Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Maof06 said:

I don't get why people have a problem with Robin surviving thanks to the "invisible ties". Final Fantasy VI plays this straight at its ending and it has one of the greatest stories ever made.

IMO because it makes Robin's choice of self-sacrifice when fighting Grima ring hollow. Especially on future playthroughs, when you know what's coming - having Robin land the killing blow is just strictly better than asking Chrom to do so. And it's totally disintegrated from the gameplay, as they can get this ending without building a single support.

But then, this is Awakening, where even characters whose deaths are necessary for the story to progress (Emmeryn, Gangrel, Walhart) are suffered to live.

[Acacia Sgt]

It would've be neat if that actually had been something you unlocked via the support system. Get enough A-rank supports, maybe even make the S rank mandatory too, and viola, Robin lives. Either way, I'm not bothered. It's a nice break from our cynical-leaning world...

... Oh boy, those Emmeryn comments again... no, I'm tired of defending that plot point since people like to stick to keep yapping at it...

Edited January 6, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Emperor Hardin]

Spotpass retcons information should be spoilered, I think.

[Ottservia]

4 hours ago, eclipse said:

You are free to NOT read the topic.  And since being diplomatic wasn't working. . .

Stop.  It.  You're not bringing anything healthy to this discussion.  If I get any more complaints about your behavior, it will be in the form of a warning.  Do I make myself clear?

Alright fair enough. Look the greater point I’m trying to make here is that maybe if you looked at it a different way. Maybe you’d appreciate it more. Yeesh. I know I can be harsh at times. That much I will apologize for and that’s all I have left to say on that.

 

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

No one here, really no one, has said Awakening is bad because they don't like it. In fact when we started the Awakening section most people said they were relatively neutral to it. The criticisms that people are bringing forward are valid and your are dismissing them because you like Awakening and it's giving you a bias point of view. That was Alastor's point before. Games are not just stories, they have an entertainment value and how much you enjoy that entertainment value will influence your perception of its quality as a written work too.

One question, what does this even mean? Games are an art form. Any storytelling medium is going to have some kind of entertainment value. I don’t understand what that has to do with anything regarding criticism of art. Are you saying video games aren’t art? Cause they are a storytelling medium because they are an artistic medium in which you can use to tell stories. Like I agree that games aren’t just stories but rather an entirely different artistic medium on their own but what’s this whole point on entertainment value? Like yeah of course they have entertainment value. That’s true of any art form. I don’t see what this point has to do with anything. Whether or not you subjectively like something has little to do with its actual quality. Again, what do you kean by this statement? I’m just confused.

[Jotari]

45 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

Alright fair enough. Look the greater point I’m trying to make here is that maybe if you looked at it a different way. Maybe you’d appreciate it more. Yeesh. I know I can be harsh at times. That much I will apologize for and that’s all I have left to say on that.

 

One question, what does this even mean? Games are an art form. Any storytelling medium is going to have some kind of entertainment value. I don’t understand what that has to do with anything regarding criticism of art. Are you saying video games aren’t art? Cause they are a storytelling medium because they are an artistic medium in which you can use to tell stories. Like I agree that games aren’t just stories but rather an entirely different artistic medium on their own but what’s this whole point on entertainment value? Like yeah of course they have entertainment value. That’s true of any art form. I don’t see what this point has to do with anything. Whether or not you subjectively like something has little to do with its actual quality. Again, what do you kean by this statement? I’m just confused.

This. I meant this. Games have extra things going into them beyond what can be encapsulated in themes and story telling. Shadow Dragon for the NES and Shadow Dragon for the DS will have the exact same themes because it's almost word for word the same story, but people will (generally) enjoy Shadow Dragon on the DS more based on it's presentation and gameplay. There's no more or less themed to be garnered from being able to see how far units can move or how much damage they'll deal per attack, unless you want to conflate themes and design philosophy as the same thing and even then graphics wouldn't fit into that category as that's visual presentation, which is not necessarily the same as visual art, though it can be both, as it is a representation of something else rather than sending a thematic message, or to phrase it another way, Video Game visuals are in a lot of ways more related to images in advertising than in art galleries. To sum up everything, there's a lot more going on in video games that just story alone and it will all contribute to how one experiences the work, so to boil it down to themes alone either misses the point of everything else, or turns themes into such a general all encompassing word to the point in which it has no meaning.

