One of the many GOOD games that came out last year.

Note: I’m posting this a few days later than I intended, and I was going to wait until this coming Monday to post it, but I’m saying fuck it. We haven’t had a post here since last November, let’s do this.

Hello everyone. I’m finally making a return to this and, since the new year has come, I figured we might as well take a look at some of the gaming events of this past year…and what a hell of a year it’s been. We’ve had great games, and we had god damn crap storms. I can’t BEGIN to tell you how much good, and how much even more HORRIBLE stuff we’ve had this year. But you know, when the good is really good, the bad tends to be really bad.

Let’s look at the bad things first, because I want to end this review on a positive note. Let me start with the one company that has fueled most of my gaming rage this year: Capcom. That’s right. Capcom. Who I adore for the Ace Attorney and Resident Evil games, and appreciate for Megaman, and dozens of other wonderful games they’ve released. They have pissed me off more than ANYONE else did in 2011, more than Square-Enix, more than ANYONE. Where the hell should I start? Okay, so everyone was REALLY excited when we were hearing Megaman Legends 3 was undergoing development for the 3DS. It really was a good MegaMan series and we’d been waiting over a decade for a sequel to the two original PS1 greats. It was a good 3D submission to the MegaMan franchise, and while it kind of came out of nowhere, Megaman Legends was a good game, and well appreciated, and it’s not hard to see why, but that’s something else I’ll get into another time. It was good enough to warrant a sequel, and, in retrospect, it was a lot more popular than I thought was, which is something I’m glad for. So needless to say, I was among the excited Capcom fans who were totally hyped for this game and were at the ready with plentiful suggestions, ideas, and support for the game. The developers WANTED feedback from us, and boy did they get it. They were really happy for all of our support. It was starting to look like another good reason to own a 3DS. And then Capcom decided to be a BUNCH OF GODDAMN IDIOTS. They scrapped Megaman Legends 3, and by no fault of the developers, we lost what could’ve been an amazing game. That was bad enough, that was a straight-out kick to the face, but I wouldn’t be so pissed off at them if it weren’t for the KICK TO THE CROTCH THEY DEALT MEGAMAN FANS that followed. They had the gall, the pretentiousness, THE BALLS, to insist that part of the reason it got cancelled was because US FANS WEREN’T INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT ENOUGH. FIRST OF ALL, WHAT DID THEY EXPECT US TO DO, MAKE THE GAME OURSELVES? SECONDLY, WE WERE INVOLVED, FREAKING INVOLVED. ALL THOSE SUGGESTIONS, IDEAS, EVERYTHING….THE DEVELOPERS GOT THAT. URGH. Capcom, you are either blind, or just plain stupid, but either way, you’ve lost my respect. My god they’ve pissed me off so much they’ve driven me to all caps multiple times in full seriousness. But as if that weren’t bad enough, here’s a real bad blow to me, because I love the Ace Attorney series even more than Megaman. It’s so much more beloved and closer to me. They decided NOT to export Gyakuten Kenji 2 to the U.S. and other countries, and why? “The costs would be higher than the forecasted profit.” Oh…my…god…yeah, just IGNORE your huge AA fanbase in the United States. We don’t give a damn about it. Hell, Apollo Justice and Ace Attorney Investigations sure as hell didn’t FLY off the shelves and didn’t become hard to find after about a year. Oh wait, my mistake THEY BOTH DID. WHAT THE FUCK, CAPCOM. WHAT. THE. FUCK. I hardly have a reason to cuss, especially about video games, but this is…just really too much. When we got previews and screenshots from Japan I was SO excited, only to be let down…god damn you Capcom, god damn you. But lastly, they decided to be further stupid this year with one of their Resident Evil games. No, no cancellations, no delays…at least I don’t think it was delayed. But it was an absolutely STUPID feature to Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D. You can NOT delete your save file on Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D…wait, what?! Seriously?! What the hell! So if I bought it pre-owned, I have to start from wherever the last person stopped? No new game? And no replayability because I can’t start over from scratch? FUCK YOU TOO, CAPCOM. Of course I (poor unsuspecting bastard that I am) was pretty interested in Mercs 3D because it seemed pretty interesting and the character roster looked rather cool. I mean, hell, we get Claire for the first time on a Mercs game, the best female in the RE series, and hey, it’s fucking Barry Burton, where can you go wrong with that? The game itself, however was pretty lackluster, especially with how choppy and…well…low-res the enemies were at a distance. It looked pretty bad in general, and everything looked like it was just pasted on a background. I mean, for games that are purposefully stylized like that, such as Borderlands, you know, it works. But for a Resident Evil game, I don’t think so. And yes. I bought it pre-owned. So I found out that save bullshit the hard way. Ugh…there was only one good thing about getting that game, and didn’t actually have to do with the game itself, but I’ll go into that later.

