The Magic of Scheherazade

Today we're going to speak of a game very dear to my heart: The Magic of Scheherazade. This fun little NES RPG is pretty darned obscure; I've found very few other people who've ever heard of it. Hell, I've barely mentioned it in this rant blog thingy of mine at all after, what, 4 years of blabbing? And you know that ain't the norm--usually if I like a game, you'll hear about how awesome it is every other rant I do.* But it's a real damn shame how unknown this game is, and how long it's taken for me to decide to talk about it. Cuz you know what? This game had a lot of creative qualities, and it was pretty ahead of its time in several ways. And because now time is Arpy Time, you're gonna have to hear about them.

Alright, first of all: Time Travel. This game has it. Now, I know time travel was not a new concept by 1987, but as far as RPGs go, I'm willing to bet that this is one of the earliest RPGs to ever incorporate time travel into its plot and setting in a major way. I'd be surprised if it were not THE first to do so, really. And in its humble way, it does it well. It ain't exactly Chrono Trigger, but The Magic of Scheherazade does use its time travel plot elements with purpose and some good sense. I mean, yeah, there are times when it doesn't seem terribly essential--there's a time in Chapter 2, for example, when the reason you have to travel to the past is to pick up a party member who lived way back when, and this instance really doesn't have any narrative aspect that necessitated the time travel besides the game telling us that we had to. I mean, the character could just as easily have existed in the present. But most of the time, the time travel aspect is used well, such as when the protagonist encounters a demon so unstoppably powerful that the only possible way to vanquish it is to travel many, many years into Earth's past to kill the demon just as it's born, since that's the one time it will be vulnerable enough that any physical and magical means will be capable of beating it. TMoS is an RPG that uses time travel long before any other that I know of, and frankly, it manages to use the concept better than several later RPGs ever did.**

Next, how about the cast? TMoS probably has the most diverse RPG cast of its time. Seriously. Your party will eventually consist of a living pumpkin-headed wooden doll, a cat fairy, a flying monkey, a robot archeologist, not one 1 but 2 genies, and...a bottle with arms, legs, and an eye. Among others. That's a pretty different cast. Hell, the TMoS ensemble is STILL one of the weirdest I've seen in RPGs so far. I suppose it's a little excessive at times, as quite often the bizarre form these allies take isn't at all relevant--the bottle, for instance, is relevant to the plot for his magical abilities and knowledge of how to defeat his chapter's demon. No one remarks even once about the fact that it's a fucking talking BOTTLE. So there are some characters who didn't NEED to be so weird. Still, for its time, it was pretty different to have such a creative ensemble of individuals, and I think it's still a part of the game that makes it worth noting.

There's a few different smaller aspects that were also pretty groundbreaking ideas in TMoS, too. For starters, the music, simple though it is, really is very nice, and it sets the mood well, which, honestly, can't be said of all that many NES RPGs. There's also the fact that this game allows your character to switch Job Classes--a concept that Final Fantasy 3 is often praised for supposedly inventing 3 years after TMoS. And how about the battle system? TMoS is the first RPG I've ever heard of to have a mixed battle system--most of the time, it's an Action RPG, with real-time battles with free reign over your character's movement, like The Legend of Zelda or Terranigma. But any time you go to another screen, there's a good chance you'll be attacked by enemies in a random encounter, and THEN you have to fight using a Regular RPG battle interface, using turn-based menus, as with most Final Fantasy games or Chrono Trigger. Having an RPG with 2 separate battle systems constantly at play is uncommon even to this day. I think TMoS might have been the first to try it, and it did it pretty well. And speaking of the battle system, this RPG has combo abilities. Like, if you get into the turn-based combat, and you choose certain allies to fight with you, you can use special abilities that combine the powers of all the party members to do massive damage to the enemy team. Yeah, 8 years before everyone was paying attention to Chrono Trigger's Combo skills and saying what a neat idea they were, The Magic of Scheherazade was pioneering that idea.

And one last little thing about the battle system in this game: you can hire NPC soldiers to help you in combat. The troopers aren't as powerful or hardy as your regular party members, but they're damn helpful as attack support. Why the hell is it that over 20 years later there's practically no RPG since that's been bright enough to do this? I mean, come on, if I'm out to save the world with just a dozen assorted oddballs, no matter how powerful my companions may be, it only makes SENSE that I'd want to have some soldiers around to back us up. It's not like mercenary groups are terribly hard to find in your average RPG. Why the hell don't OTHER protagonists hire on some extra muscle? If you're out to save the world or whatever, isn't it actually really dumb to encounter groups of warriors who assist you for money and not at least CONSIDER buying their services?

