vanguard333
-
Posts
4,534 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by vanguard333
-
-
What are some story elements you've seen just often enough to consider a trope, but don't see very often and would like to see more often?
Here's mine:
1. Characters whose magical powers are a fragment of a magical being's powers
One storytelling tool I've seen a few times is to have a major character have a set of abilities that are in fact a fragment of someone else's power that they received at some point, most often through a deal, but not always the case. The examples of this that I can think of include DnD Warlocks, Zant from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Vanitas from The Case Study of Vanitas, anyone who meets Truth in Fullmetal Alchemist, and a couple characters in Naruto such as Kakashi and Pain.
I find this trope very interesting because of its potential: generally, when writing a major character in fantasy media, one would want this character's magic to be in some way unique or esoteric, but at the same time, because they're a major character who would be using this magic a lot, there often needs to be clearly defined limits on this power. Having the power they carry be a fragment of someone else's power solves both: the magic can easily come across as distinct even within a magical setting, and there's a clear limit built into the trope: since it's just a fragment of the real thing, it can't be too powerful. Not only that, but as this is power received, it is often power at a price, and that price provides good limitations.
Vanitas is a great example of this: he is a human in a steampunk world full of vampires with magical powers, and he bears the mark of a vampire known as the Blue Moon Vampire that's legendary within the setting. The mark allows him to use a unique spell book created by said vampire called the Book of Vanitas. This enables his power to carry mystique throughout the story despite Vanitas being one of the show's two protagonists, and there's a built-in limitation as there's the strong implication that what he can do with the book is but a fragment of what the Blue Moon Vampire would be capable of with the book, and it comes at a price: every time he uses the book, the mark spreads and rewrites some of his being.
2. Stories with two main heroes who are siblings
I find it weird and a bit tiring that, whenever siblings appear in popular media, they are evil siblings the vast majority of the time. There is a ton that can be done with a story where the siblings are main characters that are on the same side, yet the only examples I can think of are Edward & Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Asta & Yuno from Black Clover. EDIT: How did I somehow forget Ike and Mist when Path of Radiance is my favourite video game?! I guess my mind only thought of cases where one sibling is the protagonist and the other sibling is the deuteragonist (secondary protagonist).
-
For me, the Tellius games and Three Houses had the best character designs.
Worst would be Fates.
For Engage, some of the character designs grew on me, while others did not. I remember liking Ivy and Lumera's designs, and Alear's appearance gradually grew on me. I also really liked the designs for the dragons in this game: Lumera's dragon form looks amazing; real shame that it only appeared in one cutscene, and the Fell Dragon design is very imaginative and cool: I like the cobra neck, the claw at the end of the tail, and the two-legs-two-wings design. Engage really had some very good dragon designs; if only the game actually used them more.
-
12 hours ago, JulieFalcom said:
I think I belong in the minority with this, but I don't think it's unpopular at all to say that I enjoyed Ys VIII more than any Xenoblade Chronicles game manly for being factpaced and less romantic than like Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The battle system was more fun too despite being simple. And Ys VIII's soundtrack is my favourite soundtrack of all videogames I've played yet.
I definitely enjoyed Ys VIII a lot more than Xenoblade 1 or X, mainly because of the combat. I really don't like the MMORPG-like combat in Xenoblade games, whereas the combat in Ys felt a lot more involving and a lot more fun. The combat wasn't anything spectacular, but it was a lot better than that in Xenoblade games.
Another reason was how sidequests were handled; Xenoblade 1 was stuffed full of fetch quests and seemed to almost deliberately make the more interesting side quests harder to find. That, plus other factors, made it feel like I was being punished whenever I went back to old places to side quests, and yet also felt like I was being punished whenever I decided to stick to the main story. With YS VIII, none of the sidequests felt too out-of-the-way or unrewarding, and I felt encouraged to explore the island, where I often felt discouraged from exploring the world of Xenoblade 1.
One thing both Ys VIII and Xenoblade 1 have in common is that they had good stories with some good twists, but they didn't know when to stop having plot twists and threw in twists right after the final boss fights.