I have to admit, the Call of Duty series has known how to piss me off rather well too. I mean, it’s nothing like SUPER RAGE, but come on guys, really…this is so stupid. People are contending that Call of Duty is the best shooter series ever, especially with the most recent installment, Modern Warfare 3. The absolute fanboys are trying to compare how good it is to SKYRIM. Let’s just not even go there right now, okay? Let me just tell you what I call the Call of Duty series ever since it got into the Modern Warfare series. Generic Shooter. What do I call Modern Warfare 3, specifically? Generic Shooter 1.2. Since MW started, the only game in that series that’s really had ANYTHING different to offer is Black Ops, and that’s still not a lot, and not very original. Wow, fighting off zombies in survival…haven’t seen that recently. At all. The only really original thing about that isn’t even the gameplay, but the fact that they’re Nazi Zombies. Ugh, let’s just leave things right there, alright?

Remember how I said Square-Enix managed to piss me off? Well they did as soon as they announced Final Fantasy XIII-2. Not to mention how bad XIV, let’s leave that as it is, and look at XIII-2. Come on. XIII does NOT NEED A SEQUEL. It did bad enough and got enough BS from fans of the Final Fantasy series as is, does it really warrant a SEQUEL? Come on, guys. The automatic battle system is not something we need to see again. It’s worse than XII, and that battle system didn’t work too well, to be honest. *Sigh* Really, Square-Enix. I’ve lost almost all faith in you. The only reason I still have some faith in you is because you’ve published a couple of awesome games in the past couple of years which you really didn’t have much to do with anywho, so I guess I don’t. I’ll get into those awesome games later, though

Actually, I might just get into them now, since I’m finally transitioning to the positive things of 2011. I’m so upset that I don’t even want to get into the horrible 3DS launch, so let’s just leave it at that. Arkham Asylum was a brilliant Batman game, the sort of game we’d been yearning for from superhero games for YEARS. I mean, we KIND OF got it with the Spider-Man movie-based games…at least 1 and 2…but we REALLY got it with Batman: Arkham Asylum. I mean, this game made you absolutely look and FEEL awesome. It transitioned almost seamlessly, it flowed well, it was lengthy enough, it felt smooth and not clunky, the plot was well-made, the characters were exactly as they should be, ESPECIALLY with Mark Hamil as Joker, and man…there’s just about nothing wrong with it. I’d gotten a chance to play some of it before recently, but I didn’t get the privilege of  owning it until recently…and it makes me want Arkham City so badly. Everyone’s saying the 2011 release is even better than it’s predecessor, and if it is…it must be absolutely flawless. Even GameInformer, which rarely gives games perfect ratings…gave it a 10. There was only one other game that got a 10 from them and that was The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I haven’t gotten a chance to play that game, but man, I want to so bad, and everyone says it’s the best entry yet. Another great thing about 2011. In any case, Arkham City looks so good, and now The Riddler is finally fully involved. Everything about it looks just…excellent, and it makes me want the game so much. I look forward to the time I can eventually play it myself, preferably because I own it myself. I want it even more than I want Skyward Sword, and you have no idea how much I want the latter

Now…let me get into another big high-quality game of the year and start by saying…I don’t really want it that much. Sure, Skyrim looks and sounds amazing. I won’t deny it. But it was WAAAAAAY too over-hyped for me. When I first heard about it, I was really excited, and it sounded so cool. It still does, but all the overhype has really made the initial excitement wear off for me, and now…I don’t want it so much. Especially with all the other games I’m already occupied with, I’m just not so sure I can immerse myself in Skyrim now. It’s made number 1 on so many lists, and I won’t say it’s bad, not by any means. I just haven’t played it myself and I’m not really sure that I want to. I don’t think it’s the kind of game I can get myself into anymore. No dissing it, like I said, it really does look amazing, and I have no doubt that it is, but…I don’t know, I just have lost interest in it, I really have.