There's also the matter of the setting. Now, I'll grant that the NES's ability to visually portray its settings is a bit limited, but I really like the fact that The Magic of Scheherazade is an RPG with an Arabian background. Frankly, the backdrop of Arabian mythology is a really neat one, and it's criminally under-utilized in video games in general, to say nothing of RPGs--this is seriously the only RPG I've ever seen or heard of that uses Arabian themes for a setting. What a damn shame.*** All the more reason this game is so notable, I suppose.

Lastly, I'd just like to say that while the plot is not exactly heavy, there are some parts of the game's story that are really cool. Just the start of it's pretty darned neat--you basically start the game when a cat fairy named Coronya finds you and hauls your amnesiac ass out of a magical other-dimensional limbo place, where you were banished after you failed to defeat the game's evil wizard antagonist Sabaron. It's basically a more magical, somewhat less grim version of the opening to the SNES Shadowrun RPG, or Planescape: Torment--you wake up, no memories, after a disastrous failure. I won't exactly say that TMoS had the idea before Planescape: Torment, because PT's opening has a lot of differences and is much more symbolic, plot-essential, and well-executed, but still, the foundation for the idea is much the same, and it's pretty damned cool. There's also a plot twist near the end of the game that is just really awesome, completely unexpected, and in some ways, pretty touching.

Anyways, that's about it, but as you can see, there's really quite a lot about The Magic of Scheherazade that makes it a really noteworthy RPG, one of those hidden gems of the past. It impressed me as a youngster, it still impresses me now, and I thought it deserved some recognition for its many interesting and fine qualities, several of which were way ahead of its time. You really should give it a try--I don't think it's on the Wii network for download, but emulation's always an option (not that I would EVER suggest such a DASTARDLY avenue! No, never), and there's actually a site where you can play it right in your web browser: http://game-oldies.com/play-online/magic-of-scheherazade-the-nintendo-nes# . Since the game relies on passwords instead of save files, there's no reason you can't use this convenient option for playing it. So try it out some time!












* Hey, guys, just in case you missed it, I like Planescape: Torment and Wild Arms 3.

** See: Star Ocean 1 (if you spend 98% of the game in the past, what was the point of having time travel at all?), Final Fantasy 8 (like everything else in the game, time travel was handled with all the skill and care that one would expect of a vapid 13-year-old fanfiction writer), Robotrek (makes no goddamn sense)

*** I am just waiting for the day the Shin Megami Tensei series makes a game/set of games with its usual excellent religious examination focused on Islamic beliefs. There is just SO MUCH fascinating content they can sink their storytelling teeth into there.

General RPG Lists: Greatest Heroes

Hi, all. Again, it's been a long time since I made my list of the greatest RPG heroes of all, and frankly, a list of just 5 isn't going to cut it any more when there's roughly 160 to choose from now. So here's an updated list of 10. Do enjoy. Ahem...


I did a villain list, so of course I've gotta pick one for the main characters. Of course, determining whether a character is a good hero (for protagonists almost always tend to be heroes) is a lot easier than determining whether they're a good villain--we have a more universally defined vision of what makes a hero good than we do for villains, generally: kindness, morality, determination, leadership...you know, the good stuff. And depth, of course, but with all that I harp on having well-written and insightful characters in these rants, that probably goes without saying for me at this point.

All the same, choosing the greatest 10 (figured that'd be a good number, since I did 10 villains) RPG main characters has its own challenge--it is HARD to choose so few out of so many. Unlike villains, who, sadly, are only rarely noteworthy figures in games (or anything else, really), RPG heroes have a great many excellent characters in their midst. So if you don't see your favorite, it's not necessarily because I think they aren't a good hero--I just didn't have room for any but the very, very best.

Of course, it also doesn't necessarily mean that I DON'T think they aren't a good hero. You could just have lousy taste.

So anyway, here they are: the greatest 10 RPG heroes to date, ascending in greatness. Big spoilers, and all that.

EDIT 11/01/2019: Velvet (Tales of Berseria) has been added as Honorable Mention; Marche (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 1) has been bumped off.



10. Sora (Kingdom Hearts Series)

It's hard to say why exactly Sora is so appealing as a hero, but he really is. He just fits the bill in a simple, nice way. He's focused on his goals, but never to the point that he's not willing to take the time to help others with their problems and defend what's right. He rallies his friends, encouraging them and bringing them together as a force for goodness, and he never gives up on anyone. His simplistic good nature may sometimes seem unrealistic, but overall, he's an enjoyable hero that you can rely on to do the right thing and stand strong for his friends.