-
3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:
The Meiji restoration is always a fun era so I have my eye on Ronin.
It is certainly an interesting point in history. If I were in Team Ninja's position, I would lean heavily on the "set during the Boshin war" aspect of the game.
There's a small part of me that would like to see a DLC set in Hokkaido (then called Ezo) during the tail end of the Boshin war, when the last of the Shogunate forces fled to Hokkaido and tried to form the Republic of Ezo. I think that would push me toward wanting to get the game, as I find Hokkaido's history really fascinating.
-
28 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:
As a complete Final Fantasy noob who's never played a single entry to the series, my question is: how many times does FF7 need to be remade? Am I missing something here?
The FF7R series: Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and the third one that will be announced after Rebirth releases, are not remakes; they are one story split across three games, and that story is a timeline-sequel to Final Fantasy 7.
A much easier way to think to of them is to think of the whole FF7R project as one sequel to FF7, with "Remake" being part 1 and "Rebirth" being part 2.
To my knowledge, FF7 never actually has been remade. It's been ported a million times and received multiple spinoffs and a prequel (Crisis Core), but it has never received an actual remake. That's one reason that FF7R turning out to be a sequel and not a remake really disappointed a lot of fans and newcomers who wanted a remake and were led to believe that it was a remake by FF7R Part 1's false advertising.
-
On 1/28/2024 at 9:53 PM, Florete said:
Micaiah was constantly called a Mary Sue. I'll never understand how that narrative became a thing.
I never understood why Micaiah was ever called a Mary Sue. She literally got overshadowed in her own game; Mary Sues, almost by definition, cannot be overshadowed in their own stories.
-
It makes sense that they'd give this it's own state of play.
It looks interesting, and I'll probably give it a watch, but I know I'll be sitting out on Rebirth, at least for a while. The FF7R games are a timeline-sequel where the plot relies on the player having prior knowledge on the plot of FF7, and I don't; I'm a complete newcomer to the franchise. I bought Final Fantasy 7 Remake because Square Enix falsely-advertised it as a remake and I thought that a full-overhaul remake of FF7 would be perfect starting point, only for the game to lose me when it started doing the timeline and plot-ghost stuff.
I'm glad that there hasn't been any such false-advertising with Rebirth; they have been acknowledging what the game really is. However, they're still trying to advertise the game to newcomers who haven't played FF7. Hamaguchi: the director of Rebirth, actually said in an interview that he thinks it wouldn't make sense to direct people to FF7 when FF7R exists, and that was in the same interview where he revealed that the Whispers (the plot-ghosts) will be returning in some form in Rebirth. How does he not see the contradiction?
-
I watched the State of Play. Most of the games don't really interest me; not that they're bad or anything; just that most of them are not my cup of tea.
1. V Rising kind-of looks interesting; a vampire RPG with base-building elements is an interesting premise.
2. I've heard good things about the gameplay of Dragon's Dogma and mixed things about the story of Dragon's Dogma. The sequel looks like it'll be similar, but I need to see more of it before making a decision.
3. I know it's a Team Ninja game, but with how much the historical setting is the main thing they're selling Rise of the Ronin on, I was not expecting the glider or the grappling hook, and I definitely wasn't expecting what appeared to be a zombie with claw weapons. Otherwise, the game looks kind-of like a Nioh version of Sekiro but with rifles and flamethrowers.
Incidentally, I recognized the name of the boss that appears in the trailer: Nagakura Shinpachi. He's a historical domain character that appeared in the anime Golden Kamuy. He was a member the Shinsengumi: an order of samurai that fought for the Shogunate. I'm going to guess that either the fight is unwinnable or the game has him survive the battle after you beat him, and I think this because the historical Nagakura survived the Boshin war between Meiji and the Shogunate, lived as a kenjutsu instructor in Hokkaido, and died in the 1910s (the game takes place in the mid-to-late 1860s).
4. They really gave a lot of time to Kojima. Wow. I'm surprised that the game is a new Death Stranding game; I thought he would've moved on to a new IP. It sounds like he's then going to make a new stealth game after this; that sounds neat. But all this attention being given to him, and him saying that he hopes the stealth game will be the culmination of his prior work, makes me wonder if he's considering retiring or at least taking a break.