Now that I’ve calmed down and mellowed out some, let me get back around to Capcom and the fact that there’s actually hope. Not for Megaman Legends 3, unfortunately, that seems completely scrapped, but at least for the future of the Ace Attorney and Resident Evil franchises. Let me start with Resident Evil by telling you the one good thing about Mercs 3D I was talking about earlier. The 5-minute demo of Revelations. I’d heard about, and been really excited about, Resident Evil: Revelations before now. It sounded really good, and like a good step forward. The demo was all I needed to be sold on the game. It has the over-the-shoulder gameplay and good controls of Resident Evil 4 combined with the atmosphere, style, and tension of the older Resident Evil games. It really seems like the best of both worlds, and from the reviews I’ve seen, it really is. The reviews are saying that it really goes back to SURVIVAL horror and not action horror, and that it has some gameplay elements of the old games such as limited ammunition and healing supplies. It looks like the game that I, and other Resident Evil fans, have wanted from Capcom for a long time. It’s another reason I’m glad that I ended up buying a 3DS, and I’m looking forward to it. But lastly, as far as Capcom, I have to talk about the series dearer to my heart…once again, Ace Attorney, and for this, I really have to say hooray for Christian Svensson over at Capcom USA who has noticed the shouts of the fans and is really trying to get the localization of AAI2 to REALLY happen for us. There’s the hope that it really can happen. If it does, it probably won’t be for the DS. He’s actually suggested the possibility of digital download (probably for 3DS from the e-shop, I imagine) to Capcom and the fans. I don’t care if it’s not for the DS itself, as long as we get it, and digital download would cut the “costs” Capcom is so concerned about considerably. So now isn’t the time to give up on AAI2 because there is still hope for the game in the US. It’s not over yet, either way, so we still need to fight for AAI2, but we actually have a good deal of hope, so I’m going to hope for this game and this series and continue to fight for it.

There’s a whole bunch of other good stuff we got. I mean, Uncharted 3, the announcement of the PS Vita, LittleBigPlanet 2, Portal 2, Total War: Shogun 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, so many things that I could go on for probably a whole week and even more about the good stuff we got. Hell, I personally love Mario Kart 7, just in time for 2011. It really is a whole new installment in the Mario Kart series on its own. So despite the rage-inducing BS we got this year…it was good. 2011 was pretty damn good. Let’s hope for an even better year in 2012 if it can be done. So that’s it, everyone. Until next time, Cool70sfreak out.

When I started this blog I was determined to accomplish one goal, to find depth within this at times controversial medium that I am so familiar with. Though I have touched upon how this particular medium can convey art, character complexity, and narrative, I have yet to single out a particular note that shows brilliantly in all aspects of how to accomplish this cohesively to reach levels in other mediums. The kind of thing that acquires the sought after title of “thought-provoking”, the kind of feeling that stays with you after you see the end.

Today I bring you the introduction of many future topics I will do on a game I believe to have accomplished such things, the game called Iji.

Initially, the game seems unspectacular. Released back in 2008, Iji was one of many amidst the somewhat stagnant and notable genre of games involving alien invasion. The initial setup was one that has also been told many a time. The center villains are the Tasen, invading aliens that have attacked the Earth, turning it into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with few survivors. The eponymous Iji is the protagonist whose opposition to the aliens is the one, only, final hope the recently injured humanity has. Generic, simple, it could have stopped there with its narrative. Iji could have simple been one of many femme fatals to blast the aliens back from whence they came if not into oblivion like many before her in modern fiction across multiple mediums.

Creator Daniel Remar did not stop there. The independent, one man, developer had made numerous games in the past, but he put forth more effort into Iji than he has ever, or will ever again at this point, into one of his games.

