Since I started playing the game yesterday, I'd like to write down my first impressions on it. I'm still not sure wether I like the game's characters and story tho.
I'm pretty sure I can't stand Daichi by now. He's a wuss and if there's one thing about Japanese video games and anime series that I can't stand it's their wussy main characters. One Shinji was enough for my whole life time. Well, Daichi is not that awful, but he's just not the cool best buddy you'd wish for in a video game. He's utterly useless, pretty dumb and has no special talents at all (mind you, I'm still at the first day, things could totally change but I don't expect it) - I'd totally prefer Atsuro any day over this wuss. Io on the other hand is quite more likable than Yuzu, at least for me. Besides her weird large breasts (seriously, what's up with the breasts in this game!?) she is pretty cute and very calm and smart.
And Joe.. oh sexy Joe, I had high hopes in you. But you seem to disappoint.. sexy Joe, or Yuzuru Akie as his real name is, is a totally carefree dude who doesn't seem to take anything seriously (so far) - he als has pretty low vit, which makes him quite easy to lose in a battle. :( So far I'm not impressed by him... pity, since he's so hot in his striped suit.
But let's start from the beginning, shall we?
So, the game starts off with the me (as in me identifying myself with the MC of the game) at school just having finished my exams and Daichi arrives just in time so the both of us leave school together. Daichi tells me about Nicaea, a weird website where you can see a video clip of your friends dying. Of course Daichi believes it's just fake, but I sign up anyways and get to name the MC... I've decided on Jun Owari for his name.
Of course I chose the male Tico when prompted to make a decision, because who could resist his sexyness, huh?
It doesn't really make much of a difference tho and if you prefer scantily clad big breasted bunny girls you should definitely choose the female Tico. ;> She's rather cute as well so IF I should do a second playthrough I'll most likely choose her as well.. :>
Anyways, at the train station the we meet Io and suddenly all our phones ring and we see one of the infamous Nicea death clips... sadly it shows all three of us dying so yeaaah, not cool!
Things happen quickly, train crashes, we survive but suddenly demons appear and attack us. So we have our first battle!
Daichi is all "Oh my god, what should we do? This is crazy, we need to get away!" while I'm trying to tell him to man up and fight, but he's like totally not listening and for a minute I was wondering if I could maybe attack and kill him so he won't annoy me all game long. I can see him doing lots of shit stuff that will get us into trouble for some reason...
Io on the other hand, while scared, is much calmer and I take an instant liking to her. We finish the battle, everyone gets their first contract with a demon and we leave the destroyed train station in a hurry, only to see that the train station has not been the only place that had taken damage.
We meet a blue haired woman who asks us to show her our cell phones and I would have liked to (there was a dialogue choice) but Daichi goes all "OMG THIS WOMAN IS SCARY LET'S RUN!" so the three of us run off... damn you Daichi, I wanted to get this hot chick's number!! We also get to see Joe for a brief moment, should we chose to, but he doesn't introduce himself to us yet.
Soooo... at this point I was a little confused at Daichi panicking at almost everything but not at the fact that parts of the city were completely destroyed, no trains or buses were operating and many roads blocked by rubble and also all shelters seemingly being full of people. Well, it's not rare for earthquakes to happen in Japan and at this point they all think this was caused by an earthquake, but still... it's a little unbelievable to me that neither he nor Io aren't more freaked out by the disaster.
Well, they decide to go to Io's house which is quite a bit away and on their way there they run into a weird thing that fell from the sky and starts exploding around killing anyone near.
Their demon summon app informs them that it's called "Budhe" and they run off to escape from it. Successfully so, but they get split up and when I find Io again our cellphones ring and we receive another mail with a death clip. This time Daichi is doomed (and oh how I wish I could have just let him die.) and we need to save him. So we hurry off to the shrine where he's at and the mysterious blue haired hot chick joins us in a battle against a stronger demon.
Afterwards she takes us to the JP's HQ to nurse Io who sprained her ankle. She finally introduces herself to us as Makoto Sako and we learn that JP's is pronounced "Jips" and some sort of special unit for the Government. We also get to meet her boss, who's also one hell of a sexy dude, called Yamato Hotsuin, he doesn't really seem that friendly tho.