-
7 hours ago, Lightcosmo said:
Late, but my heart bleeds for you. MMBN1 is... really janky, clunky, slow and so forth.
2 is a godsend improvements-wise.
That's good to know, as I also recently got the Battle Network legacy collection, and I plan on playing it sometime this year (I'm currently playing a Silver Snow playthrough of Three Houses). I've only played MMBN5 (Team Colonel) and MMBN6 (Cybeast Gregar) and only finished 5, so I plan to start with MMBN1.
-
I never actually watched any of those post-credits comedy bits in Jujutsu Kaisen; I mainly watched the first season for the fights (and I liked the movie).
-
I have never played Mario vs Donkey Kong. It is funny that the game's events start because Donkey Kong wanted a sold-out toy and his first thought after that was to get the toy by raiding the factory.
-
On 1/21/2024 at 12:01 AM, Fabulously Olivier said:
1. Shadow of the Colossus
Cleared 1/1/24.
6 or 7/10. I could see this being a 9 for its time.
This was the fitting first game of a landmark year. A very important and influential game that I've never played. Did I like it? Yeah, mostly. Does it rank high in my all time favorites? No. Not even for its year given that 2005 was also the year of Guild Wars 1, Path of Radiance, and DMC3.
+ Gorgeous visuals
+ Somber atmosphere
+ Some fun bosses. Most are creative.
+ Well paced and short.
- Atrocious, borderline gamebreaking camera and controls, even in the remake.
- A couple colossi can and will permastunlock you if they land even one hit.
- The eel really triggered my thalassophobia. Like one of the worst cases ever.
- Some jumps are a pain in the ass.
8, 8a, 8b, 8c. Final Fantasy 15 (including DLC episodes)Cleared 1/7 and 1/8.
7/10
Moments of storytelling, character, and cinematic greatness concentrated mostly at the back end of a mediocre and deeply boring open world road trip with bad combat. Honestly, this game is comprised of so many bad ideas that it's a wonder it's even decent.
I've put about 20 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 and it is mind-blowingly good. But with Persona 3 Reload dropping on Gamepass, it's going on ice for a while.I also picked up the Megaman Battle Network Legacy Collection, and started playing MMBN1.
Interesting. I played the Shadow of the Colossus remake a couple years ago and I really enjoyed it; I knew the game was from the 2000s, but I had no idea it was from the same year as Path of Radiance. I honestly don't remember having any camera problems, but I do remember the two small colossi being very guilty of stunlocking; that was annoying.
I have never played Final Fantasy 15, so I can't say anything about its quality, but I do know a lot about its development history, and I know that it is very much a game heavily scarred by its horrific development. It wasn't even originally supposed to be Final Fantasy 15; it was originally envisioned as Final Fantasy Versus XIII for the PS3: it was to be a darker deconstruction of the traditional Final Fantasy formula helmed by Tetsuya Nomura (and it was going to have a combat system more like that in Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 7 Remake). However, the Crystal Tools engine that Square Enix imposed on all PS3 titles could only make linear games, and members of the already-small dev team kept getting siphoned off to help finish FF13 and its spinoffs, the game was still in pre-production even after seven years.
By that point, the PS4 rolled around and Square Enix needed to both recoup costs and have a mainline game for the new console, so they rebranded Versus XIII as Final Fantasy 15. They also forcibly removed Nomura from the project due to him also needing to direct Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, replaced him with Hajime Tabata, and they gave the dev team 2 years to complete the game on the at-the-time-unfinished Luminous Engine, so the dev team was having to finish developing the engine at the same time they were developing the game in said engine. It also didn't help that Tabata and Nomura apparently are almost polar opposites when it comes to directing JRPGs: Nomura is very much a traditional JRPG director, while Tabata is known for taking inspiration from games like Skyrim and The Witcher 3. The end result was that massive swaths of the original plans for the game were outright cut while others were reworked for the sake of time.