Iji is not an action hero, she is a conflicted and complex individual who evolves based on how the game is played. The Tasen are not necessarily hell bent on annihilating the lesser race of humans, they are simply on the run, fearful, and poorly lead. The climax of the game is not a matter of defeating the bad guy; it is a matter of changing his mind. The true villain of the game is not a sinister ruler, but the power of mob rule.

I will touch upon these subjects and more in the future.

Yes, despite being a teenager from a Japanese game, Heather is a fully developed character. Courageous, wise, and with a smart mouth Heather is an epitome of youth.

First let’s start off by taking a look at Heather from the beginning of the game. As with every other entry in the series, you start the game unequipped with any sort of weapon and must find it within the first act of the game. However, this is not the case with Heather, who starts the game already with a pocketknife in her possession, claiming that carrying it comforts her. When you arrive back at her apartment, you can find a stun gun, given to her by her worried father. From this we can conclude two things; Heather feels vulnerable due to her gender and yet feels confident in her own strength to protect herself. This fear of an unseen attacker preying upon her is manifested within the monster Valtiel, who appears throughout the game in a distant place that cannot be reached but is always an unsettling presence.

Despite her obvious initial fear when confronted with the horrors of Silent Hill, she eventually becomes jaded over time to the horrors as she continues throughout her endeavors. Over time, the she experiences the terrifying and dangerous images and monsters of Silent Hill outside the town itself, which is a slight oddity for the series up to this point. When her father is killed she decides once and for all to track down the killer responsible by going to the source of the nightmares that have appeared in her life.  Eventually, she finds herself face to face with a hulking behemoth only to sarcastically comment how everything seems to be a monster. Though with her own fears, Heather is one to put them aside to pursue more pressing matters.

When confronted with how foolish seeking vengeance is, Heather replies along the lines that she doesn’t care she just wants to see it happen. Heather knows this action won’t bring her father back, but she just wants to do it anyway, she does what she wants and she’ll deal with the consequences later. Heather is not one with regrets, she only changes herself when she’s done, as can be seen saying only that she quit smoking and nothing more on the subject.

Upon finally achieving her vengeance, she breaks down for the second time as her thoughts turn to her fallen father. Being the only family she had, she found herself changing her attitude to the character Douglas, who she initially blamed partially for his death, to a more outgoing and friendly attitude. Though not one to rely on others, Heather did feel lonely, given how her only companion in her nomadic life was gone now as she tried to fill the new void.

Intelligent enough to reference the works of Poe and Shakespeare, courageous enough to put her fears aside to press forth in her own goals knowing how futile they are, and yet spotted with enough flaws due to her own youth, Heather is a fully fleshed out character.

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Neoswordmaster is a member of the parent site of The Otaku Arcade, The Otaku 2.0 Forums which can be found here…http://theotaku2.50.forumer.com/index.php?noportal=1

So let’s dive right in and examine just how the Silent Hill world emphasizes character depth. Again, I will be discussing the plot in detail so yes, those wishing to not have the ending spoiled be warned. While usually I would be going through the character themselves to examine them, we’re going to be looking at the monsters that manifested from our protagonist’s psyche instead.

For your pleasure, listen to this while you read for maximum enjoyment.

As mentioned before, James Sunderland ventures into Silent Hill after being summoned there via a letter from his now deceased wife. Though he is certain he recalls her death being the result of an illness she had been fighting, it was actually James that killed her. As a result, his subconscious mind hid that act away in his mind, forgetting it in place of a more reasonable conclusion, in an act of defense.

Thus, Silent Hill summoned him to bring him to realize what he had done.

Lying Figure

The lying figure, the first monster you encounter, is born of James’ restriction he felt as his bedridden wife lay in her hospital bed. As the monster resembles a person in a straight jacket, thus James felt the same, his frustration being unable to not be with his wife or extinguish his sexual desire through pursuing other women. Shackled to his marriage with a woman who would remain in a sick bed for The lying figure is key to what motivated James to do the act.

