Re-read that a couple of times. Read it again. Done yet? Ok one more time. THERE ARE NO DRM FOR ANY OF THEIR GAMES. Now you're probably going HOLY SHIT NO DRM THEY MUST HAVE FUCKED UP THE ENTIRE GAME INDUSTRY THEN PEOPLE WOULD BUY A COPY AND PUT IT UP ON TORRENTS FOR EVERYONE. Yes they do, but guess what? Its successful. They sell old games for cheap without DRM but now more and more developers want to put their newer games up there for sale as well and they had to change their policy of selling old games. Games like the Witcher 2 were on there and was the first to get pirated but it didn't hurt their sales. Infact CD Projekt Red said they were swimming in money and is able to take more risks on new games.
How were they a success? They didn't have DRM they have the highest piracy rate ever in history yet they're making money. How do they do it? They are very dedicated to their fans. They take what they say to heart and change things based on popular opinion. They said DRM was lowering frame rates? Fuck it take it out. Shit was unbalanced and make the game less challenging? Fuck change it. There was not enough content? Fuck it more free DLCs.
According to GoG.
"If you make the whole gaming experience more complicated and more frustrating for people who buy the game; if it's easier to play a game that is pirated because they removed all the technical restraints, then I think there is a big issue on the plate now. It should be easier to play a game that you bought legally than play a game that you pirated."
You hear that Ubisoft? Maybe your game sucks thats why its failing. No other company seems to be having a problem. The biggest mistake that developers are making are that they refuse to let anyone play their game for free. Why do they get to play it for free for the time and money we spent in making this? Thats why there are no demos because they don't like to give shit out for free. Instead of trying to find a way for people to not play your game, why don't you find a way for people to pay for your game instead? You know how many games are now Free-to-Play these days? That concept single handedly killed the majority of piracy in Asian countries where piracy rates were skyrocketing.
Because people are able to play a game they can decide if they want to pay for the full game or for other content. Its something that works and is proven to work. PC gaming right now is shifting and Ubisoft is one of those that refuse to change. It will be one of those that will eventually collapse and fall because of their stubborness and they won't be missed. Another company will rise and take their place. The PC game industry is growing at an alarming rate afterall. Its at an all time high right now. Some companies just can't see it.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/
"In fact, the decline of sales even calls into question the decline in piracy rates."
Your games are so bad even pirates don't want to touch it.
PC games must be completely horrible and a dying industry right? Everyone should stick to consoles! Nope. In fact PC games seems to be higher than ever right now. Especially with the release of games like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. You don't see them whining that their games are being pirated. Why? Because they're still making money even after they got pirated. The problem isn't piracy itself, its if they can still make money. Its about turning pirates into potential buyers. Have you ever heard stories of pirates pirating a game then finding out that game is the best shit they ever played and decided to buy a real copy? Perhaps not now but later in the future for their future games? Yes you have because its not as uncommon as developers like to think.
To quote Gabe Newall, the co-founder of Valve and Steam:
"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.
Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe."
Full article can be found here.
That sounds familiar. Didn't my last post on piracy mention something like that? Oh yeah! CD Projeckt Red and Witcher 2. Guess what? Witcher 2 is the most pirated game in history because they don't have DRM and yet they managed to sell over a million copies. How? I thought no DRM means no profit because everyone would pirate it! Not everyone is a cheap ass. People want to support you guys but when you make it hard for them they don't. Your DRM encourages pirating. The problem isn't to stop people from playing your game for free, the goal is to make money in the end isn't it? Would crazy ass DRM really help?
Look at GoG, a niche digital distribution company like Steam except for one distinction. THERE ARE NO DRM FOR ANY OF THEIR GAMES. Re-read that a couple of times. Read it again. Done yet? Ok one more time. THERE ARE NO DRM FOR ANY OF THEIR GAMES. Now you're probably going HOLY SHIT NO DRM THEY MUST HAVE FUCKED UP THE ENTIRE GAME INDUSTRY THEN PEOPLE WOULD BUY A COPY AND PUT IT UP ON TORRENTS FOR EVERYONE. Yes they do, but guess what? Its successful. They sell old games for cheap without DRM but now more and more developers want to put their newer games up there for sale as well and they had to change their policy of selling old games. Games like the Witcher 2 were on there and was the first to get pirated but it didn't hurt their sales. Infact CD Projekt Red said they were swimming in money and is able to take more risks on new games.
How were they a success? They didn't have DRM they have the highest piracy rate ever in history yet they're making money. How do they do it? They are very dedicated to their fans. They take what they say to heart and change things based on popular opinion. They said DRM was lowering frame rates? Fuck it take it out. Shit was unbalanced and make the game less challenging? Fuck change it. There was not enough content? Fuck it more free DLCs.
According to GoG.
"If you make the whole gaming experience more complicated and more frustrating for people who buy the game; if it's easier to play a game that is pirated because they removed all the technical restraints, then I think there is a big issue on the plate now. It should be easier to play a game that you bought legally than play a game that you pirated."
You hear that Ubisoft? Maybe your game sucks thats why its failing. No other company seems to be having a problem. The biggest mistake that developers are making are that they refuse to let anyone play their game for free. Why do they get to play it for free for the time and money we spent in making this? Thats why there are no demos because they don't like to give shit out for free. Instead of trying to find a way for people to not play your game, why don't you find a way for people to pay for your game instead? You know how many games are now Free-to-Play these days? That concept single handedly killed the majority of piracy in Asian countries where piracy rates were skyrocketing.
Because people are able to play a game they can decide if they want to pay for the full game or for other content. Its something that works and is proven to work. PC gaming right now is shifting and Ubisoft is one of those that refuse to change. It will be one of those that will eventually collapse and fall because of their stubborness and they won't be missed. Another company will rise and take their place. The PC game industry is growing at an alarming rate afterall. Its at an all time high right now. Some companies just can't see it.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/
"In fact, the decline of sales even calls into question the decline in piracy rates."
Your games are so bad even pirates don't want to touch it.
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