[Samz707]

7 hours ago, Maof06 said:

I don't get why people have a problem with Robin surviving thanks to the "invisible ties". Final Fantasy VI plays this straight at its ending and it has one of the greatest stories ever made.

 

Not played Final Fantasy VI but in Awakening, it feels like a complete cop-out.

Not to mention Robin also survives the entire out of nowhere thing where if you accept being absorbed by Grima in that one scene, get pulled into that weird unexplained pocket dimension thing, then suddenly POWER OF FRIENDSHIP enables Robin to teleport back. (In a scene so pointless I wonder why they even bothered including it.)

Personally, The Shepherd's also don't come of as friends, frankly, stuff like A: Tharja being implied to take advantage of Robin being unconscious in their A support, B: Tharja tricking Donnel into putting on a ring that's implied will kill him if he wants to seperate, C : Nah forcing Inigo to marry her or she'll eat him and D : everyone taking years to notice Kellam has left in his solo ending all make it seem like the Shepherds really, really aren't friends so the game trying to use it as a "Get out of writing free card" only sticks out more when some of the cast are out-right evil to each other yet the game thinks it's just quirky friendship. (Then again this is the game that thinks Tharja abusing Noire is a funny quirky moment and not horrific.)

There's probably more examples, I just gave up on trying to grind out supports since Awakening makes it a drag.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Samz707

[Eltosian Kadath]

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yep, and this is where Naga says she's “no god”, which doesn't explain why she's allowed people to worship her as one and let one of the dragons she's in direct communication with build a religion out of her in foreign nations.

I am reminded of a quote, which I can't find at the moment, but it goes something like: If aliens mistake you for gods, do not correct them.

 

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Unless the power of friendship saves her.

No, for those of you who are just reading this without playing the game, I am not joking. She actually says that maybe the bonds she's forged with the people of this world will tether her there even after Grima's death.

To be fair to Awakening, the power of friendship is a mechanic in the game. Supports, and the absurd bonuses they give thanks to pair-up is the game letting you buildup and experiene the power of friendship. To the game's discredit, its unwilling to use this mechanic to make Robin's survival feel earned, because doing so would make it possible for Robin to die if the player fails to form the bonds they need...

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of on-topic, reminder that I still need suggestions for what to do tomorrow!

My suggestions are the Future Past DLC, Whalhart, Emmeryn, and Gangrel.

 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Samz707 said:

Not played Final Fantasy VI but in Awakening, it feels like a complete cop-out.

Not to mention Robin also survives the entire out of nowhere thing where if you accept being absorbed by Grima in that one scene, get pulled into that weird unexplained pocket dimension thing, then suddenly POWER OF FRIENDSHIP enables Robin to teleport back. (In a scene so pointless I wonder why they even bothered including it.)

Personally, The Shepherd's also don't come of as friends, frankly, stuff like A: Tharja being implied to take advantage of Robin being unconscious in their A support, B: Tharja tricking Donnel into putting on a ring that's implied will kill him if he wants to seperate, C : Nah forcing Inigo to marry her or she'll eat him and D : everyone taking years to notice Kellam has left in his solo ending all make it seem like the Shepherds really, really aren't friends so the game trying to use it as a "Get out of writing free card" only sticks out more when some of the cast are out-right evil to each other yet the game thinks it's just quirky friendship. (Then again this is the game that thinks Tharja abusing Noire is a funny quirky moment and not horrific.)

There's probably more examples, I just gave up on trying to grind out supports since Awakening makes it a drag.

Final Fantasy VI does have a bit of an issue that the power of friendship can fall flat depending on how much of the game you do given you're free to just not recruit a lot of your party members and just finish the game with three characters. The character in question who's meant to be saved by the power of friendship isn't even necessary to recruit to finish the game. They still show up anyway for the purpose of the ending, but it comes across less like them being saved and more of them showing up to explicitly not die to address loose ends. Final Fantasy VI tries to have a more ensemble cast and strives not to have a central protagonist, which does let it do some interesting things, but also leaves portions of the story quite unfocused.