9. Makoto and Kotone (Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3)

Although the Persona Q subseries finally allows us to hear them speak and get to know their personalities, Makoto and Kotone are silent protagonists, which doesn't usually lend itself to a great character, but it's been said that actions speak louder than words, and it's never been truer than with them. The protagonist of SMTP3 is the greatest of friends, the kind that can change the life of anyone who knows him or her for the better. Classmates, teammates, people both old and young...anyone who befriends this kid and spends time with him/her will find themselves by the end of it happier, truer to themselves, and able to face their future with a clear heart and strong self-identity. And as he/she helps others, our hero(ine) grows as a person him/herself, gaining insight into the truths of human nature and gaining the power to succeed and protect the world thanks to this greater understanding. And when it comes down to the final battle, an impossible fight against doomsday called by the despair of all those unable to find a reason to exist as Makoto/Kotone has helped others to do, (s)he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, to protect humanity from itself and give people more time to find themselves before they bring their doom on themselves in their lesser understanding.  The protagonist of Persona 3 is put forth as a messiah, and even if it's heavy-handed, it checks out--Makoto and Kotone have truly found a higher level of being through the ultimate wisdom of human connection, and are meant to be the shepherd who will guide the rest of humanity to joint them in this enlightenment.


8. Ramza (Final Fantasy Tactics)

You know, it's not that compromised heroes can't be intriguing and excellent with their depth and struggles to overcome their own inner demons. You can get some really excellent characters this way, and I must admit that the top 2 of this list are going to be heroes who struggle with their own convictions and issues. It just tends to produce a better character.

But y'know, sometimes, as totally awesome as he is, you don't feel like Batman and his endless (but totally kickass) issues and considerations. Sometimes, you're tired of Spiderman and his personal problems, even if they do make him easier to relate to. Sometimes, you just want Superman and Captain America: a straightforward, solid, 100% pure hero who's an unshakable icon for justice and heroism, someone whose unwavering sense of duty and morality is by itself a legend.

Ramza, to me, is this RPG hero. He's not a boring character by any means--he questions himself, and he shows quite well his humanity in his joy and grief, hope and despair, and love and anger. But all the same, he is an unrelenting force for justice in his game, giving his moral duties ultimate priority over all else, even his own family. With Ramza, there's never any question or doubt that he'll do the right thing in any situation, no matter what the personal cost. Ramza's heroism is simple, indomitable, pure, and inspiring.


7. Shepard (Paragon Version) (Mass Effect Series)

Shepard is the ubermensch. He/She is just the kind of leader you have absolute confidence in, a hero you know can go into any situation, no matter how dire, and pull the best possible victory from it. Strong, skilled, smart, charismatic, courageous, and even caring, Shepard inspires his/her subordinates and peers with respect and awe, demanding the best from his/her team but working hard to make sure they're ready to give it by being a friend and caretaker to them. He/She knows when to be understanding and caring, and when to be demanding and forceful to inspire others to do the right thing. A lot of heroes in RPGs take an approach to their huge problems of refusing to accept any solution but the very best (you know the kind: "Yeah, we could save billions of lives by letting one willing person sacrifice themselves...BUT DAMMIT THAT'S JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE! Let's risk the lives of everyone on the planet in an all-or-none gambit instead! THAT'S the morally superior approach, surely!"), and most of the time, I feel like these heroes just happen to luck into a perfect solution they can accept...but Shepard's the kind of perfect example of heroism that makes me buy that he/she really can find the happy ending to almost any problem.


