Time for another foray into my personal quirk (well, one of them), a fascination with AMVs.
Starting today, incidentally, I’m gonna highlight one AMV per AMV rant in bold. This bolded AMV will be the one I consider the best of the bunch for that rant. Why do this? I dunno. Probably cuz I’m bored, I guess.
As always, if you find any of these videos pleasing, be decent enough to hit the Thumbs Up button, and/or even better yet, leave a positive comment. The world has more than enough terrible, clumsy, careless AMVs, and we must cherishingly encourage and gently cradle those few, precious fans capable of creating something worthwhile.
CHRONO
Chrono Cross: Path, by Lycan Lord: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2qCja3Cew&list=WL7252ED8AF15FA0F7
The music used is Path, by Apocalyptica. Appropriately choosing a violin-heavy song for a violin-heavy game, Lycan Lord takes this song’s inconstant but elegant fire and chaos and matches it with technical grace and intuitive emotion through the scenes of Chrono Cross. Lycan Lord makes the most out of Path and creates a far better tribute to Chrono Cross than the game actually deserves.
FINAL FANTASY
Final Fantasy 8: I Found Away, by YuniX2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VP3ABap5Xs&list=WL7252ED8AF15FA0F7
The music used is I Found Away, by Alkaline Trio. This isn’t YuniX2’s first time on this blog (you may recall the excellent FF10 AMV of hers that got its own rant last year), nor shall it be her last. She just seems to have this great, innate understanding of how to meld the lyrics and emotion and meaning to the actions and visuals and meaning of game scenes and characters, and seal them together into a whole using simple but creative and cool editing and connections of movement and shape between scenes. You watch this video, and it makes sense, it has purpose, it connects all its parts, and it flows naturally from one part to the next. This video is as good as an AMV can get without outright deserving its very own spotlight rant.
Final Fantasy 8: No Light, No Light, by EmeraldLatias: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFfPeIKHmYg
The music used is No Light, No Light, by Florence and the Machine. I hope this is as good as I think it is, but if I’m to be honest, I fear my impartiality with AMVs is not at full strength when it comes to Florence and the Machine. It’s rare that a singer/band/musical group comes along that I can actually consider a musical artist, and rarer still that I also actually enjoy their work (my tastes are a bit...picky, when it comes to music. Like, picky even considering my usual demanding nature, which, as you probably know by now, is really saying something). Regardless of my automatic favor of the song, though, I’m pretty sure this is a darned good AMV. The editing is effective, the scenes match the tone of the music well, and the lyrics and events of the video component are well-coordinated, using FF8’s footage effectively for the song’s purposes. Solid work.
Final Fantasy 10: What If, by Thececfinal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW74wAx4nB0&list=WL7252ED8AF15FA0F7
The music used is What If, by Kate Winslet. I generally try to avoid acknowledging the existence of Final Fantasy 10-2 in any significant way, and this usually means I ignore any AMV that features scenes from it, but the this one’s really good, and the FF10-2 scenes are really only used to underscore the aspects of the FF10 footage that work with the music, so I make an exception here. Anyway, very good all around on this one--the video matches the song’s tune well, the lyrics are overall a great fit for Yuna and Tidus (though it sometimes seems almost like the video is jumping from the lyrics applying to Yuna and Tidus, and then like Yuna and Tidus are applying to the lyrics, if that makes any sense (probably doesn’t)). The effects are simple but good; I quite like the black-and-white effect for the part where the singer is remembering near the beginning. This is just a well-made AMV, simple as that.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
The Legend of Zelda Series: New Divide, by RokuRee14: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SeD0gaLh0E&list=WL7252ED8AF15FA0F7