As for Baldur's Gate 3 and Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, I've been really meaning to play both of those. I've been busy recently.
EDIT: As of January 27th, I have begun playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses again. Since it's been a year or two and I've played several games since, including Engage, I figured it's been long enough for it to be at least a semi-fresh experience. I decided to start the one route that I have yet to play: the Silver Snow route.
-
32 minutes ago, Jotari said:
A slight issue with that scene in particular, if I recall, is that they wanted Alear to appear to be a full on Fell Dragon briefly, I think, and it's only a chapter or two later where they learn they're, like, an artificial half breed. So transforming to reveal it would probably need some kind of mixed blood form giving that away. Wait, no, actually I think Sigurd explains it all as soon as Griss leaves. Well, never mind all that. The dragon stone could have been used and then Alear would have a dragon form for Heroes, we could get gauntlets as a proper heroes weapon and all live in a better world.
You are right in that they wanted Alear to have a brief time of agonizing over finding out they're a fell dragon and thinking that they can't lead the army because of that before Sigurd tells them that they're really half-divine dragon because of Lumera's divine dragon essence the moment Griss leaves.
One thing I would suggest is that Alear's dragon form looking different from Sombron's would not immediately indicate that they're now a hybrid (at least, no more than the emblems Alear summons being blue and capable of speech does). They may be DLC, but Nel and Rafal both look notably different from Sombron in their fell dragon forms while still being fell dragons. I think if Alear's dragon from was overall like that of a fell dragon in shape and then had various divine dragon features in all the details (such as the shape and colouration of the scales, etc.), that would've enabled the game to use Alear's dragon form for the twist and still have the scene where Sigurd has to tell Alear that they're half-divine dragon.
Really, the problem is that, overall and with the sole exception of Sombron, Engage seemingly really wants to avoid having the dragon characters actually be dragons as much as possible. Even disregarding Alear, Veyle never uses her dragon form with the explanation being that she buried her dragonstone long ago, Lumera's dragon form only appears twice in cutscenes and never in gameplay (understandable when she's a zombie as it's an important plot point that dragonstones shatter when the dragon dies, but that excuse isn't there when she's alive), Zephia never uses her dragon form at all and no explanation is ever given for why she doesn't use it, etc. The only dragons who are allowed to shine as dragons are DLC characters and Sombron.
-
1 hour ago, Seazas said:
Denied us? It didn't really deny us anything. Even if Griss never gave it up: Alear was never getting a dragon form. That just wasn't happening with how Alear was designed as a character.
True; the game really bent over backwards to make sure Alear could never have a dragon form. I really don't know what IS was thinking; making a game with a protagonist that everyone in the game insists is a dragon and then never actually having them be a dragon; instead just having them be yet another young-adult humanoid swordsman.
-
18 hours ago, Jotari said:
Alcohol, sure, but I don't think we can conclude age has taken any toll out of Jeralt. The game makes it very clear that he basically hasn't aged and Hopes throws a line in putting his age at something like three hundred. That being said, Jertiza probably could take him, because really the most important factor in a fight isn't your strength, it's your willingness to actually fight. I don't think Jeritza actually is meant to be supernatural strong, he's just supernaturally eager to kill which really makes a big difference. Jeralt meanwhile is more of a broken man since the death of Sitri and is not going to be as eager to cause bloodshed.
There are multiple ways that age takes its toll on a fighter; one of them is physical aging, but another is all the old wounds & injuries eventually catching up and piling up. Physical aging probably has not affected Jeralt, but I would not be surprised if he has plenty of old wounds that are starting to build up and impair him.
I don't think it's Jeritza's willingness to kill as much as his physical skill and talent. Even when he's being Jeritza and not being the Death Knight, his skill is considered extremely noteworthy, to the point of becoming the combat instructor at the most prestigious military academy in the continent at the age of 21. Bear in mind that his only noble connections are Edelgard and the family that adopted him on her orders to hide the fact that he's actually Emile of House Bartels, so its unlikely that he got in the academy purely through connections (emphasis on "purely"; obviously his connection to Edelgard played a role, but he almost-certainly got the job due to his skill). A number of characters also comment on Jeritza's skill before he's revealed to be the Death Knight.