6. Yuri (Shadow Hearts 1 + 2)

While he's decent in Shadow Hearts 1, it's SH2 where Yuri really shines. Yuri's an interesting hero, particularly in SH2, in that his acts of heroism almost seem to go against his personal feelings. While he has an earnest drive to right wrongs that he sees and has a clear grasp of right and wrong, Yuri's heart isn't really in his good deeds and world-saving...he starts off as a punk that really doesn't care about the world around him and the affairs of others, motivated more by impulse than anything deeper. The good influences of his companions, his father's memory, and most of all Alice Elliot all inspire Yuri to begin to care about the world and its people, if not by his own beliefs than at least by proxy. What I mean is, he never quite gives me the feeling in SH1 that he himself really feels the drive to be heroic, to actively seek out what's wrong and fix it, but rather, he seems see that the people who are so important to him care about his world and its residents, that they (particularly Alice) cherish it and want to keep it safe, and thus by effect, Yuri will fight for these things because even if they don't personally seem to matter to him as much, they do matter to the people he loves. It makes him quite interesting. Then in SH2, after the death of Alice, Yuri seems to lose that secondhand heroic fire...he allows himself to be drawn into a quest to save the world, he goes through the motions of heroism that he learned in the previous game, but the entire time, his heart isn't in it, and he's suffering the pain of loosing the person who gave his life meaning. All he has for motivation to live and go on now is to protect the world that Alice loved...yet he doggedly continues until he knows his part is done, for her memory, not because he himself really cares. Yuri's a very deep and interesting character, and even if he isn't by nature a heroic person, he fights that nature and forces himself to heroism for the sake of the ones he loves and loved, which in itself is an inspiring act.


5. Tidus (Final Fantasy 10)

The Final Fantasy series may have an assortment of villains that range from miserably crappy to, at their very best, barely average, but the crappy villain cast is balanced by the series having quite a few really excellent main heroes. As you can see, several of the heroes here are from the FF series, and Final Fantasy 6's Celes, FF6's Terra, and Final Fantasy 7's Cloud all were strong competitors to Sora and Shepard for the end of this list. I had such trouble deciding that I even went, when I first wrote this list back when it was 5 instead of 10 long, and asked for opinions on the dilemma from my good man Donraj, my good lil' buddy Queelez, my good...something...Trippy, and my good friend Jolt. The series knows how to craft a protagonist.

Something like Shepard, Tidus really embodies a leader in his interest and care-taking of his team. Oh, sure, it's not quite to the same extent as Shepard and Final Fantasy 9's Zidane (further down) in the sense that Tidus seems to reach out to some of his team members tentatively rather than assertively, but Tidus nevertheless shows his general concern for each of his teammates many times, and tries (often resulting in awkward failure, but the important thing is the effort) to help each with his or her individual concerns. And, as with Zidane and Final Fantasy Tactics's Ramza (also further down), Tidus pretty steadfastly stands by his morals and beliefs, and inspires those with him to do the same, if not quite as strongly as they do.

But what makes Tidus really great is just how immensely deep and dynamic a character he is by himself. Tidus undergoes dramatic changes to his character, more than most of the other heroes on this list. Over the course of the game, he goes from being a complaining, selfish, and at times abrasive kid that Yuna's group has to more or less babysit, to being a loyal, trustworthy, and willing leader to them all. He goes from being a person with no reverence for the world around him, who resists the idea of sacrificing a person to save it, to a willing and respectful sacrifice himself. While the things he sees and hears on his journey, and his encounters with the remnants of his father's legacy, give Tidus good character development, he changes most drastically thanks to his love for Yuna. These changes are a moving and realistic merging of his personality with that of the person he loves--just as Yuna's love for Tidus leads to her taking on his characteristics of optimism, persistence, and the desire and courage to cast aside the flawed system of old in favor of the hope of a new and better way to accomplish her goals, so does Tidus adopt Yuna's traits of compassion, contemplation, and the selfless choice to sacrifice his own life for the good of another's. He and Yuna compliment each other in their love, two becoming one, and this leads to one of the best heroes I've seen to date--one who is not only a good leader and noble servant of good, but also a fascinatingly complex and human character, as well.


4. Marona (Phantom Brave)

Caring, generous, brave, optimistic, enthusiastic, uncompromisingly moral, encouraging, noble, forgiving, friendly, protective, honest, virtuous, self-sacrificing, polite, and inspiring. I'd have a hard time coming up with a description for a truly good person that doesn't apply to Marona. While not incapable of negative emotions--she's tragically lonely and misunderstood, and no stranger to despair--Marona is from start to finish a touching and inspiring individual, as innocent as any child yet as ready to help and do work as any adult. She's a character with depth, yet is as simple and heroic as Ramza was--more, even.


3. Zidane (Final Fantasy 9)

Final Fantasy 9 would be excellent and have great emotional impact on the player even without him, but Zidane is nonetheless the fun-loving, good-natured heart of this classic. The cast in general is deep and involving, characters who make us think and consider, but Zidane is the one who makes it all real to the audience, grabbing our attention, involving us, entertaining us, and helping us to better appreciate everything else about the game's plot and characters. I think that's a pretty important part of a hero, particularly in an RPG, where you spend so much time directing one around--the hero's ability to involve you not only in his own affairs, but also in those of the world and people around him, helping to translate their issues and ideas to you.