39 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

 

 

To be fair to Awakening, the power of friendship is a mechanic in the game. Supports, and the absurd bonuses they give thanks to pair-up is the game letting you buildup and experiene the power of friendship. To the game's discredit, its unwilling to use this mechanic to make Robin's survival feel earned, because doing so would make it possible for Robin to die if the player fails to form the bonds they need...

 

I really don't see that as a down side. Let's face it, getting supports is so easy in Awakening it'd be something of a secret ending to finish the game without an S support and leave Robin dead. If they were willing to kill of Kaze mid game in a super random manner for not having an A support with Corrin, they could kill off Robin at the very end of the game for not having any supports with anyone. Anyone who'd be emotionally upset with that decision would probably have gotten the necessary supports to save them.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Jotari

[Axie]

wait, are the spotpass paralogues canon? do they count? even though they explode the game's already [cindy this is a skeleton this is bones.gif] writing integrity? can't we ignore them please?

[Alastor15243]

41 minutes ago, Axie said:

wait, are the spotpass paralogues canon? do they count? even though they explode the game's already [cindy this is a skeleton this is bones.gif] writing integrity? can't we ignore them please?

A quote I found on reddit on the topic:

"I don't think there's any reason to assume they aren't canon other then them being canon is fucking stupid. That's not really evidence against it though."

[ping]

Just as a little aside regarding Final Fantasy 6 - endgame spoilers for that game, of course:

Spoiler

Terra, one of the main characters of the game, is the daughter of a human and an esper, the latter being a people created by the gods of magic. At the end of the game, those gods are being destroyed, which also causes the esper to disappear, as well. Terra's esper father, with his last words, tells her that she will be able to survive as an ordinary human because "the human part of [her] is very strongly attached to something or someone".

That "something or someone" does not refer to the other party members, though. During a time skip, she more or less adopts a group of orphans, which explicitly is the first time she ever feels love for somebody - the inability to do so was a major source of angst for her before that point. And to make it even more explicit: Shortly after she first appears after the time skip, her esper nature (which manifests as a transformation into a more monster-like esper form) overpowers her humanity and it's the children that manage to snap her out of it.

So, "Power of Love" played straight? Sure. But it's fully integrated into Terra's character arc and doesn't just suddenly pop up 5 seconds before it's relevant.

51 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

A quote I found on reddit on the topic:

"I don't think there's any reason to assume they aren't canon other then them being canon is fucking stupid. That's not really evidence against it though."

I always say that the entire concept of canon is overrated, specifically when it's a canon "combined" out of multiple works of fiction, and even moreso if the first work was written without any future works (or fewer works that ultimately got created) in mind.

Priam doesn't change the way I read Tellius. I don't care if he "canonizes" or "disproves" anything or not.
Zach, a posthumous character in Final Fantasy 7, gets a lot of characterization in spin-off, some of which apparently clashes with what is implied in FF7. I don't know, I haven't looked it up, but it wouldn't change my perception of FF7's story either way.
Some of the events in FE7 make characters in FE6 look hella stupid. I don't really take that into account when thinking about FE6's plot, though - I just see it as faults in FE7.

I don't claim objectivity, of course, that would be silly. Taking a holistic look at any fictional continuity is just as valid - for example, I do look at LotR with all the context that the Silmarillion provides, simply because I know that Tolkien was aiming to create one big mythology and wrote LotR with its overarching history in mind.

(Note: I don't even know enough about Awakening to say if those spotpasses have been created alongside the game or after it was published. Either way, I don't care about any implications for previous entries of the series)

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

A quote I found on reddit on the topic:

"I don't think there's any reason to assume they aren't canon other then them being canon is fucking stupid. That's not really evidence against it though."