Mannequin

Nurse

The Mannequin, consisting of a torso with female legs for all four limbs, and the second incarnation of the recurring nurse, in this manifestation very sexually revealing, these two monsters are representative of James’ sexual desire and frustration while his wife was reclined to a hospital bed. The nurses in particular are evident of how James viewed the actual nurses he encountered while at the hospital when visiting his wife.

Mary

Pyramid Head

And finally, we come to the big daddy of them all, Pyramid Head. Representative of James’ guilt and need for punishment, Pyramid Head chases James throughout the game. As he progresses throughout Silent Hill, Pyramid Head murders a woman who reminds James of his wife numerous times to remind him of his crime. When James has to eventually take the life of another character in self defense, a second Pyramid Head appears alongside the first to symbolize his guilt towards that murder. Pyramid Head is invincible and is only defeated by killing itself when James finally comes to terms with the crime that he committed and accepts the guilt of the act.

The Otaku 2.0 Arcade is the blog branch of the Otaku 2.0 Forum, found here…

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Silent Hill.

Yes, the next three entries will deal with spoilers.

The Stop and Swoop of Horror Games. This phrase means nothing.

Of the games I’ve played what the general consensus seems to garner as the two best. After playing both of them to an extent and experiencing their story and narrative it is here that I would like to publish my thoughts about it.

First and foremost, Silent Hill itself is a genius idea and deserves to go down as one of the big names in the horror genre as a whole. It follows a simple formula. The protagonist is usually troubled in some way or in some psychological manner. Then they are drawn to the town in somehow, usually willfully going there seeking something or as is the case with the latest entry, dropped off there. It bears strong mentioning that these characters are absolutely ordinary, not at all the kinds of even would be heroes that populate video games.  Of the protagonists thus far the most combat inclined are a girl who carries around a pocketknife for protection and a man who thinks he served in the army. These are not people who should be fighting monsters. This adds to the horror of being absolutely defenseless to the terrors that await you. Of course that terror seems to loosen up a bit when your teenage girl finds herself equipped with everything from a katana to a giant maul and submachine gun.

The town of Silent Hill should be portrayed as a character itself. In Silent Hill 2, it summons James using the guise of a letter from his dead wife to confront him on his inner demons. It draws upon the issues and psychological baggage that these people bring with them to the town, manifesting them in to horrifying monsters of mutated flesh. It’s a simple formula of protagonist/villain that adds quite a bit of depth to both parties.

However there is a problem. Along with the narrative and some excellent atmosphere that brings you to fear of exploration, not just the monsters, comes a price, a huge price.

Advancement in the game comes down to finding object A or C to use in connection with place 1 in what it constitutes as a “puzzle” which will bring you to object B which you need to use for some other part. It has a terrible problem of tedious backtracking that just takes away from the experience.

Neoswordmaster is a reviewer for The Otaku 2.0 Forum, found here.

http://theotaku2.50.forumer.com/index.php?noportal=1

With the jump from 2 dimensions to 3 dimensions, many games had to undergo a few changes. As it was, Final Fantasy could not translate Yoshitaka Amano’s, the artist for the first six entries; works into a 3 dimensional installment a new artist was hired. That artist was Tetsuya Nomura who became unfortunately popular with his pseudo anime styles and very odd overuse of the laughable and the unnecessary. With each new work his designs became more and more ridiculous, so let’s start with one of his more notable designs, not of a Final Fantasy character, but of the Kingdom Hearts protagonist Sora, who holds some of Nomura’s most prominent pretentious themes. For the sake of this article, we will be using his design in Kingdom Hearts 2.

Belts, belts, belts, belts, belts. In the middle of his torso, Sora wears a belt that doesn’t seem to be attached to his pants. In addition, there seem to be two belts loosely dangling from his jacket that hold the puffy pants over his regular pants. His shoes hold two redundant belt straps each, despite the fact that they are operated on zippers (more on zippers later). Luckily enough, there straps on his sholders appear to have the use of holding his shoulder armor on, at least it would be if that was armor and not additional needless fabric.