After Io's ankle is fixed up Daichi needs to pee badly, so I accompany him on his search for a bathroom. We hear Makoto and Yamato talking about us and they seem to wanna throw us in prison cells, since we don't really like that idea we run back to Io and get the hell out of JP's HQ. Which is a pity, since it's an awesome secret underground HQ with lots of space and stylish furniture. I bet their prison cells would have been cool as well. :>
Well, we flee successfully and continue to make our way to Io's place and we meet Joe again. He's being followed by demons who came out of his cellphone and since he's too useless to fight them, we do it for him he afterwards thanks us and is all chipper about now being able to summon demons. He also tells us that we can't continue the way we intended to as there's lots of demons roaming around in that direction.
The dialogue failed a little here, while we explained the functions of the summoning app to Joe, at this point of the story neither the MC nor any of the other characters should know about demons being freed if the owner of the summoning app dies - it wasn't mentioned at all but still, after we explained the app to Joe he said something along the lines of: "So these demons I've seen must have killed their owners to free themselves, according to your explanation" Well, while I know that's true since I played the first game, the others should not be aware of this fact. There's lots of more illogical stuff in the dialogue that I came across...
For example, Io and the MC talk a little after they ran away from the rainbow bubblegum alien thinger and there's a dialogue choice for the MC, I chose to ask Io "What's the problem?" as she seemed to be pondering about something. Her reply was: "Ahaha.. haha, you're a funny guy. Thank you." what the? There where other dialogue choices where Io's or Daichi's answers to my choice made very little sense as well... huge, huge minus Atlus.
Gameplay wise the game is pretty much like the first one, just a tad more difficult imo. At least at first, I'm sure as soon as you unlock the special skills via the friendship system and other stuff (I haven't even unlocked demon fusion yet, tho that should be unlocking soon.) the game should become a little more fair. But be prepared for a handful of grinding if you intend to play the game. And lots of dying. It's easy to die there. ;_;
Well, I hope the story telling gets a little better, since I really dig the story line a lot, badass aliens invading earth, a bunch of young adults fighting them off with the help of demon summoning and a super awesome secret HQ with stylish interior. This better turn into something badass. And hopefully this time around there will be real endings, with real conclusions and satisfying enough make me want see the other endings as well!
But to find out about all that I'd need to continue playing and I shall do so now. :>
Corpse Party will be on hold for a few days now, since I'm craving for some good old turn-based strategy love right now. :>
Oh man, this will probably be the most boring thing you read all day, but I just can't help it. ;P
ReplyDeleteThe wuss as a main character may seem pretty boring and generic for everyone that is following japanese anime and games, but on the grand scope, they are actually quite interesting.
I focus on american entertainment (books, movies, games) for this comparision, since most europe production have smaller budgets and try to appeal to the arthouse crowd, they aren't very good examples of this phenomen.
So, most writers tend to making their hero or maincharacter overpowered, perfect, an ideal picture. That's a pretty common flaw writers have in creating characters. And its pretty normal in US Productions, from Superman to all the nice Soldiers they have in their works. There are many negative points in such characters, first they can't possibly evolve over time, it's hard for most people to empathize with them and without that they are pretty flat and forgetable characters over all.
They where perfect characters for ancient stories, since in greek tragedies the hero rises, falls and after he lost everything and is broken, dies. There is nothing better to kick down to the ground than a cool and all powerfull hero, isn't it?
But with the modern tradition of happy ending, this fall doesn't happen anymore. And for that, a weak, imperfect character is more interesting.
Because he has the possibility to evolve. And to choose.
And that is the anti hero. Opposed to what most american writers seem to think, an antihero isn't a hero with an attitude, a badass hero like Lobo, but someone that isn't heroic. That lacks stength, courage or intellect. Maybe even all of those attributes. And that is something that the japanese writers understand perfectly. Nearly all japanese manga or game heroes actually are anti-heroes.
So to the wuss, the antihero without courage.
A wuss is the perfect base for a future serial killer or a future hero that saves the day. By gaining courage (or madness) trough the progression of the story. Thats somewhat a normal hero can't. The choice is even more special because those heroes actually annoy the watcher (or at least a lot of them).
