Fortune and Glory -
July 13, 2001 - Chris Jones
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed
within this column are those of the participants and the
moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the
GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive
material afoot.
"First Shin Megami Tensei II PSOne details, screens
" Wow, that's a lot of numbers in a news story title, don't you think?
Don't say we didn't warn you.
From a Reuters news story today: "Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement has banned the use of the Internet in the war-torn country to stop access to vulgar, immoral and anti-Islamic material, an Afghan news service said on Friday."
Now, maybe I'm just being overly optimistic, but I'd dearly like to think that this column contributed in some infinitesimal, microscopic way to spreading the vulgar and immoral material which so infuriated the Taliban. If I've done so even a wee tiny bit, then all these years of adding HTML tags to your letters will have been worth it.
Aw, who am I kidding, it's Drew who spreads all the vulgar and immoral stuff. My time has yet to come.
Onward.
| Thematic |
| Thought I'd send a quick message about something I read in Thursday's DA. You probably got plenty of responses on this, but, anyway...
Final Fantasy Themes-
FF6 (which I believe is the first to have a preset theme)-
Friendship. You get battered by this at the end just before Kefka derides the whole crew as 'chapters from a self-help book'.
FF7-
Life. What with the planet going so far as to create the weapons to protect itself from your derelict crew.
FF Tactics-
Truth. The whole game is a flashback of what 'really' went on...
FF8-
Love. Squall+Rinoa=co-dependent relationship.
FF9-
History. All the references aside, it's the first game since the NES to give you a black mage to play.
There you go.
--LYC (who actually likes the themes when they don't get in the way)
|
I couldn't get any handle on this in discussions with the staff, although I'm starting to lean somewhat towards the POV suggested by Mr. Fritz Fraundorf, that only FF7, 8, and 10 had official "themes" (life, love, and independence, respectively.) The only definitive thing I remember Sakaguchi saying about FF9 was that it was "the return of the crystals", and of course an entirely different development team worked on FFT.
That said, your suggestions for 6 and Tactics are good ones. I'd go more into this, but I think it has the makings of a pretty good topic later on.
| It is amusing, now that I think about it |
| Hello Chris,
It's amusing. I don't ever seem to recall saying "Swords, Moogles, Chocobos"
I said "Cecil, Butz, Edgar." You seem to be thinking I play Final Fantasy
only for the medieval/traditional trappings. I play Final Fantasy games for
the plot, the story and the characters. Granted, I count such things a bonus,
of course, but it is not the be-all and end-all of my interest in the series,
as you seem to be suggesting. The GIA's own review casts aspersions on the
depth of TSW's characters and the superficiality of its plot, and that is the
point I was trying to make. Granted, to say that films, as a medium, are
almost diametrically opposed to console RPGs would be something of an
understatement, and that, this being Square's first attempt, it could hardly
be perfect. But I would have hoped for something a bit more fleshed out, in
the setting, plot and in the characters themselves. Besides, let's be
realistic: The reason Square called this the Final Fantasy movie was to
basically say, "Look at our movie! It's a Final Fantasy movie! Go see it,
loyal slaves!" Not because of any stylistic similarities.
Super Saiya-jin.
|
Ego check, compadre; I wasn't necessarily referring to you with that comment yesterday. I've seen plenty of people use reasons like that, and far more trivial ones, in defense of their favorite game. And that was the point of my reply yesterday - not that your reasons, whatever they might be, were flawed, but that everybody has a right to their opinion, no matter how ephemeral I think it might be.
I have yet to go see the FF Movie, I'll do so tomorrow, and in the meantime I'll leave it to Nich to make any substantial comments about the plot on Saturday. What I will comment on is the idea that FF6's plot is somehow head and shoulders above the movie's. Even just based on what I've seen, it's ludicrous. Granted, both titles have their advantages and disadvantages: FF6 had 40 hours of play time in comparison to the film's 2, whereas TSW gets realistic facial expressions and voice acting in comparison to 16-bit sprites and translated text.
Still, just think about what we're talking about here. "But...I want to know what love is...now!" "I'm a GENERAL, not some opera floozy!""I command the greatest power in the universe! You are all helpless before me!" These lines are all great within their context, but take them out of place and they look really dumb. (Come on, who'd ever actually say "opera floozy"?) At the very least, any movie that used them with a straight face would get every bit of criticism we've seen for TSW, and then some. I want to make it very clear that I'm NOT saying FF6 is crap, or that TSW is genius, just that the former is by no means an unassailable monument of brilliant characterization to which the latter can never measure up. Thinking otherwise will just prevent you from enjoying what's available now in favor of something that came and went a long time ago.
| Talking heads |
| SCARY NICK's PROTIP: Hey kids! If you look in the Tech Times section of the L.A. Time's from today (Thursday), you'll see an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and
Hironobu Sakaguchi! Wowsa!
