Software, Games, Writing, and Oddities
My first experiment in improvisational speaking went well, so here’s a new episode. I tried fewer jump cuts this time. The video reflects more the actual speed that I speak at… so sorry if I put you to sleep. 😛
What do my amateur short films, CGI movie reviews, and unpublished science fiction novels have in common? Their sources of inspiration.
The second season of Speech Therapy has lasted for more than two years, so I’m arbitrarily ending it. I hope to make new episodes more regularly. Hey! This is the third episode I’ve released in the past five months! Regular releases could become a thing… maybe.
I got yet another shout out from Extra Life Community Website editor Jack Gardner on The Best Games Period podcast. With this much hype for my upcoming Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children article, it’d better be good, right?
You can listen to the podcast here. The teaser occurs at about 1:04:00, but listen to the full podcast for a discussion of Devil May Cry. Is it one of the best games ever, questionable voice acting and all? Listen in to find out!
For those of you who don’t know, Extra Life is like a marathon for charity, but instead of running or walking, you play video games to raise money for a children’s hospital of your choice. The official Extra Life event occurs on November 4, but you can raise money whenever you want year round. Check out the Extra Life website to learn more, donate, and sign up!
I got another shoutout on The Best Games Period podcast. This time, the Extra Life Community Website editor Jack Gardner gives a quick teaser of my upcoming article on Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Hopefully, we can get it out in the next month or two for all to see. This is the same article I was talking about in Improvised Incoherence #1.5. Keep an eye out for it. It should be pretty awesome.
You can listen to the podcast here. The teaser occurs about 37 minutes in, but listen to the full podcast to learn about Oíche Mhaith, a strange flash game about a child’s experience of her abusive parents. It’s dark but interesting.
For those of you who don’t know, Extra Life is like a marathon for charity, but instead of running or walking, you play video games to raise money for a children’s hospital of your choice. The official Extra Life event occurs on November 4, but you can raise money whenever you want year round. Check out the Extra Life website to learn more, donate, and sign up!
I know it’s April Fool’s Day, but I thought you could all use a heavy dose of reality. 😛
Also, one of the questions I answered for this video spawned a lengthy answer, involving how reading reviews of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children changed my perception of reality.
So Final Fantasy XIII is officially the first Final Fantasy game I’ve beaten in… at least five years. I beat in it probably record time for me, too: ~90 hours over 3 months.
Personally, I found the majority of the story and the characters interesting. The last third of the game and story, however, I found to be boring, tedious, and confusing.
I have a theory. For as much as Final Fantasy fans complain about how moody everyone in this game is, their moodiness makes the story interesting. All the characters have the same problems: someone they love died and they’re facing their own death. They react to their grief in different ways, which reveals their personalities and goals. Some are angry and act out of vengeance. Some are depressed and try to ignore their problems. Some smile outwardly and act on their beliefs. Tensions are high. The characters clash with one another and have complicated relationships.
In the final third of the game, all the characters have decided to save Cocoon even if they die in the process. They’ve dealt with their grief and feel determined and hopeful. The conflicts that made them feel real and defined who they are and how they act, however, don’t exist anymore. All the characters feel and act the same.
When the characters’ internal and interpersonal conflicts are resolved, the story proceeds by trying to explain the l’cie, c’eith, fal’cie, ragnarok, Cocoon, and Gran Pulse alphabet soup, which doesn’t work. It’s like trying to explain linear algebra to someone without explaining why they should care. For me, I could understand and invest in the first two thirds of the story because the characters felt real and dealt with problems that felt real even if they lived in a crazy, fantasy world. They made the game a giant metaphor about dealing with grief and finding a way past it. l’cie, c’eith, and fal’cie were easy to map to real-world concepts in this context. Perhaps the metaphor continues, but without the characters giving it context, it’s difficult to follow. When the character arcs end but the explanation continues, it becomes pure fantasy with no basis in reality.
TL;DR I think people blame the emo characters for Final Fantasy XIII’s poor story because the third of the game where they’re not emo is so convoluted and forgettable.
Anyone else get that vibe?
I’m fed up with the media.
The idea for my latest AMV came about six months ago when I was writing The Art of the World for the Extra Life Community website. Both .hack//Sign and Neuroticfish’s “Silence” are very topical to me, and I’ve been dying to smash them together. I haven’t had time to make the video until recently though. Finally, here it is!
Apologies for the month-long hiatus! Part of the reason was a variety show called The Cheeky Geeky Vaudeville Vol. 5: This Very Odd World that I ran lights and sound for at the beginning of the month. I also created a few projections. Here is the opening to the show:
The Extra Life editor Jack Gardner is part of a podcast called The Best Games Period. In a recent episode, he made a quick comment on my most recent Extra Life article. The shout out appears near the beginning, but stick around for the whole episode. Whether you’ve played Bastion or not, it’s entertaining.