The music used is New Divide, by Linkin Park. Like it or hate it, there’s no denying that Linkin Park’s music is by and large perfect fuel for AMVs, and as such, I hear it dozens and dozens of times every time I do an AMV check-up, so I’m kind of biased about AMVs that use it--it’s so easy to do a halfway decent job with it that an AMV has to use it especially effectively for me to take any notice. But I gotta say, this AMV here does a bang-up job, matching lyrics to scenes, tune to atmosphere, and generally meshing the audio and visual into one unit. There are a couple of scenes that I think really work in this one, like showing Link holding the Master Sword when the song mentions Fate having found him, and showing the time shift, the crossing of divided times, in TLoZ: Ocarina of Time when the song first mentions its namesake, the “new divide.” There’s some good visual editing on this one, too, although I’d say there’s a point where it’s a little excessive later in the song. Overall, I’d say this one’s a definite winner.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Knight of Immortal Fire, by Kh0r0n: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Fb3PpHfM8
The music used is Knight of Immortal Fire, by Luca Turilli. Short of extravagant special effects, it doesn’t get much better for AMV editing than this video. Kh0r0n does a darn near flawless job at coordinating the action of every video clip to the actions and feel of the music, and the end result is a totally epic show of the rich and varied world, events, and game play of TLoZSS. If this doesn’t give you a rush of excitement and desire to play the game, then I don’t know what possibly could.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Not Strong Enough, by AbsolLugia and Zelda3018: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM9MIC7GKko
The music used is Strong Enough, by Apoctalyptica. This one’s pretty heavy on the special effects, but most of the time they’re used very well. I mean, the beginning part is a little heavy-handed, but overall pretty neat, particularly when the color begins to seep in. The scene changes are timed very well and have some definite skill to them, the golden tint to the video is a really nice effect (it’s always tricky, tinting your video without having it become unnecessarily distracting), and the central window rectangle effect thing that starts at 1:14 is quite cool and matches itself to the song splendidly. On the other hand, the little wispy wind things that start at 1:41 ARE distracting and seem completely arbitrary, along with the subsequent stardusty effect and the opening color circle things. This video would be SO much better without any of that crap; all it does is distract. Still, the timing and scene selection is just great, the effects for the first half of it, at least, really compliment it, and overall it comes off as very cool.
SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: Memories of..., by WizardofCeles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IenxyCnamEk
The music used is a cover of Fix You, by Coldplay. The cover itself is done by a fan known as Number3NeverForget. This is a simple, quiet, but emotional AMV that uses the gentle music to compliment the game footage, which gives a brief detail of SMTP3 protagonist Minato’s relationship with his friends, and the incredible impact he has upon them, leaving them forever altered for the better by his actions, leadership, and friendship. The AMV takes the idea of fixing someone, which is from the original version of the song, and applies it to Minato, showing how he’s left them better than he found them. It’s sweet and touching, and the effects that WizardofCeles employs in the video are used well.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Xenosaga 3's MOMO's Last Line of Dialogue
Warning: This rant references some rather disturbing things. Just a heads-up.
Gee, I think it’s that time again--time to rag on something stupid about Xenosaga. Let’s see...so many options. Maybe I could talk about how essential it is to the core plot for Shion’s suffering to be some of the greatest in the universe, yet for most of the series she never comes off as even mildly troubled, let alone tortured. Perhaps my thoughts on what a nonsensical plot turd the entire back-in-time-only-sort-of-not-really arc of Xenosaga 3’s story was! There’s always the character, chaos--the absurdity that no one in the party ever, ever properly questions his abilities or participation, the incredibly poor writing of having the entirety of his character revealed at the showdown with the last boss of the last game, the largely nonsensical and contrived nature of that revelation, and the lousy, inferior turn his personality took after Xenosaga 1.
Oh, no, wait, I know! How about that one moment in the ending when MOMO says, “Will you be sure to say “Hello” to Albedo for me?”
“Wait, The RPGenius!” you say, in that smooth, strong voice of yours that echoes with charismatic power.* “Do you mean to tell me that you’re going to take an entire rant’s worth of exception to a single line of dialogue?”
Of course I am. What part of “nitpicky RPG nerd” is confusing you guys? Besides, this really is kind of a big deal.