-Nick Herman
|
Nothing we haven't seen from either of these two guys a dozen times in the past, but interesting from a character standpoint nonetheless. Thanks for the heads up.
| This flame warms my heart ^_^ |
| I'm totally disgusted with you people.
The Final Fantasy Movie deserved at least a 4. I fully appreciated that movie
and it has actually proved as an enlightening experience. I won't go into
details because frankly I don't really want to waste much time on this. I
just feel that you people are a bunch of monkeys sitting at a computer,
pulling ratings out of their ass. "Ooh ohh I want FFX before that crappy
Final Fantasy movie!" Oh shut the hell up. You'll get the damn game sooner
or later, have some damn patience. It would be nice if you showed some
respect for The Spirits Within , but it looks like you won't. I'd also like
to say that all that negative feedback about LOD was funny as hell, and you
deserved all that flaming. You people disgust me. I appreciate that half
assed work you did on Xenosaga when it was revealed on July 8th. (Sarcasm)
You have barely any pics in the article and the link you supplied people with
didn't even prove very useful either. I found tons of new pics at a certain
site (Don't know if I can say it, but I will anyway), that site being
www.gamespot.com. Their coverage on the game obviously surpasses all the
efforts you cocksuckers put into previewing the game. You're all too obsessed
with Final Fantasy X. Fucking idiots. Anyway, I am getting angered at you
people. When you read this, don't be like "Haha look at this moron and his
typos, and his failure to use paragraphs". I couldn't give a fuck. Better off
with poor grammar, than being a mindless monkey that pulls rating scores of
it his/her ass. I hope you all get killed.
Bye ^_^
|
It's not fair: I never, ever get sent fun stuff like this, and now that I finally do, it's really about something that Nich wrote. Still, just reading this put a big, big smile on my face, and I'm not sure ripping in to the guy above will make me any happier... but I'll still give it a shot.
Let's just look at what this letter's actually saying: this guy feels compelled to write us a flame because of a single point difference in his score vs. our score. But it's not important enough for him to actually, you know, give any reasons why he thinks that way, he just feels like insulting us for a while. Apparently wanting to play a specific game before seeing a specific movie is unacceptable, we shouldn't be saying such things. In fact, any expression of opinion at all, other than his, is wrong.
He's proud to be associated with the LoD flamers, and derides us as a site because we, as a largely volunteer organization, don't consistently beat out massive commercial sites like ZDNet. We're also apparently not bright enough to understand when sarcasm is occuring, so he once more insults our interest in FFX, and calls us some more names.
Despite his earlier comments, he's only now getting angered at "you people", and says we shouldn't judge him by his lack of writing abilities. Again, he doesn't say why, just curses at us some more. The site is once more compared to scat-flinging monkeys (and everybody loves monkeys, don't they?), before he wishes for our deaths and signs off with a cheery emoticon.
What can I say in response to this, Mr. Bye? Your letter made me happy to be alive, and part of a group that consistently draws the ire of folks like yourself. If we're pissing you guys off, we must be doing something right. The thousands of readers a day just don't mean nearly as much to me as your bile... I love you, man. You complete me, really.
| And now, some comparatively intelligent criticism |
| Yo Chris!
You know, I think the movie should have been called...
Final Fantasy: The Phantom Menace
What do you think?
-Kung Fu Dude, who noticed that when people were holding objects, they didn't exactly touch the objects like they would in real life. THIS MOVIE SUCKS!
|
Yes.
Yes it does.
| TT3WTYCRSSWIYLUYWMTGOYEWATI(YI) |
| In the spirit of youthful nostalgia and the yearning for DA's gone by, I
present to you a topic dear to my heart.
The Top 3 Words That You Column Readers Should Stop Writing In Your
Letters Unless You Want Me To Gouge Out Your Eyes With A Tire Iron (You
Idiots), by me:
1. 'Mainstream' - Justifying the unpopularity of an item by declaring it
'not mainstream' is akin to declaring that the underlying reason for
Crono's silence is that he 'doesn't talk a lot'. Something that is 'not
mainstream' is, by definition, something that is not accepted by 'most' of
the people in a city/country/space station/asylum. Something that is
unpopular is, by definition, something that is not accepted by 'most' of
the people in a city/country/chocobo farm/cemetary. If you want to make
up excuses for why that cute girl doesn't seem to be interested in your
Star Wars merchandise collection, you're going to have to dig deeper than
circular arguments.