Part of how Zidane does this is another reason why he deserves to be on this list--he genuinely leads his party. That really is, to me, a significant part of a hero--how they behave to the people they lead. Zidane is genuinely concerned, friendly, and encouraging to all his friends, taking on just the right tone for each to be just as supportive a leader as each one needs.

Finally, Zidane is just, in general, a really great character. Call me old-fashioned, but I miss the days when our heroes were, y'know...nice. And Zidane is. He's good-natured, selfless, can't help but help others, and has the heart of gold that a hero should. But he's also dynamic; being a hero who actually lives up to the name doesn't limit his character (contrary to contemporary popular belief, this actually IS quite possible--take note, Marvel Comics). He has his flaws and rough edges, and he develops as a character both evidently (most notably during his visit to Terra, where his personal views and beliefs are tested, confirmed, and strengthened), and subtly (as evidenced by his gradual change over the course of pretty much the entire game from a cheeky womanizer who recklessly hits on any and all attractive women he encounters to a (admittedly equally cheeky) romantic with a touching love for the main girl, Dagger). Zidane's both a great hero and a great character.


2. Virginia (Wild Arms 3)

I did a rant on Virginia previously that can give you a fairly good idea of how well she succeeds as a female character in a male protagonist's role, providing an example to the RPG industry that girl-led RPGs don't have to have their entire focus tailored for the gender of their heroine. This is true, but it's not all I want to say. Virginia's noteworthy for the girl-in-a-boy's-role thing that she does so well, but she's also, regardless of that, a magnificent heroine.

First of all, the leader thing? Virginia does it in spades. She establishes her team through her will alone, managing to be the glue that holds them all together as one force through thick and thin--crazy glue, really, because not one of them seems to take her talk of ideals, hopes, and dreams seriously, at first (and Jet just plain never does). Yet all the same, her enthusiasm and charisma keep them all together, drive them forward, and helps each of her companions along in developing himself as a person and refining his outlook on the world. Yet at the same time, she does more than just inspire them and help them to grow--Virginia also listens to them, and grows as a person herself from their thoughts, opinions, and feedback. Not only does this lead to an ever-developing, dynamic protagonist, but it also makes her even more a leader in my eyes.

What really makes Virginia incredible, though, is the honestly never-ending development as a person she receives. From the beginning of the game to pretty much its end, Virginia is on a journey of self-discovery, battling self-doubt as often as she does any villain to come to a firm understanding of who she is, what she believes in, and what she wants to stand for. If she doesn't exactly change in a revolutionary way, Virginia's character is at least under constant self-revision and scrutiny--there's no single huge moment, or even couple huge moments, of revelation that are the pivotal turning points for her, no one massive catharsis that changes her significantly, as is typically the case in RPG heroes' character development. Instead, the player sees her grow at a near constant rate, with Virginia undergoing many personal, emotional discoveries and changes as she sees and experiences different situations and people...the way real people do. As gripping and touching a regular hero's big scene of change may be in an RPG, all us folks here in real life undergo many, many changes of view and opinion in our lives, and probably have several huge moments of clarification that define us, not just one or two. In this way, Virginia is a fantastic character and a hero that is not only developed with far more care and time than almost any other RPG character, but also one that we can see as a heroic human being better than most.


1. Ryudo (Grandia 2)

And so we come to Ryudo. Here's the deal, folks: the heroes I've listed above? They all more or less start out as good, decent, heroic types (even Tidus, for his initial flaws, has that heroic tendency to save first and ask questions later). Most undergo changes to their personality, big and small, but in the end, the effect is mostly a case of a good person becoming a better, more emotionally complete person. Even Yuri, for his general apathy about the world's affairs, isn't able to let an injustice he sees right in front of him pass. And hey, that's good! As I said early on, a hero ought to be an actually good person.

But that said, Ryudo is different. Ryudo starts off as an ass. Granted, an amazingly hilarious, witty one, but an ass all the same. He's not out to help people, or make the world better, or stop evil, or any of that jazz--he's just a mercenary doing his job and putting up with the crappy, annoying customers all day.

But as the story goes on, he gradually evolves into much, much more. He grows to care about others, to value others' life and freedom enough to fight for them against impossible odds, and to hope, believe in good, and stand up for justice as any hero should.