It necessitates Chrom and the others getting all geared up to fight Grima. Naga urges them to fight through the grimleal and risen who continue to fight until the end. Chrom literally says it ends here...and then they decide to travel around two continents just to check out rumors and stuff. So it's less what happens in them and more when they happen. You could rationalize some, like Walhart's happen earlier than them heading to origin peak, and maybe some others like Emmeryn's could happen after Grima's defeat (since I think you just fight bandits in that one), but others like Aversa kind of necessitates it happens after that moment, but before Grima is destroyed which is just frankly ridiculous.

[Whirlwind]

Sorry I haven’t been here, Christmas break was something else this year 

[Alastor15243]

15 minutes ago, Whirlwind said:

Sorry I haven’t been here, Christmas break was something else this year 

I can imagine.

[Whirlwind]

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, ping said:

Just as a little aside regarding Final Fantasy 6 - endgame spoilers for that game, of course:

Agreed, I didn't take it as meaning friendship. I think your interpretation is more accurate. After all, if you turn down the Banon's offer to join the Returners three times because you want that early Genji Gloves, then Terra isn't like "I have nothing meaningful in life"?

Point being it doesn't really apply to the Robin situation. Well, it would if Robin was wed, they could be. Except mine wasn't 95% of the time. I didn't believe in marriage.

 

1 hour ago, ping said:

I always say that the entire concept of canon is overrated, specifically when it's a canon "combined" out of multiple works of fiction, and even moreso if the first work was written without any future works (or fewer works that ultimately got created) in mind.

I way more than understand this. This is why I find the idea of a unified Zelda timeline so maddening and unnecessary.

It's different depending on the game though. Hearing secondhand that 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation "revives" a minor villain who was "killed" by another character sacrificed who themselves to do that and whom I happen to like in Original Generation 2, made me not happy at all. And Eternal Punishment canonizing that Tatsuya had romantic feelings for Maya in Innocent Sin, annoys me slightly because this 1999-2000 character had a gay option. Eternal Punishment released in the year after IS and was thus clearly preplanned more than the average sequel (but, not entirely written in advance, I think).

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

It necessitates Chrom and the others getting all geared up to fight Grima. Naga urges them to fight through the grimleal and risen who continue to fight until the end. Chrom literally says it ends here...and then they decide to travel around two continents

Total freedom of map was already turning Awakening into narrative Emmental.🧀  

Remember- Anna's recruitment Paralogue opens up at the exact same time Chrom is supposed to be retreating in Plegia after Emmeryn hugs the sky and earth. By why stop there? Why not be trapped at the volcano cornered by Yen'fay and run off to rescue Noire in the frigid northeast of the other continent whilst there is no possible way you could get there and back and everything be hunky-dory? Oh, and while you're doing that, don't forget to take a trip back to Donnel's village for its world-famous Iron Axes!😜

Sacred Stones would sometimes lock you into two back-to-back chapters, like the Phantom Ship and Landing at Taizel. And Chapter 5 of Gaiden traps you in Duma's Temple for its short entirety. These were the two prior games with traversable world maps (and TRS, which gave Holmes a limited degree of come-and-go world map freedom for his first two turns at being the lord), and both had limited forced linearity directly from one battle to another. Awakening, to be as pick-up-and-play and gameplay flexibility friendly as possible I speculate, not bad goals if true, did away with that.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Ottservia]

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

This. I meant this. Games have extra things going into them beyond what can be encapsulated in themes and story telling. Shadow Dragon for the NES and Shadow Dragon for the DS will have the exact same themes because it's almost word for word the same story, but people will (generally) enjoy Shadow Dragon on the DS more based on it's presentation and gameplay. There's no more or less themed to be garnered from being able to see how far units can move or how much damage they'll deal per attack, unless you want to conflate themes and design philosophy as the same thing and even then graphics wouldn't fit into that category as that's visual presentation, which is not necessarily the same as visual art, though it can be both, as it is a representation of something else rather than sending a thematic message, or to phrase it another way, Video Game visuals are in a lot of ways more related to images in advertising than in art galleries. To sum up everything, there's a lot more going on in video games that just story alone and it will all contribute to how one experiences the work, so to boil it down to themes alone either misses the point of everything else, or turns themes into such a general all encompassing word to the point in which it has no meaning.