See, it’s like this. By the ending of Xenosaga 3, along with hundreds of other things that are weird and make little to no sense, the fan-favorite redhead in the cast, Jr., has absorbed the consciousness of his genetic clone-twin thing, Albedo, into himself, and now Albedo’s spirit or whatever is sleeping inside him. Jr. is going to join Shion, Allen, and several secondary characters in an attempt to find Lost Jerusalem (AKA Earth), a search which is going to take a very long time, if they ever find it at all. MOMO, on the other hand, is going to stay with her mom and Ziggy, and attempt to get civilization back on track after its galactic communications and travel network got slagged by the finale’s events. This is most definitely the last time MOMO and Jr. will see each other for a very, very long time, possibly forever.
So one problem I have with this line of MOMO’s is that, well, this is literally the last thing she ever says to Jr. face to face. Now, I think the jury’s semi-sorta out on whether Jr. and MOMO are in cute little puppy love (although I think the majority of players would say they are), but one way or another, they’re very close to one another, definitely closer than pretty much any other two party members are. So what the hell kind of final farewell is that? No expression of remorse or hope or anything, no wish for a safe journey or pledge to see each other again or anything like you might actually expect people who care about each other to say. Just “Hey, say hi to that dude in your head for me.” This line is what we get in place of an actual goodbye. There is so little understanding of the rudimentary basics of human interaction in Xenosaga that I swear it must have been written by fucking aliens or something.
This first concern, however, is a small complaint. My real problem with this line is WHAT IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST PLAYING BAGPIPE IN PAJAMAS IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE AT MONOLITH SOFT!?
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. What? WHAT? Did I just see MOMO pass on a cheerful pleasantry to ALBEDO? FUCKING ALBEDO?
Allow me to refresh your memories of something, Monolith. Let me remind you of a scene from your own game. Because apparently you guys forgot, I guess! Or maybe the writers for Xenosaga 3 never actually played Xenosaga 1! I don’t know! But I do know that whoever wrote this “Say hello to Albedo” line sure as hell didn’t know about this scene!
(Warning: The following scene from Xenosaga 1 will freak your shit right out, after it deeply disturbs you. Like, even if you’ve seen it before).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95mwIi8lVHQ
Oh, yeah, sure, Monolith! You bet! MOMO got to star in Albedo’s pedophilic snuff rape porno, then watch as the dude tore off his own head and stomped his boot through it...but there’s just no way that would have any lasting effect on her, or anything! It’s totally believable that she’d want to pass along some upbeat greetings to him! I mean, don’t all child victims of terrifying, emotionally-abusive kidnappings who somehow manage to survive their ordeal send their tormentors greeting cards each Christmas?
Normally, this is the point where I further delve into my reasoning, maybe explain why an opposing viewpoint’s defending arguments don’t hold water with me. But you know what? No. Not today. This is the end of the rant, right here. Because I just don’t have to do any of that this time. There’s no defense to be had here. Monolith Soft has a child (not that this would be better for an adult character, I should note) who went through 5 and a half minutes of freakish hell a mere couple years before extending friendly salutations to the sick fuck that, but for the incompetent twats writing MOMO’s character, should have scarred her psyche permanently and beyond recognition. Whoever came up with this line is one of the most incompetent, careless morons to ever write for an RPG.
* Sometimes I like to imagine that my readers are Keith David, voice of Goliath from Gargoyles. Yes, all of you are him right now. Deal with it.
Gee, I think it’s that time again--time to rag on something stupid about Xenosaga. Let’s see...so many options. Maybe I could talk about how essential it is to the core plot for Shion’s suffering to be some of the greatest in the universe, yet for most of the series she never comes off as even mildly troubled, let alone tortured. Perhaps my thoughts on what a nonsensical plot turd the entire back-in-time-only-sort-of-not-really arc of Xenosaga 3’s story was! There’s always the character, chaos--the absurdity that no one in the party ever, ever properly questions his abilities or participation, the incredibly poor writing of having the entirety of his character revealed at the showdown with the last boss of the last game, the largely nonsensical and contrived nature of that revelation, and the lousy, inferior turn his personality took after Xenosaga 1.