Now, of course, you're probably thinking, "Gee, I think I've seen this before." Well yes you have, and yet, no, you haven't. No lovable Han Solo-esque scoundrel who turns out to have a heart of gold undergoes the drawn-out, excellently developed change from jerkwad to true hero that Ryudo does. This is no sudden, inexplicable 180 degree change--you're there for the whole time watching each step the guy takes into becoming a champion of life, liberty, and love. This ain't the redemption-less failure that Final Fantasy 8's Squall is; you can understand and appreciate the steps Ryudo takes on his journey, and you like him all the way along. His journey to the person he becomes is inspiring in how huge a change it is, the steps on it are interesting and believable in how realistically they're paced, and the hero he becomes is one whose convictions and past trials make him truly worthy of this top spot.


Honorable Mention: Velvet (Tales of Berseria)

Sometimes, being a hero isn't about being the best person, about embodying the best qualities of humanity. Sometimes, the hero of a story is also the villain of its world. Velvet Crowe is a woman defined by her fall, by the suffering and hatred that made her a fearsome demon of vengeance, and she makes no apology for it. The violent loss of everything she loved through betrayal made her the obsessed, blood-soaked specter of chaos that the entire world fears, and she she does not forgive those who created her, even if it was done for the sake of the world's survival. And yet, it is in her villainy that Velvet shines as a hero. The darkness of our species is nonetheless a part of what makes us human, and if it is eliminated altogether, we lose something valuable. Just as more traditional heroes stand as beacons of light in an otherwise all-encompassing darkness, so does Velvet stand as a beacon of darkness in an otherwise all-encompassing light, the demon of our worse nature who has the courage to protect humanity's freedom and individuality even as the world reviles her for it. An excellent character by any measure, Velvet stands out as the greatest example of a person who takes upon the role of villain in order to be the hero that her world truly needs.

General RPGs' AMVs 3

Well folks, I said I was gonna occasionally share 13 good RPG AMVs with you intermittently, and dammit, I meant it. So here's another handful of RPG AMVs that, if not amazing, are still solidly good, which is still pretty damn rare in the world of RPG AMVs.

And as before, if you think any of these are decent, by all means, please do give the video a Thumbs Up, or better still, leave a positive comment. A lot of the good RPG AMVs get very little recognition.



FALLOUT

Fallout 3: Droid Love, by ArkanaYragael: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl1msshbAyg
The music used is Droid Love, by Space Ritual. This is a strong mood-creating AMV, pairing the slow, ethereal, displaced sound of the music to the Capital Wasteland of Fallout 3. The result is very haunting and entrancing. Unfortunately, the second half of the AMV is not nearly as good as the first, with its scene selection simply not fitting the music as well as the first half's did--otherwise, I'd have probably kept this video as a personal favorite. Still, it's worth checking out.

Fallout 3: This is War, by Joylock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACEFHN-TmwU
The music used is This is War, by 30 Seconds to Mars. 30 Seconds to Mars is kind of like the new Linkin Park in the world of AMVs--everybody and their grandmother uses their most popular music for making music videos, and almost all of those music videos suck. Really, the only difference between the 2 groups is that Linkin Park actually has some semblance of talent. Joylock, the same skilled AMV-maker who gave us Fallout 3: Land of Confusion (which I did a full-on review of a while back), has beaten incredible odds, however, and actually delivered us the first good 30 Seconds to Mars AMV ever. Although he uses the game editor to set up a lot of situations that wouldn't normally have occurred, the video's thematic from start to finish, and pretty much every part of it relates to the lyrics and tune of the song (which even, somehow, seems less lousy while you watch and listen--amazing what a good AMV can do to one's perceptions). I particularly like the fact that some of the video's relations to the song are subtle and clever--when the song talks of the "victim," Joylock doesn't show us any one individual or group of people like he does for the rest of the roles the song lists off, but rather shows an image of the DC ruins, which is neatly symbolic. Great AMV, this one.


FINAL FANTASY

Final Fantasy 8: Squall's Mind Says "Hello," by MisterEvenro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSGYCc1DIw
The music used is Hello, by Evanescence. The timing on matching events in the video to the song is nice in this AMV, as is the way the video works with the music's tone and its lyrics. The video also often uses actual game footage effectively with the song, which, so long as it's done properly, is always a nice change in a Final Fantasy AMV, since most of them just reuse the exact same 20 minutes of FMV footage in different ways over and over again. It has a very nice, poignant ending, too. All in all, this AMV is a lovely package; really, the only thing keeping it just below deserving a rant all on its own is the fact that there are some parts of the in-game footage that aren't used effectively enough, and seem kind of like filler. But overall, this AMV is very, very good.