True but that doesn’t mean a game can’t have ideas behind it. All art is nothing more than a conveyence of ideas or feelings. That’s what “themes” are, a conveyence of ideas. To ignore themes or any idea or emotion behind any art form is once again to ignore why art exists in the first place. Art exists to express oneself be it philosophically, emotionally, or whatever. If creator didn’t want to express these ideas at all then the art they created would not exist at all. What you fail to realize is that “themes” exist in every art form just in slightly different ways. Songs have lyrics, notes, cord progression, tempo, etc. to get across the message the song wants to get across. That is a theme. Video games have music, dialogue, and most importantly gameplay to also get across a thematic point whatever that point may be. Themes and ideas are inherent to art no matter the medium. Art cannot exist without themes, ideas, or emotions behind them. 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Ottservia

[Emperor Hardin]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

A quote I found on reddit on the topic:

"I don't think there's any reason to assume they aren't canon other then them being canon is fucking stupid. That's not really evidence against it though."

Several of them are referenced in stuff like Cipher and Heroes. 

You haven't even seen the really dumb ones, yet!

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I way more than understand this. This is why I find the idea of a unified Zelda timeline so maddening and unnecessary.

I was part of the crowd that did Zelda timelines speculation back in the day. It was a tonne of fun to look at all the tiny details that were obviously never meant to indicate any kind of grander plan and try to fit things together. But I was always of the opinion that Nintendo should just ignore attempts at a timeline and continue making the games free from the chains of canon. So I was highly disappoined when they released their own "offical" timeline (which has a more than a few holes in it).

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Total freedom of map was already turning Awakening into narrative Emmental.🧀  

Remember- Anna's recruitment Paralogue opens up at the exact same time Chrom is supposed to be retreating in Plegia after Emmeryn hugs the sky and earth. By why stop there? Why not be trapped at the volcano cornered by Yen'fay and run off to rescue Noire in the frigid northeast of the other continent whilst there is no possible way you could get there and back and everything be hunky-dory? Oh, and while you're doing that, don't forget to take a trip back to Donnel's village for its world-famous Iron Axes!😜

Sacred Stones would sometimes lock you into two back-to-back chapters, like the Phantom Ship and Landing at Taizel. And Chapter 5 of Gaiden traps you in Duma's Temple for its short entirety. These were the two prior games with traversable world maps (and TRS, which gave Holmes a limited degree of come-and-go world map freedom for his first two turns at being the lord), and both had limited forced linearity directly from one battle to another. Awakening, to be as pick-up-and-play and gameplay flexibility friendly as possible I speculate, not bad goals if true, did away with that.

The thing about those examples is that one could conceive that they happen at some convenient time. Albeit it'd be hard to plan for characters like Cynthia and Nah who are so out of the way from where the party is ever likely to travel, but they could have happened at some point after they become theoretically avilable. And like I said before, if we want to fiddle with the timeline we could place some of the paralogues somewhere by assuming they happen before they're available or after the game itself. But Aversa's, which requires her to be defeated at Mount Origin, and for Grima to still be alive, just makes no sense to fit into the story. It's not really that big a deal in the grand scheme of things as only timeline nerds like myself have much cause to be bothered by it, but eh, would be nice if they gave some thought into how they were including stuff like this into the game. Like they could have used alternatedimensions to solve a lot of holes with the characters dying, which also gives us more windows into what happened in the original timeline, but they only saw fit to do that with Yen'Fay. Kind of ironic the worst of the spotpass characters got the best explanation for being alive.

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

True but that doesn’t mean a game can’t have ideas behind it.

Yeah, no one said that at all.

 

[Emperor Hardin]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I way more than understand this. This is why I find the idea of a unified Zelda timeline so maddening and unnecessary.

Offtopic, but why don't Nintendo/Zelda fans accept the idea of alternate continuity for some Zelda games such as the Four Swords titles?

Edited January 6, 2021 by Emperor Hardin

[Interdimensional Observer]

41 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Offtopic, but why don't Nintendo/Zelda fans accept the idea of alternate continuity for some Zelda games such as the Four Swords titles?