-
I have only seen the live-action One Piece, so I don't know who the character talking to the Straw Hats is supposed to be. Also, I hope that Chopper will be animatronics or a puppet, not CGI.
3 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:P.S.: Also for @vanguard333: The anime is an adaptation of God Oda's previous manga work called Monster before One Piece was created.
I see. I probably should've guessed it was an Oda manga from the presence of a legendary swordsman with a big feathered hat.
5 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:I can’t believe it’s not Zelda..on a Nintendo console…now I’ve seen everything. Next you’ll tell me someone is making a game in the style of, oh I don’t know, Simon’s Quest.
There's actually multiple 2D Zelda clones available on Switch. In addition to the one in that video (Ocean's Heart), there's also Blossom Tales and its sequel. Ocean's Heart in particular was made using an engine that's mainly used for Zelda fan-games.
-
I watched the trailer and I still am unclear on what the premise of that anime is.
-
...Advertising your own merch? The mugs look nice.
On 1/10/2024 at 5:10 PM, King Marth 64 said:P.S.: No Star Wars hate please.
I didn't express any such thing and I have no intention of doing so; I only expressed my personal lack of interest in the franchise.
-
I'm currently writing my own fantasy novel, I've currently finished the first draft and I'm in the editing phase, and I still struggle with coming up with names for characters and places.
Since the fantasy kingdom my story takes place in is heavily inspired by Medieval Scotland, I mainly use Scottish names for the characters. I try to go with meaningful names, but, more than thinking, "what name best fits this character thematically?" and "what name best fits this character's description?", I also think, "What name would this character's parents give them?"
I haven't really tried coming up with made-up names; I suppose one method, as mentioned above by @indigoasis, would be to have the name still have some basis in real language. To use one of your own examples: the "Donquixote" in Donquixote Doflamingo comes from Don Quixote: a famous Spanish novel from the early 1600s about an insane man who decides to try to be a wondering knight after reading a bunch of chivalric tales. In his madness, he, among other things, tries to joust with windmills, thinking they are giants.
-
18 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:
I mean, it's Griss we're talking about. He likely deliberately went for giving up a ring so Zephia could punish him too. Whether or not it actually happened, we don't know.
Perhaps. It's still weird, and him giving up a ring denied us a chance to instead see Alear's dragon form and have that be used to reveal that Alear is a fell dragon, while also being yet another time we fight and defeat the Four Hounds, even if, in this case, Griss wanted to lose.
-
Lost in Thoughts All Alone is easily the best thing about Fire Emblem Fates. Admittedly, that isn't saying much, but it is a really good song and those are well-animated cutscenes.
The one thing I'm not sure about regarding this video specifically is the attempt to make the cutscenes run at 60 fps; not everything has to be 60 fps, and I often find attempts to modify cutscenes to run at 60 fps often don't turn out very well; best case scenario is that you can't tell the difference, and worst case scenario is that the pacing and frames are all off.
EDIT: Drat, I was ninja'd. I'm going to leave my opinion of the Lost in Thoughts video since I already watched it. Let's see... Star Wars announcements... I gave up on Disney Star Wars a long time ago, so none of these announcements really interest me. Also, the video is twice the maximum length stated at the beginning of this thread.
-
13 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:
See, I think his appearance at Remire just came out of nowhere. He's just kind of a "hurry up!" feature that most players can completely ignore. Hell, you don't need to visit that side of the map to begin with. It's cool gameplay-wise, to get a couple Crescent Sickles, but they could've easily added those to chapter 6 instead. I'd drop his appearance here, and maybe put a Demonic Beast in his place, if you need a threat.
I honestly think that the only reason the Death Knight is there is not for gameplay reasons, but for story reasons: his presence at Remire ties the Flame Emperor to what Solon was doing, leading to the Flame Emperor having to appear in the aftermath and insist that they were not involved.
12 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:In Chapter 20, Griss willingly gives up his ring (though not before still fighting them, at least) so he can see Alear reawaken it and confirm their growing suspicions that Alear is, in fact, a Fell Dragon.