Oh, no, wait, I know! How about that one moment in the ending when MOMO says, “Will you be sure to say “Hello” to Albedo for me?”
“Wait, The RPGenius!” you say, in that smooth, strong voice of yours that echoes with charismatic power.* “Do you mean to tell me that you’re going to take an entire rant’s worth of exception to a single line of dialogue?”
Of course I am. What part of “nitpicky RPG nerd” is confusing you guys? Besides, this really is kind of a big deal.
See, it’s like this. By the ending of Xenosaga 3, along with hundreds of other things that are weird and make little to no sense, the fan-favorite redhead in the cast, Jr., has absorbed the consciousness of his genetic clone-twin thing, Albedo, into himself, and now Albedo’s spirit or whatever is sleeping inside him. Jr. is going to join Shion, Allen, and several secondary characters in an attempt to find Lost Jerusalem (AKA Earth), a search which is going to take a very long time, if they ever find it at all. MOMO, on the other hand, is going to stay with her mom and Ziggy, and attempt to get civilization back on track after its galactic communications and travel network got slagged by the finale’s events. This is most definitely the last time MOMO and Jr. will see each other for a very, very long time, possibly forever.
So one problem I have with this line of MOMO’s is that, well, this is literally the last thing she ever says to Jr. face to face. Now, I think the jury’s semi-sorta out on whether Jr. and MOMO are in cute little puppy love (although I think the majority of players would say they are), but one way or another, they’re very close to one another, definitely closer than pretty much any other two party members are. So what the hell kind of final farewell is that? No expression of remorse or hope or anything, no wish for a safe journey or pledge to see each other again or anything like you might actually expect people who care about each other to say. Just “Hey, say hi to that dude in your head for me.” This line is what we get in place of an actual goodbye. There is so little understanding of the rudimentary basics of human interaction in Xenosaga that I swear it must have been written by fucking aliens or something.
This first concern, however, is a small complaint. My real problem with this line is WHAT IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST PLAYING BAGPIPE IN PAJAMAS IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE AT MONOLITH SOFT!?
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. What? WHAT? Did I just see MOMO pass on a cheerful pleasantry to ALBEDO? FUCKING ALBEDO?
Allow me to refresh your memories of something, Monolith. Let me remind you of a scene from your own game. Because apparently you guys forgot, I guess! Or maybe the writers for Xenosaga 3 never actually played Xenosaga 1! I don’t know! But I do know that whoever wrote this “Say hello to Albedo” line sure as hell didn’t know about this scene!
(Warning: The following scene from Xenosaga 1 will freak your shit right out, after it deeply disturbs you. Like, even if you’ve seen it before).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95mwIi8lVHQ
Oh, yeah, sure, Monolith! You bet! MOMO got to star in Albedo’s pedophilic snuff rape porno, then watch as the dude tore off his own head and stomped his boot through it...but there’s just no way that would have any lasting effect on her, or anything! It’s totally believable that she’d want to pass along some upbeat greetings to him! I mean, don’t all child victims of terrifying, emotionally-abusive kidnappings who somehow manage to survive their ordeal send their tormentors greeting cards each Christmas?
Normally, this is the point where I further delve into my reasoning, maybe explain why an opposing viewpoint’s defending arguments don’t hold water with me. But you know what? No. Not today. This is the end of the rant, right here. Because I just don’t have to do any of that this time. There’s no defense to be had here. Monolith Soft has a child (not that this would be better for an adult character, I should note) who went through 5 and a half minutes of freakish hell a mere couple years before extending friendly salutations to the sick fuck that, but for the incompetent twats writing MOMO’s character, should have scarred her psyche permanently and beyond recognition. Whoever came up with this line is one of the most incompetent, careless morons to ever write for an RPG.
* Sometimes I like to imagine that my readers are Keith David, voice of Goliath from Gargoyles. Yes, all of you are him right now. Deal with it.
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