That would make perfect sense to me, but noooo, Nintendo had to listen to those silly obsessive fans who must have one unified timeline. I can imagine they're the same fans who insist that Chrom's "oh I know X character from the Y tales" in the Awakening and Fates DLC are irrefutable evidence of everything being in a single world. I don't like that idea either if you can't tell.😏

 

44 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Like they could have used alternatedimensions to solve a lot of holes with the characters dying, which also gives us more windows into what happened in the original timeline, but they only saw fit to do that with Yen'Fay. Kind of ironic the worst of the spotpass characters got the best explanation for being alive.

Excuse moi? Walhart has the best explanation. 

Spoiler

He is so great a man, the very pinnacle of our species, that he can will himself back to life! -But whatever you do, don't let a girl who looks a little like she could be from Hoshido perform the sending ritual, that will make Walhart (von Guado to use his full name) very angry.

It's so outlandish, so... problematic for the rules of reality and good writing, but I can't help but ...like it?

Edited January 6, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[ping]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I way more than understand this. This is why I find the idea of a unified Zelda timeline so maddening and unnecessary.

It's different depending on the game though. Hearing secondhand that 2nd Super Robot Wars Original Generation "revives" a minor villain who was "killed" by another character sacrificed who themselves to do that and whom I happen to like in Original Generation 2, made me not happy at all. And Eternal Punishment canonizing that Tatsuya had romantic feelings for Maya in Innocent Sin, annoys me slightly because this 1999-2000 character had a gay option. Eternal Punishment released in the year after IS and was thus clearly preplanned more than the average sequel (but, not entirely written in advance, I think).

I feel reminded of Baldur's Gate where in the first game, there's around two dozens of recruitable characters to choose between, but then the sequel goes nonono, you've been traveling with those five all along.

Although I can understand that, really. Instead of bending backwards three times to make sure that none of the branches from the previous games are presented as the "official" ones (I like to bring up the dyejob that the Awakening kids get so that their father isn't revealed as a particularly silly example), just choose one option to plant the next plot tree on.

The only part where I would put my foot down is that those five characters are the canon party for BG2's story. Within BG1, all (possible) party constellations are equal, as far as I am concerned.

[Emperor Hardin]

13 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That would make perfect sense to me, but noooo, Nintendo had to listen to those silly obsessive fans who must have one unified timeline. I can imagine they're the same fans who insist that Chrom's "oh I know X character from the Y tales" in the Awakening and Fates DLC are irrefutable evidence of everything being in a single world. I don't like that idea either if you can't tell.😏

Four Swords Adventures has a new introduction story for Ganondorf and no Master Sword, how can it be the same continuity?

I love how the game where its made a law that all Princesses of Hyrule shall be named Zelda is placed at the end of the timeline!

 

13 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

😏

Excuse moi? Walhart has the best explanation. He is so great a man, the very pinnacle of our species, that he can will himself back to life! -But whatever you do, don't let a girl who looks a little like she could be from Hoshido perform the sending ritual, that will make Walhart (von Guado to use his full name) very angry.

It's so outlandish, so... problematic for the rules of reality and good writing, but I can't help but ...like it?

Might be worth spoilering that, if Alastor plans to do the Walhart paralogue.

The implications that Walhart 

Spoiler

willed himself back to life and is basically a zombie is a localization only addition and isn't in the Japanese script. Hence why he can have kids.

 

[Ottservia]

20 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Excuse moi? Walhart has the best explanation. He is so great a man, the very pinnacle of our species, that he can will himself back to life! -But whatever you do, don't let a girl who looks a little like she could be from Hoshido perform the sending ritual, that will make Walhart (von Guado to use his full name) very angry.

It's so outlandish, so... problematic for the rules of reality and good writing, but I can't help but ...like it?

But that’s why I think it’s good writing actually. It’s so absurd and so in character for him that it’s kind of funny.

[ping]

10 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Might be worth spoilering that, if Alastor plans to do the Walhart paralogue.

The implications that Walhart 

  Hide contents

willed himself back to life and is basically a zombie is a localization only addition and isn't in the Japanese script. Hence why he can have kids.

Spoiler

Someone who can will himself into life can will ...other things into activity, too.

...I'll see myself out.