General RPGs' AMVs 18

It’s that time of year again!  Yes, that annual moment that no one but me really likes all that much: AMV Rant Day.  Well, tough lentils; it’s my blog so nyeh on you.  Besides, AMVs represent an important phenomenon in internet history--Cr1t1kal himself has made a compelling case for why Youtube owes its existence to them.  Least we can do is honor a few good ones annually, in my opinion.



DEUS EX

Deus Ex 3: Augmented Icarus, by Nostromo
The music used is RoadGame, by Kavinsky, and a remix of RoadGame, by F.O.O.L.  This is a slick, smooth, exciting AMV that plays to the visual and spiritual strengths of DE3 very well, both through its choice of visuals (including a refreshing and effective use of gameplay footage to complement the standard cutscenes and trailer material) and its use of music, creating a really cool homage to the game and its protagonist.  A great way to start off today’s AMV rant, no doubt about it!

Deus Ex 3 + 4: I Am Machine, by Brigi Bodnar
The music used is I Am Machine, by Three Days Grace.  I daresay this song might be 1 of the most perfectly suited pieces of music in existence to be matched to these games, but Brigi Bodnar didn’t just let the song do all the work--the video moves with the song, meshing with the hard tune and its lyrics.  The creator of the video coordinated the power of both game and song, rather than letting the natural connection do all the work, and the result is pretty rad.


FIRE EMBLEM

Fire Emblem 14: Broken Crown, by PastelClark
The music used is Broken Crown, by Mumford & Sons.  The versatility of FE14’s story and cutscenes is on display once more with this simple, well-made AMV, which uses adept scene selection to lean into the emotional weight of the song’s tune and use it portray Corrin’s personal turmoil in her/his quest.  It’s not something we haven’t seen before in these AMV rants, but it’s still darned good, well worth another go.

Fire Emblem 16: Lean On, by LaTeddyNecto
The music used is a slowed version of Lean On, by Major Lazer.  I'm not currently aware of who made the slowed version.  The sad fact of the matter is that the visuals of FE16's cutscenes hold nowhere near the compelling quality that FE14's seemed to so effortlessly possess, but that hasn't stopped hundreds of AMV creators from doing their best to work with it.  Finally, 1 such individual has made a breakthrough with this video.  First of all, the timing of the visuals to the lyrics and beats of this song are so captivating in their synchronization to the song that you could almost swear that FE16's cutscenes were designed to go with the song.  Adding to that is an honestly surprising marriage of the heavier soul of this song's remixed version to the events and cast of FE16 so well-suited that it's hard to know whether the song becomes more significant because of the conflict and story that FE16 lets it depict, or whether the game becomes meaningful with the weight of the song to frame it.  This is an AMV with great foundations in the hands of a creator who can fully realize that potential...and this isn't even LaTeddyNecto's best FE16 AMV!  We'll see that one in next year's AMV rant.  (Although if you can't wait, leave a comment asking, and I'll happily link you to it).


LUNAR

Lunar 1: The World of Alex and Luna, by Honou Productions
The music used is Two Worlds, by Phil Collins.  This is a pleasant treat--a blast from the past using an RPG not commonly utilized for AMVs, at least not for quite some time.  I’ll be honest: while Lunar 1 had an impressive quantity of anime FMVs for its day, there is not, realistically, a whole lot of material for an AMV creator to work with, a problem not improved by the fact that what’s there is sometimes pretty basic and/or slow (how much animation budget was wasted on Luna’s boring little boat song?).  So the fact that Honou Productions manages to relevantly tie this AMV’s visuals so tightly to the song’s lyrics to create not only a functional and enjoyable representation of the song’s story, but also a very authentic tribute to Lunar 1 as well, is quite impressive.  Not every AMV holds up after 20 years--but this one definitely does.


NIER

Nier: Automata: [E]nd of a World, by Moenochrome
The music used is Goodbye to a World, by Porter Robinson.  This is a truly spectacular AMV, as good as such a video can get without quite qualifying for a rant all of its own.  Moenochrome has made a perfect marriage between game and song that epitomizes each in style and idea, but not sat on his/her laurels after doing so--this AMV is full of visual effects that serve to recall Nier: Automata’s own use of meta visual effects to sell its AI protagonists’ perspective, as well as many that enhance the song’s rhythm, notes, and mood.  This is a truly magnificent tribute to Nier: Automata that captures the beauty and sorrow of its emotional side, whose construction, right down to its very title, clearly shows Moenochrome’s deep love and passion for the game.  Superlative stuff.

Nier: Automata: Skydweller, by Miss Gard
The song used is Skydweller by Rave the Reqviem.  You know what?  I get too wordy with these descriptions sometimes, and this is a great opportunity for me to avoid that for once.  Watch this AMV because it’s made well and it’s really damn cool.



TALES OF

Tales of Berseria: Poseidon, by SongBird431
The music used is Poseidon, by Whitesand.  This is 1 of those AMVs where the music is mostly relegated to background, as the video takes center stage to explore and pay tribute to a game or character (in this case, the story of Velvet’s creation, hatred, and vengeance), and it’s effective at what it does, giving us a neat, tidy, and strong view of what led to the fall and demonization of Velvet Crowe.  It’s good stuff!