Onto the zippers. There aren’t many here, but the zippers here are large and goofy. The most prominent being on his belly shirt of a hoodie. As far as the unnecessary additions to the outfit, we have to remember, this is a character whose key combat prowess relies on his nimbleness, so why is there so much silly stuff to get in the way. The flaps on his pants seem to reference the armor of a samurai. Well that’s all good if that was actually armor, but here it’s just pointless fabric that make it very easy for an opponent to grab hold of you. Finally I have to touch upon that weird crest on the stomach of the undershirt…what purpose does that random design serve?

I think this is probably the most important part of video game music to be analyzed, and probably the last part of this particular series: the effect that music has on the player of the game itself. Just take a moment, and think of your favorite game, right off the top of your head. Now think about the general feel and environment of that game. Think about gameplay, story, everything about it BUT the music, if you can. Now think SOLELY about the music of that game. Does it remind you of the feel of the game? The setting, thinking back to playing it, everything about it?

Odds are, it probably does. It seems to be a general trend that video game players really like the music of their favorite games. It may not even be something you consciously think about, but if there’s a game you really like that has a well constructed musical score to it, you’re probably going to remember it, and it’s likely to leave an impression on you, as a player. I’ve talked about how music is supposed to represent the environment, the characters, the general atmosphere of a game. As those things should leave an impression on you, the music should do the same in turn. If the compositions of a game are hardly memorable, then the composer is really not doing their job well.

Think back to what I said about Spyro the Dragon in Part 2. It has well-known lasting music. Why? Because it was well made, and expresses the game well. Through that music, there’s a large feeling of nostalgia, BECAUSE it fits, and because it sounds good. The music hasn’t been just thrown together or neglected completely. It’s become an interwoven part of not only the game, but even the entire original series. That is what really gives it a value beyond comparison. If the music is good, it will keep a part in the player’s memory.

Unfortuantely, even music in video games seems to be deteriorating a bit today as far as how well it’s made. I’m not sure if there’s any in the recent Call of Duty games, but if there is, there’s not the slightest hint of it in multiplayer. For some games, I guess it’s understandable not to have music in multiplayer, but for at least a shooter like Call of Duty, I think music would be fitting, especially since multiplayer is what people are going to be playing more often than not. In fact, there are very few shooters that have good, if any, music in the multiplayer gameplay anymore.

But there is one exception to this rule that is a very resounding, wonderful exception. Left 4 Dead is damned clever with how it uses music. It not only sets the atmosphere, but it changes WITH the game. A horde approaching? There’s very distinct music signaling the swarm of zombies headed for the survivors. Of course, the music for the Tank is something that definitely sticks with players. It’s a pretty big warning sign. There’s also the Witch’s music, which is extremely clever in how it is implemented. It gets louder and more intense the closer the players get to the Witch. And even the special infected have their own little ambineces in the background that are a little hard to notice, but if you play it enough, you can pick up on it. Especially the hunter. Those three dischordial piano keys are difficult to almost not notice.

All-in-all, there’s still a lot to be said for the value of music in video games. It even makes (or breaks) some games out there. After all, there’s Rock Band and Guitar Hero for starters, but that’s sort of a different subject altogether. The fact of the matter is, even if music isn’t always as good as it used to be, or even if some of it is better where it is present, it still matters. It’s pretty much a necessity for just about any game, and, as such, deserves a lot of thought and focus…not only by the composer, but by the audience.

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Quite recently several members of The Otaku ensued in a bit of a debate; namely, the supposed quality between two standout, and very different titles that were released for the DS relatively recently. The quirky puzzler that brought a breath of fresh gameplay, Ghost Trick, and the story heavy 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors being the ones in question. Thus, I have taken it upon myself to identify their objective pros and cons and see which comes out on top. This may become a new series of mine.