No the point I wanted to make with this wall of text: Anti-heroes are actually quite uncommon in western media that trys to sell (to someone outside of the arthouse crowd). And that has a pretty easy explanation, western writers and studio often work with their mind set on that a great part of their target group is dumb, so you can't expect too much from them.
Looking at japanese writers, they seem to think completely different. They actually don't seem to think that they are more intelligent than their target audience, that's why they focus on anti-heroes, believable antigonists and try to never make simple "good - evil" patterns. Even in children anime about football, like Tsubasa, they actually explain that Hyuga isn't bad, he just a son of a poor family and has to work for them so they can get food and that is why his mind is set to become a pro and not just fun playing ball.. we're talking about cartoons targeted at kids here, american production like Turtles just say "Well, Shredder and co. are evil. Because they are evil".
Of course this good evil thinking is also reflected in their politic and their believe that they are the good and everyone against them is evil.
Way too much boring text ^^' So yeah, I also think they are annoying but I doubt that the creator didn't knew that they are annoying and put them in anyway. Probably they had some reason, something planned for them. Shinji also was all the way between being a madman and a hero. Even tough I would track back the first wussy mainhero to Gundam 0079 ^^
I see nothing believable about someone who is incapable of doing anything besides watching all shocked when someone dear to him is in danger. I can in no way relate to that. I'm not talking about heroes who are capable of doing everything, I am talking about a person who doesn't hide behind others and does whatever possible to help. I prefer emotionally strong people, which doesn't mean that they can't have faults. Of course, a perfect character isn't interesting, but that's not what I want anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's no longer original and interesting if 80% of the main characters in Japanese media fall into this anti-hero category you described. We talked about Cowboy Bebop before and this is one example of anime where I really like ALL of the characters. They seem reasonable and real to me, even tho the setting is everything besides real. Another good example would be Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou, besides his weird circumstances and having to hide so much stuff from his friends, he is very likeable, he stands up for his friends, even tho he might not be as strong as whoever he's standing up against, he is no superhero, but he is brave and kind and he develops a lot from the beginning of the series to the 4th season.. I think there should be more of these characters.
Also, speaking of Superman, while American comic heroes often tend to seem perfect, they all have their human weaknesses (as well as maybe physical weaknesses like Superman's Kryptonite) and their lifes usually are far from perfect. X-Men is a prime example for weak superheroes. I see your point and all and I agree to some of what you said, but I just can't stand characters like Shinji (I never watched the whole of NGE, I prefered the manga, but after what happened to Toji I stopped reading, as I was so pissed and sad. He was my fav character, as he's the kind of hero I like best. Mirai Nikki is another example for an (to me) unbearable hero. While the story is so very, very intriguing I just can't tolerate that idiot boy.
I think thats completely normal. A lot of people get beaten up pretty badly without punching back. Thats because of the shock, you can get in to a state where you just don't do anything. There are things you can do against that, train yourself for such extreme stress situations etc., but if you're not trained chances are big that you don't react how you think you would in an extreme situation.
DeleteWell, Superman's weakness is the biggest fault of all, because his only weakness is some pretty rare material that he never encounters (on normal circumstances). The weakness has to be a strong one, like vampires the sun (and many other things) or let's take one piece, where the weakness of them is water and their pirates, so it's all around them, all the time.
That are weaknesses that make sense. As a pirate you may consider not taking super powers if you drown as soon as you land in water or not being a vampire because you want to see the sun again. But not being superman? Why, the only weakness is some strange element that doesn't even exists on this planet.
Besides, kryptonite was added somewhere down the line, at the beginning he didn't have any weaknesses. Besides life problems, but they also exist in every manga/game. Additional to the weakness.
I still love the original ending of NGE so I never watched anything else. Was just genius enough. :D There's a reason why GAINAX gained it's legendary status with NGE.
I also hated Shinji so I don't blame you. But people like that sure do exist and it's probably a pretty realistic reaction from a teenager in his rebellious phase (and just as a sidenote, I still think people who use underaged "soldiers" to be way more despicable than shinji ever could be.)
Oh and for the more of these characters, did you watch to aru majutsu no index, would also be a similiar character. Not very strong, but brave and kind. ^^
But yeah, don't get me wrong, it wasn't a critic about your opinion, I just like to talk about such things, since I plan to study gamedesign and am very interested in narration techniques etc. :D