...Holy crap, that’s 3 AMV rants in a row in which I haven’t had to put a 30 Seconds to Mars video up.  Could the long nightmare finally be over?

Fire Emblem 16's Dorothea Should have Sung More

Is it just me, or does Fire Emblem 16 fail to take full advantage of the perfection of Dorothea’s voice actress?  I mean, Dorothea’s a wonderful character as a whole, and Allegra Clark, the woman who plays her in the English translation, is actually capable of imbuing her performance as Dorothea with both the warm, engaging friendliness and the gripping, heartfelt sorrow that most define the character.  I honestly find her work here amazing: to be able to keep up with a character as personally nuanced as Dorothea is impressive enough, but Clark has talent enough to go beyond simply being equal to the task, and puts forth a performance that quickly becomes so signature to who Dorothea is that it’s hard to think of any other voice for her.

And she’s got a lovely singing voice!  Now yeah, I admittedly know dick-all about anything musical, but I think I can at least tell this much: Allegra Clark’s got some sweetly sonorous pipes.  And you’d think that’d be a perfect quality for this character, given that Dorothea’s famous across all of Fodlan for being the greatest diva of her time.  Right?

But as it turns out, Clark’s lovely talent for song is barely even touched upon in Fire Emblem 16!  Yeah, you’ve got a character defined in no small part by her status as a nationally renowned star of the opera, and a voice actress that can actually make you believe that, and yet Dorothea sings, what, twice in the entire game!?*

Ferdinand!  Fucking FERDINAND gets to belt out a tune as often as the character who’s an operatic superstar!  And don’t even get me started on Annette.  Annette gets to do some sing-song nonsense 4 times!  I have to sit through Annette’s painfully dumb little songs about her eating dinner or cleaning a room like she’s some Dreamworks princess reject twice as often as I get the pleasure of hearing Dorothea sing?**

Yeah, I know that the translation team probably can’t change Dorothea’s support conversations or main game dialogue just because this side of the ocean really lucked out with its casting call, but honestly, I still feel it’s not entirely unwarranted to complain.  Because really, regardless of the actors for the parts, does it make any sense that of all the characters who are given opportunities to sing in the game, the ones who do so the least often are the opera stars?  It's an error in logic no matter how you look at it.

It just seems like a real wasted opportunity to take advantage of the full range of an actress’s talent, especially when to do so would have been so easy and natural for the character.

















* And 1 of those times is for and about Edelgard, of all schmucks!  Jeez, Nintendo, you couldn’t at least have had Dorothea sing about a subject more worthy of her talents?  Manuela, Dorothea’s other friends, the goddess, the war currently raging across the land, a particularly good salad, pocket lint, almost anything I can think of would be more deserving of the praise of Dorothea/Allegra Clark’s musical talent than that gullible moron!


** Yes, yes, yes, I know Annette’s voice actress, Abby Trott, is the woman who sang the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate main theme and thus clearly also has substantial musical talent.  But that was Smash and this is Fire Emblem, and that talent is not on display with Annette.  I frankly think that the tortured groans of Draco as the Super Nintendo’s soundcard desperately threw its every limited faculty into imitating the voice of a human being (or possibly a troll-bulldog-washing-machine hybrid) in Final Fantasy 6’s opera made for a more melodious musical experience than Annette’s little ditties.

General RPG Valentines 4

Big thanks to my sister and to Ecclesiastes, both of whom provide so much help to me in making these stupid things, throughout the whole year, that I wonder sometimes whether these V-Day rants should count as Guest Rants.  Seriously, I'm pretty sure that of the 3 of us, I'm the one who puts in the least work on these things.  Thanks to you both for all your support, both in terms of the rants in general, and especially in regards to this ridiculous little holiday tradition I've imposed upon us!



Ahhh, Valentine's Day.  Silly, fun, and sweet.  Tiresome, stressful, and unhealthy.  Noble in spirit, corrupted by greed and vanity in practice.  It's a day of contradictions (which may in fact make it all the more suitably connected to the concept of Love), to be sure...but not around these parts!  Here at Thinking Inside the Box, we only love the day of love!  And as our tribute to it, below are 20 more RPG-themed Valentines to help you express your feelings to the object of your affections in the least effective manner possible.  Enjoy your special someone's eye-roll today!

NOTE: With Blogger's incredibly obtuse, ineffective, stupid new format that no one asked for, wanted, or preferred, the spacing between images is all wonky, so this looks much less neat and orderly than it should.  I can't figure out how to fix this because Blogger is fucking terrible now.  Sorry.

 

...Oh, wait, I was wrong.  Valentine's Day is a day of contradictions here at Thinking Inside the Box, after all, because along with all the proclamations of love and affection, we also like to throw in a few proclamations of feelings of a...different sort, as well.  And while I generally try not to indulge in sentiments about the general state of the world on this blog, I think now would be the perfect time to recognize just what a complete shit-show the past 365 days have been with a double dose of Anti-Valentines.  For all you Bitter Bettys out there, this is your year!