Story/Storytelling/Characters

Ghost Trick comes from the mind of Shu Takumi, the man who is responsible for the very well written Ace Attorney series, so it comes to no surprise that Ghost Trick has a very strong story. From the get go, questions are presented within the plot that do nothing but keep the player addicted, wanting to progress through the story to figure out exactly the whats and whys of the mystery. Suffice it to say, the majority of the plot is wrapped up very nicely by the end of the game. Furthermore, also like Ace Attorney, Ghost Trick contains a variety of characters ranging from the wacky to the tragic. That being said, the themes it borrows from Ace Attorney become somewhat irritating. While the good characters stand out, the bad generic characters stand out even more.  The character Lynn, for example, serves no purpose other than to be a damsel in distress and a means for the main gameplay and has no personality that differs from the female sidekick that Maya, Trucy, and Kay had before her in the Ace Attorney series. However the overall story and characters are still strong so Ghost Trick would easily win this round against most games.

However, 999 is not most games.

Using nothing but a handful of still screens and animated character sprites as graphics, 999 tells the story using text to describe the situation to you in vivid detail (in one of the more prolific examples it will at times discreetly show you an bloodstain while describing to you the gruesome corpse that said stain belongs to). 999 plays with the multiple endings gimmick that many visual novels use to its advantage, essentially making every ending technically canonical in a broad plot that entails brilliant use of foreshadowing. From the very start , the tension is high and only gets higher as the story progresses until it all comes crashing down as you find yourself in one of the thrilling endings. As for the characters, the entire cast is worth mentioning, though some more than others. All are fully developed with their own motivations, personalities, and characteristics. Again, mention of the great storytelling is in order as you’ll soon find yourself questioning exactly who you can and cannot trust. And yet, the game has no problem with making you empathize and care for the other characters. In one of the most memorable scenes of the game, a character puts themselves in almost certain mortal danger so that you and another character can progress further. It is during this tense moment that this character reveals fearfully that if something were to happen, to tell their children that they love them very much. During this scene you fear for this character’s safety, and it is one of the most downright terrifying moments in a video game.

Point goes to 999.

Graphics/Sound/Aesthetic

As mentioned before, 999 uses a very minimalist approach to its visual presentation. While this does wonders for its narrative and ambience, it does little to aid it in this particular category. While it has a great soundtrack that sets the mood wonderfully, the pieces are not exactly enthralling to listen to outside of the particular setting, save for a few.

Ghost Trick on the other hand is nothing but style. From the upbeat main theme, to the somewhat somber tones when required, the soundtrack of Ghost Trick is a jazzy masterpiece. The aesthetic of the art style compliments this, the jagged lines and bright colors of the designs are eye catching and well done. Special mention must be made to how well animated the character models are, though at times their animations are used to repetitive tedium.

Point goes to Ghost Trick

Longevity (The bang for your buck category)

Ghost Trick clocks in at about 5-10 hours. Much like the Ace Attorney series, it is pathetically linear, and bears little replay value, other than to see through the story again.

999 on the other hand, practically demands replayability for the story. Though playing through the main game will only clock about 3-5 hours, trying to achieve all potential endings will bring it up to almost five or six times that length, depending on the aptitude of the player.

Point to 999.

Gameplay

And thus the final category, gameplay.

999 offers little more than simple Myst style puzzles. While they are good and challenging, they are inevitably nothing new. Furthermore, these are all sprinkled upon a large amount of story to a very small ratio.

Ghost Trick however offers a huge breath of fresh air using a sparsely used gimmick of possessing objects and messing with them to achieve puzzles. A surprising amount of timing is used in these puzzles, and from the get go they never stop being entertaining.

Point to Ghost Trick.

Overall

This was a silly discussion. Both are great games and have their subjective qualities. If you want story, characters, and a longer game, get 999. If you want something new and exciting with good gameplay, get Ghost Trick. Both deserve a spot on DS owners’ library.

Have some androgeny!

Last time we covered Kanji Tatsumi, a character from Persona 4 notable for his homosexuality or bisexuality. This week, we’re going to touch upon Naoto Shirogane, also from Persona 4 who is notable for the struggles with gender identity the character goes through.

Throughout the game, a mysterious individual is seen around the same time Kanji is introduced. He later is introduced properly as Naoto Shirogane, a “detective prince”, a Holmes sent in to investigate the murders that your group is looking into after the local police had produced little results of their own. Almost instantly, he not only discredits the current suspect in custody, even with enough evidence that your group is convinced he was the killer, but also picks up on your own involvement with the case as well. In an effort to draw the killer out, Naoto meets the requirements of the killer’s MO, and is thrown into the TV world.

