Well, video game discussion time!

[Anastasia]

Yep.

The idea I have is for a loose, flowing topic to discuss what video games you are playing or have played with the other maniacs that inhabit Soulriders.  In other words, just a nice way to shoot the shit about whatever game strikes your fancy.

And yes, there will be spoilers. If you couldn't figure that out by the very premise of the title, why are you here instead of preschool?

Let's see...

Right now, I'm mainly playing Grandia 2 and Dragon Warrior 4.

In Grandia, I just killed Melfice and saw Ryudo get possessed by the Horns of Valmar. Kind of cool, but the entire arc of events at Ryudo's home village has been drenched in angst.  That's all well and good normally, except that Grandia 2's characters shine when they are just being themselves, not drowning in drama. They seem too...forced, too overdone when they are dealing with the heavy stuff. I think it's partially because they use a too blunt and weighted way of expressing it.

I really wish there would be another fairday like scene. The dialogue with Elena, Ryudo and Millienia was priceless, not to mention funny as hell. When I contrast that with the Melfice arc...well, it's not pretty.

In other news, I'm playing through Dragon Warrior 4 yet again. I got a Dreamcast emulator for the NES that works like a dream*, so I burned a emulator disk and a boatload of roms. Anyhow, I blazed through Ragnar's chapter and am now halfway through Alena's.

One thing that struck me about DW4 is how simplistic it's set up and how shallow the character development is compared to 16 bit titles.  Don't get me wrong, I love DW4 dearly, but damn. I keep wondering why it feels so lacking in the plot department.

*Except it won't run Dragon Warrior 3 without going to glitchland. That's what I wanted to play in the first place. :(

[Dracos]

Grandia 2.  Nifty game.  Though Ryoudo getting a personality infusion a little ways in annoyed the hell out of me.  Why the hell start with a sort of merenary anti-hero if you are just going to turn him into a paragon of good and self-sacrifice.  Fuck That.  Part of the problem I think you are finding Dunefar stems from stuff like that.  They changed the tone significantly.  It's subtle sure, but they slip it right through.  I have a problem with that mainly because I don't see there being a conflict with a lot of the earlier stuff and having the story they wanted just modified a bit.  They could've had the kookiness.  The anti-heroness.  Etc.

Dragon Warrior 4 was from an entirely different era of gaming.  Notably on a tiny amount of space it contains an epic amount of gameplay and a huge amount of characters.  15-16 characters in the party in that era was absolutely unheard of.  Compare this to 14 on Final Fantasy 6 which is about the same length of game and mappage on a cartridge that was roughly six times the memory.  In order to accomplish stuff, they had to work with a very different type of style.  It's one you see in a lot of the dragon warriors.  Sure, there is sometimes significant deal of character development, but most of the time it's unnecessary.  The crux of the Dragon Warrior character design is they are at the same time "What you see is what you get" and "Quirky".  They don't go having a fourty-fifty something year old develop much during the course of the game because frankly, they tend to build it so there is no reason for it.  The philosophy is simple and effective.  Make a good character and let the player's imaginations take it the rest of the way.  The story is revolving around the epic war against the demonlord...NOT AROUND THEM GROWING UP OR ANY LAME SHIT LIKE THAT.  That's the very large difference.  If it was a game like the ff series which often focuses on character development to the point that it's absurd.  Personally, I find that refreshing.  The characters come out pretty much completely developed.  What you see is what you get.  All the quirks and integrity.  I much prefer that to well... *points up to Ryoudo the personality swapper*

An example of their simple philosophy is Ragnar.  He starts as the loyal and brave head knight for his king.  Willing to go out on his own to save the children.  To me, this sort of thing is plenty of strong starting characterization.  But then we get various other things that slowly reinforce and build his character into a lovable guardian knight type.  We get his interaction, small as it is with Healie.  Willing to not only accept a monster as thinking, but as a comrade and friend.  To me, this is a pretty cool character right there.  It's about all I need.  Sure you could take it further.  Develop a past for him that was deeper.  Some kid that died that caused him to go on that route.  Add in a bunch of relatively pointless flashbacks that are always there and always totally unrealistic.

Or not.  I like the style of it ^_^

Fearless Leader

[Anastasia]

Grandia 2.  Nifty game.  Though Ryoudo getting a personality infusion a little ways in annoyed the hell out of me.  Why the hell start with a sort of merenary anti-hero if you are just going to turn him into a paragon of good and self-sacrifice.  Fuck That.

The obvious answer is that he's going to be a dynamic character. But, let's move beyond the answer I hope is somehow funny or pithy...

To show him growing, doing it well by first establishing his base personality and showing him change in a epic, believable and deft manner. Done well, it makes a excellent, like/love-abe character, one that can make memories that last well beyond the game's duration.

Of course, it's infinity squared times easier to say that on paper than to execute it in game.

Part of the problem I think you are finding Dunefar stems from stuff like that.  They changed the tone significantly.  It's subtle sure, but they slip it right through. .  I have a problem with that mainly because I don't see there being a conflict with a lot of the earlier stuff and having the story they wanted just modified a bit.  They could've had the kookiness.  The anti-heroness.  Etc.

At this point, I should mention that I'm only halfway through, so my perspective of certain events may have holes, not to mention I only have up to the end of the Melfice arc to work with for plot. I have some thoughts on this, but I want to finish the game, or at least make it much farther, before I comment.

Dragon Warrior 4 was from an entirely different era of gaming.  Notably on a tiny amount of space it contains an epic amount of gameplay and a huge amount of characters.

True, as far as the time comments go. I am keeping in mind the era it hails from.

Normally, I wouldn't do this, but my eyelids are rebelling on me with an alarming speed. I shall edit the rest in or whatever in the morning since I don't have the energy to open a notepad file and copy, paste and save.

[Dracos]

If you look at end game Ryoudo, there is some parts of him that are clearly character development, and that's done fine... I don't mind a dynamic character....  But at the same time they took other things that had absolutely no reason to change and were little flaws in his character that were quite lovable and had them just VANISH.  I won't spoil but in my description of several of the 'end game' characters, "Zen" would come into play.  And with most of them, a descriptive term like that shouldn't appear.  They really went a bit overboard with sudden personality changes during the last half of the game.

Fearless Leader