That one I still find strange; it is important to the Four Hounds that they determine whether or not Alear is a Fell Dragon, but, earlier in that very same chapter, they make it clear that the Four Hounds cannot afford to lose any more rings, with Griss berating Marni and Mauvier that there's no point in in trying to take back rings from Alear if they just lose rings in the process.
Not only that, but they had another method for testing if Alear is a Fell Dragon: the dragonstone in Veyle's possession. Veyle told them in chapter 17 that it was given to her by her sole surviving sibling, making them realize that another child of Sombron lives. They could've used the dragonstone instead. So, they had a viable alternative, they emphasized how important it is that they don't lose any more rings, and they gave up a ring to Alear anyway.
-
A hilarious scene from a hilarious and amazing show, and the alien invasion arc that this clip is from is easily my favourite arc in season 1. Season 2 not having as good of animation as season 1 was inevitable, as the studio that made season 1 called in a ton of favours when making it; what disappointed me about season 2 was the rushed pacing, which really hinders the comedy as timing is very important in comedy.
-
22 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:
I think the Tellius games make a pretty smart move in regards to making the Black Knight intimidating. They incorporate it into the stages. Two times in POR the Black Knight will appear and you'll be completely helpless against him. Don't pursue the Black Knight and all that. Then Radiant Dawn switches it around and its the enemies turn to be completely helpless when you control the Black Knight.
Yeah; the Black Knight is a fantastic example of gameplay/story integration. Another reason that the Black Knight works is that we see characters actually lose to him: we saw Petrine have trouble against Greil, and then Greil is beaten by the Black Knight, Ike loses immediately, Ranulf loses to him, etc. One big problem with villains in more recent Fire Emblem games is that they never get any sort of victory.
10 hours ago, lenticular said:I'd point to the Four Hounds as a particularly egregious example of this. It's impossible to take an enemy seriously after you've already beaten them multiple times. The Death Knight is almost as bad, but at least taking him down starts off as an optional challenge, so it takes a bit longer for him to become completely impotent.
In fairness to the Four Hounds, at least there's chapter 11 where the player characters have to flee from Evil-Veyle and the Four Hounds. I think the idea was that the later chapters with them would be cathartic; that the player character finally has emblem rings again and can now directly fight the Four Hounds and defeat them. Chapters like chapter 17, where the player has six emblem rings and the Four Hounds and Evil-Veyle have six emblem rings, would seem to support that idea. The problem was that they overdid it; the fact that they are all beaten repeatedly reduces their impact.
Incidentally, I still maintain that the Four Hounds should've tested whether or not Alear is a child of Sombron by giving Alear their dragonstone, which they know Veyle carries, rather than by having Griss deliberately lose the Celica emblem to Alear immediately after Griss told Marni and Mauvier that they can't afford to lose any more emblem rings.
10 hours ago, lenticular said:I agree with this. I'm not a fan of the Black Knight character design (those pauldrons are absurd!) but I do think they absolutely nail it in terms of gameplay/story integration.
I like the Black Knight's design overall and even I don't like the oversized pauldrons. But that's mainly because I really like historical armour and I'm not a fan of oversized pauldrons in general.
Uncommon Story Tropes You Want to See More Often
in Entertainment
Posted
I wasn't referring to just anime; I had just forgotten Sacred Stones. Thanks.
Yeah, it would be good to see more parents that are relevant characters and don't get killed off for drama. Percy Jackson's mother in the books, Deku's mother in My Hero Academia and Hohenheim from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are good examples.
Oh, yeah; Sokka and Katara are good examples as well. I guess I just didn't think of them because, as you said, neither of them are the main character. Incidentally, I've long thought that, if they do make another sequel to ATLA, they should give the avatar an ordinary sibling that is their greatest ally.
Now that I think about it, Callum and Ezran from The Dragon Prince are also an example... I think (I haven't watched the show since season 3, so I don't know if anything's changed, like if one of them has been killed off or turned evil; I doubt either of those have happened, but I don't know).