Naturally, having already done this four times previously, your group takes to the TV world to rescue Naoto. His psyche has warped the dungeon into a sort of “secret base”, a laboratory base brimming with technology hidden inside a mountain cliff, not unlike some sort of superhero villain. As with all previous instances, Naoto is found alongside his shadow, seen here in an oversized lab coat with the voice of a whining child, though what may be more startling is the room that they are found in. An oversized drill and saw blade, the former having clear traces of blood, loom over an operating table. Shadow Naoto’s tone changes soon from the childish tone to a more serious tone, underscoring Naoto’s inner frustration and anger as to how he is treated inferiorly among the workplace citing his immaturity. The dual personality is a representation of his own inferior feeling and desire to be accepted as well as his pent up frustration upon not doing so. Shadow Naoto then declares that the “body alteration procedure” begin, most likely referring to the drill and saw blade in the room, but not after revealing a key detail. Not only does Naoto desire to be a mature adult to be accepted into society and achieve her carrer aspirations of becoming the same sort of detective she read in mystery books, but also a mature adult male as well.

Yes, Naoto’s discrimination and inferiority stems not only from young age, but also from being female, her dark desire being to undergo a “body alteration procedure” or “sex change operation”. This isn’t a mere silly just being mistaken about her gender from this point, Naoto adopts the title of “Detective Prince”, dresses like a boy, and never once seems to have any qualms with society accepting her as a male. Naoto even explains that she charades around as a male due to a fear of her not being accepted into the male dominated law enforcement society.

The only complaint towards Naoto’s characterization is that she appears in the latter half of the game, and never quite receives the same development as her party members. Furthermore, her social link does little to touch upon her gender identity issues.

Oh, and before I leave, an interesting bit of irony. Naoto’s English voice actress is also most well known for playing Haku in Naruto.

Totally a dude

Kanji Tatsumi, a fantastic example of well done writing to create a character that is likable, entertaining, complex, and relatable. He is also one of the few examples of a homosexual character that is written in a way that is neither pandering to stereotypes nor ironic.

But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s start off by following his character through how it is introduced throughout the story. Initially, we find Kanji to be a simple rough and tough rebel guy, a child coming from a local family in the textile market. Rumors abound about him and his violent and unruly nature, the consensual assumption being that he happens to belong to a biker gang. Eventually, it is soon revealed that he actually beat up said biker gang for the simple fact that they were causing too much noise for his mother to get a good night’s rest. Ok, so he’s a tough guy with a soft side. We’ve seen this trope played out numerous times in fiction, so not much depth here thus far. Continuing on, in the end Kanji becomes involved in your murder investigation and your group decides to examine him a bit further, resulting in the game to subtly put his sexuality into question.

Eventually, Kanji is thrown headfirst into the TV world, the place where you explore dungeons. Simultaneously it is also the means to evoke depth within the characters through use of a physical materialization of the character’s psyche as well as a “shadow” a manifestation of the character’s doubts, regrets, and rejections. Every party member that joins you goes through their own experience, and must come to term with the side of them that they are not proud of. Kanji’s shadow is a glorious example of his inner fears of his sexuality, a very stereotypical homophobic interpretation that he feels is how he would be viewed by society if he was gay.

Through his shadow, as well as explored further in the game, we learn that because he was raised around the business of textile he grew to adopt a hobby of sewing. As a result he was bullied and taunted as a child for being interested in “girly” things, things that were unmanly. As a result he became an outcast and rather than succumbing to the put downs and becoming a wimp, he eschewed his somewhat feminine interests and built his appearance to others as a very masculine individual. Though not quite accepted by society, Kanji adopts this persona knowing that it would be the lesser of what he views to be of two evils. This is very prevalent in the boss fight with Kanji’s shadow, who is assisted by two enemies know only as “Nice Guy”, his repressed side, and “Tough Guy”, his uninhibited side that he demonstrates to the world.

The English release of the game made his sexuality much more ambiguous. This is assisted due in part to his romantically interest in the very androgynous Naoto Shirogane…