2. 'Society' - I haven't yet found this mythical, lumbering beast who is
responsible for gamer stigma, Britney Spears, eating babies, making things
'mainstream', and everything you dislike/hate/put down in your nonsensical
'intellectual' rants on messageboards across the internet. However, I
assume it exists somewhere since folks seem to whine about it so bloody
often. Last time I checked, a 'society' was actually composed of
individual, thinking people who are as worthy of respect as you, despite
the fact that they don't quite have your knack for vomiting their putrid,
half-chewed opinions across every virtual whiteboard they can find.
3. 'Makes you think' - Even though you are no doubt chuckling to yourself
about my inferior intellect as you shovel substitute cheese products down
your gaping maw, this is one word. Just like 'cactus' or 'shut your
greasy pie hole'. It is most commonly applied to movies, games, or anime
that is not accepted by the 'mainstream', 'society', your mother,
'mainstream' 'society', or 'the media'. If you are of such limited mental
capacity that you can actually detect your single neuron spasming in
agony, indicating that something has miraculously 'made you think', you
should not be reviewing movies, or watching movies, or communicating with
people, or breathing. Please go converse with a wall until it explains to
you the concept of 'thought'.
And yes, I'm bloody aware of the irony involved in submitting this rant to
a gaming website letter column. Had I given my email address in this
letter, I'm sure that even now my mailbox would be full of insightful,
poorly typed flames, each with a strong affinity for my recycle bin.
- Mr. Nip, thinks that 'vitriolic' sounds like someone who's addicted to
vitamins
OR
- Mr. Nip, spreading sarcastic revelry since you last left your Mom's
basement
P.S. Chris, how do you handle idiots without frothing at the mouth like I
am?
|
After all the fun I had with Mr. Bye's letter, I thought you, the readers, deserved a flame of your own. Please, enjoy its warm glowing warming glow to the utmost.
As for your post script, Mr. Nip, all I can say is that in comparison to letters from Mr. Bye (not to mention the number of times I overuse phrases like "actually" in the course of a single week), dislike of the "mainstream" seems very, very mild in comparison.
| Sometimes you're the windshield... |
| First I'd like to know what a 'bug' really is to you guys ... the SMB2
"scrambled screen" just means you need to blow on the cartridge (snff...
dontcha miss those days?); the Genso Suikoden II stuff (aside from the
missing music ... kinda ironic that this is Konami, and a lot of their recent
work deals with music (DDR, IIDX, PPP, and so on) was all mistranslated ...
and any problems with bleem! are in the emulation itself, not the game..
(although I did experience a similar event with SotN on bleem ... after you
finished the Rondo of Blood portion of the game in the beginning, and after
the story credits rolled, it'd just stay there and go on to play a bunch of
Japanese voices, and other weird stuff)
Ack, I'm getting sidetracked here ... the bug I remembered came up when I was
reading the FF4J letter, interestingly enough... Remember the portion in FF6
when the story splits into three branches? if you take Sabin's, you'll
eventually reencounter Shadow ... and if you do things right he'll leave just
before you jump onto the veldt (instead of leaving earlier) ... now if
Shadow's the only surviving member of your party ... well you're game's gonna
be over as soon as the battle starts...
Next time tell those bug-testers to not take so many coffee breaks!
- JR
|
A 'bug' is whatever I point to when I say the word 'bug'. Or, to put it a slightly more meaningful way, any software, hardware, translation or gameplay glitch that amused me. I appreciate everyone who tried to send in comprehensive lists of very bug they knew and the precise steps for duplicating it, but there are plenty of other sites out there that do such stuff as a full time gig.
As for your bug, I honestly don't think it is one. The way I see it, Shadow's such a morally questionable individual before he gets to know your party that he'd gladly take advantage of the opportunity to slit your group's unconscious throats and steal all your possessions, when faced with the right moment.
Closing Comments:
Nich writes the column tomorrow, and as the writer of the site's Spirits Within review, I can think of no one more qualified to answer your questions and host your discussion about the film, so go nuts. I'll see you Monday.
-Chris Jones, wonders if the Taliban and the Mr. Byes of the world aren't somehow related.
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