Video Game Thread 2.0

[Askold]

Shadowrun returns and Dragonfall are surprisingly good games. I think the game would have been better with some videos and at least few talking characters rather than just the text, but this way it does seem more nostalgic retro-game.

Lots of references to the setting of Shadowrun and the previous games. The main character from the SNES Shadowrun, Jake Armitage, is an NPC in Shadowrun returns. Funnily enough, the earlier game began with him waking up at a morgue, having been thought dead, and Returns has the player wake him up when he is sleeping at a morgue...

Dragonfall takes place in Berlin, which is a welcome change. Nice to see more than just Seattle in a Shadowrun game. Dragonfall also has a rather interesting mistake (or a weird joke) there is a NPC who served in the Finnish military during the Eurowars and mentions that Russia invaded Finland from the north and the west.

...That must have been a wild flanking manouver.

[RavynousHunter]

Reading a short interview with Koji Igarashi (former director behind some of the more well-known modern entries in the Castlevania series like Symphony of the Night and Lament of Innocence), and the guy's a sexist douche.  Not surprising considering Japan's got a worse sexism problem than America, but christ.  The dude not only removed the only female Belmont (Sonia, the original original Belmont before Leon came along) from the official timeline, but basically said that he doesn't really do female protagonists because its hard for players to relate to something other than a man, and because weak women are easy to write.  Kinda glad he's not in charge of the series, anymore.  Maybe we'll end up getting another Sonia Belmont sometime now that he's fucked off to do his own thing.

[Cloud3514]

The irony is that he worked on Portrait of Ruin, which had Charlotte, who was awesome.

[Second Coming of Madman]

Ravynous, could I be provided with a link to the IGA interview in question? It seems quite odd for the creator of a series that only dived into modern storytelling techniques to be pedantic about canon, from my perspective.

[RavynousHunter]

Ravynous, could I be provided with a link to the IGA interview in question? It seems quite odd for the creator of a series that only dived into modern storytelling techniques to be pedantic about canon, from my perspective.

Here ya go.

[Art Vandelay]

I just finished Redshirt. Not bad for a few hours, thought a bit on the easy side.

In other news, I'm now getting into Crusader Kings 2. Fantastic game all around, probably the best medieval grand strategy/eugenics simulator I've ever played.

[Dakota Bob]

Valkryia Chronicles is pretty great, but I just can't get over some of the kawaii-desu~~ JRPG trappings in the game (the awkward dialogue, the weird poses and one liners after I just blew a dudes brains out)

[Askold]

...there is a certain comic about Valkyrie Chronicles that I shall link here when I get back to my computer.

[Cloud3514]

Valkryia Chronicles is pretty great, but I just can't get over some of the kawaii-desu~~ JRPG trappings in the game (the awkward dialogue, the weird poses and one liners after I just blew a dudes brains out)

What? No mention of how it appears to have replaced Jews with Japanese people in World War II? To the point where the third game went out of it's way to introduce actual Japanese people to retcon the implication that Darksens are supposed to be Japanese?

[Dakota Bob]

Valkryia Chronicles is pretty great, but I just can't get over some of the kawaii-desu~~ JRPG trappings in the game (the awkward dialogue, the weird poses and one liners after I just blew a dudes brains out)

What? No mention of how it appears to have replaced Jews with Japanese people in World War II? To the point where the third game went out of it's way to introduce actual Japanese people to retcon the implication that Darksens are supposed to be Japanese?

...I never picked up on that implication, every character looks like just another anime person.

[Second Coming of Madman]

The two Predators should have joined the Strike Force earlier in Chaos Rising, IMO.

[Askold]

Valkryia Chronicles is pretty great, but I just can't get over some of the kawaii-desu~~ JRPG trappings in the game (the awkward dialogue, the weird poses and one liners after I just blew a dudes brains out)

What? No mention of how it appears to have replaced Jews with Japanese people in World War II? To the point where the third game went out of it's way to introduce actual Japanese people to retcon the implication that Darksens are supposed to be Japanese?

What makes you think the Darcsens are specifically meant to represent the Japanese? The dark hair? They picked a random feature to be the basis of racism. Might have used skin colour for that matter as it was not important what that feature was merely that the other ethnic groups did not share the same feature.

And the comic I promised:

(click to show/hide)

[Dakota Bob]

Oh jesus fuck now there's this piglet with wings and they're trying to have this emotional scene with a piglet that just lost it's mother but it HAS WINGS.

[ironbite]

Valkryia Chronicles is pretty great, but I just can't get over some of the kawaii-desu~~ JRPG trappings in the game (the awkward dialogue, the weird poses and one liners after I just blew a dudes brains out)

What? No mention of how it appears to have replaced Jews with Japanese people in World War II? To the point where the third game went out of it's way to introduce actual Japanese people to retcon the implication that Darksens are supposed to be Japanese?

Wait...this is a series of terrible games?

Ironbite-*pours a triple*

[Cerim Treascair]

*thunks down a second bottle for Ibby, and takes a third for himself with a snicker*

Valkyria Chronicles is fucking awesome.  Agarest is next on my list.