Final Fantasy 9: Gravity of Love, by Dreamer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT3yHrpdIX8
05/27/17 UPDATE: A Youtube user named S (there was seriously no one who had already claimed that!?) has made an updated version of this--it's the same AMV as Dramer's, but with the higher quality visuals from the FF9 PC rerelease. It looks faithful to the original to me, so you might want to check it out instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RARvY_gvaAU
The music used is Gravity of Love, by Enigma. I have to admit to really liking this song, so maybe I'm somewhat biased for AMVs that use it, but I do think this game is a great compliment to it. Several lyrics match up to the selected scenes, the heavy, ethereal charm of the tune is a lovely companion to the powerful and magical beauty of FF9, and the scenes act and change in concert with the music. Good stuff!

Final Fantasy 9: Requiem for a Dream, by Mivmax62260: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86mW8021m9c
The music used is Requiem for a Tower, by Clint Mansell. This song matches the action-related parts of the game very well to the powerful, building music. There's really not much to say here, other than that the song and the game mesh well, and that the pacing of the scene section is well-done.


GRANDIA

Grandia 1: Passion, by Tamagotschi95: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3dRaH9uGEI
The music used is the orchestral version of Passion, from the Kingdom Hearts 2 soundtrack. This tribute to Grandia 1 is impressively compiled, using the music's grand feeling to work with the visuals and faithfully portray the atmosphere of epic adventure that Grandia 1 so embodies. Finding ANY Grandia 1 AMV is difficult, given that it was one of those Playstation 1 RPGs that used a significant portion of its limited FMV towards illustration of legends rather than of actual plot events, so finding a solid video like this is a pleasurable rarity.


THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Mad World, by TheDreamingSongbird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiDkIQKfIxc
The music used is Mad World, by Gary Joules. While there are some scenes where the connection between song and video is tenuous, and overall I can't say that the song particularly embodies any overall feeling or theme of the game, the visuals are generally a nice match to the quiet, displaced emotion of this song, and several scenes also coordinate well to the lyrics.


MASS EFFECT

Mass Effect 1 and 2: Geno|3boost's Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Genol3oost
This isn't actually a single AMV, but a large collection of semi-AMV tributes to the Mass Effect series. The large majority of them are made quite well. They pretty much always get the emotion and message they intent to convey across effectively, through use of effective mood background music, video selection, and use of the game's voice work.

Mass Effect 2: I'll Stand by You, by Almajademe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgOpMLu5CrI
The music used is I'll Stand by You, by Pretenders. Okay, I have no idea how it's possible given that this song is, to me, the prime example of a song of so much overblown, self-important mush that it comes across as funny to me rather than emotional...but this tribute to the character Thane and his potential relationship with Female Shepard is actually pretty good. Thane's personal story seems to work pretty well with the song, somehow, and the clips chosen to accompany the song are usually selected well and are serious enough to work with the tune yet real enough to tone down the song's excessively dramatic qualities. It doesn't always work and some parts just don't hold up, but overall, it's a decent AMV, and that's hard to believe given the song.

Mass Effect 2: Tank!, by Solidfalcon77: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajVqeUX6MYQ
The music used is Tank!, from the anime Cowboy Bebop. This one is just plain clever, fun, and entertaining, combining the opening song to Cowboy Bebop with scenes from a fellow sci-fi classic that work surprisingly well with the Cowboy Bebop theme. Add in a lot of masterful visual effects to mimic the classic anime's actual opening, and you have a work that is just plain cool.


SHADOW HEARTS

Shadow Hearts Series: E.T., by Zexion678: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivJ4ssumi-0
The music used is E.T., by Katy Perry. Oh, barf, Katy Perry. Ugh. Just typing the name makes my fingers feel unclean. Buuuut, despite how much I hate that self-important sensationalist slut, this is really a very well-made AMV. The editing and timing of the video's scenes and effects are nigh perfect, and the scenes are very skillfully connected to the feel of the music and its lyrics--showing SH1 + 2's Yuri's and SH3's Shania's demonic forms when the song talks of extraterrestrials, showing SH3's Lady's cursed kiss when the song talks of poison kisses, and so on. This skill put into making the video and music work together in this AMV is top-notch; I'm almost tempted to keep it for my personal collection, in spite of it being a mix of Katy Perry and 50% Shadow Hearts 3 video. The only thing keeping me from that is the fact that this video, for all its merits, doesn't seem to have too strong of a purpose or idea behind it, which is pretty essential for me. Nonetheless, this is really quite excellently created.


SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4: Aerials, by Lossdinen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbnLaDgl8bo
The music used is Aerials, by System of a Down. I should note that this AMV only uses a portion of the whole song, but while this was a problem with a Legend of Zelda AMV in my last rant, here it earns no demerits, because unlike the last time I mentioned this issue, the portion of Aerials used in this AMV has been masterfully edited out, so that the AMV's start and finish feel like whole--if you didn't already know this music was only a part of a bigger song, you could easily believe that this was it in its entirety. Anyway, SMTP4 has very limited FMVs to work with, and many of them are chaotic and confusing, so creating any kind of linear story in an AMV is difficult. One can, however, do well with a more visual, artsy approach, and Lossdinen does this well, using the heavy, darker tone of the song in conjunction with the darker nature of the game well. Some scenes work quite well with the lyrics, too, which is a nice bonus. This AMV is dark, moody, tense, and yet has underlying urgency, which matches both the music and the overall feel of the game's plot very well.


THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU

The World Ends with You: Left-Handed Lovers, by Coloraoi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnU7rt9TB1s
The music used is Please Don't Go, by Barcelona. I wouldn't have thought that this game would garner many AMVs, given its cut scenes' style, but it apparently has quite a few. This one matches the music's tone to the game's videos very well, and pulls the viewer in with its solemn, touching feeling. It has its flaws--notably that it's short, and shorter still when you consider how much of the video's time is taken up with game voice acting instead of actual music video--but overall, I think it's pretty good.

Dragon Age 2's Finale's Problems

Dragon Age 2 has received a pretty mixed reception. Some people love it and think it as good or better than its predecessor. Some recognize it as imperfect, but overall a worthy title. Many don't hate it, but find it nonetheless disappointing, bad in a general sense. Others still simply hate it and think it's terrible.

Myself, I haven't entirely figured out my own stance on the game. It's got its good points--I certainly appreciate its overall plot, and the attempts to further portray and develop the details of DA's world's culture and people rather than focus on yet another save-the-world scenario. On the other hand, the characters that Dragon Age 2 uses to push forward its story are, in light of the cast of DA1, surprisingly lacking in depth and personality. Few of DA2's characters can claim personalities of depth to rival even the lesser of Dragon Age 1's cast--DA2's Anders and Isabela, who have probably the most compelling depth that any of DA2's characters can offer, barely measure up to DA1's Shale and Morrigan in their character development, let alone the original's greater individuals like Leliana, Sten, Alistair, Zevran, or Wynne. So DA2 succeeds well enough in having a good premise and story, but the individuals who are supposed to bring that story and premise to the player and connect him/her with them are fairly lacking.

However, while most of the game I am somewhat ambivalent about, the finale to Dragon Age 2 is...well, it's garbage. It's rushed, it's trite, and it's infuriatingly disappointing. This game's ending is what pushes the scales of bad characters versus good story, which had been fairly evenly balanced, down on the negative side, and makes me dislike the game as a whole. While I've certainly seen worse last gasps from RPGs (I doubt anything's gonna sink lower than Valkyrie Profile 2 in that regard), the ending of DA2 and the events directly leading into it are just very poorly conceived and enacted in many regards. Here are what I think are the major flaws with the finale.

First of all, let's assume that the finale properly begins when Anders, in an act perfectly defining the term "dick move," blows up the Chantry and forces all-out violence between the Mages and Templars. This opening scene itself is a problem. Now, granted, the method of instigating the game's final conflict is sound--it makes sense that this is the act that makes peaceful resolution impossible and turns the city of Kirkwall into a war zone. The problem is the perpetrator, and how it's handled. Throughout the game to that point, Anders has struggled to control himself while Justice, a spirit from the Fade, inhabits him due to a between-games event where Anders took Justice into himself. In this act, however, Justice was tainted by Anders's great anger and hate for the unfair treatment of Mages by Dragon Age's society,* and thus Anders is often seen to struggle with himself against Justice's unyielding fury at all who would imprison, repress, harm, or stick out a tongue at mages. Anders has enough presence of mind to fear his new short temper, however, as shown in several instances during the game. There's even one side quest you can do for Anders earlier in the game, the Dissent quest, wherein Anders loses himself to Justice's influence and in his rage attacks the woman he'd been trying to save. Afterward, he is, of course, horrified by the fact that his wrath's directionless power caused him to turn against even that which he wanted to save.

Yet for all his knowledge of his condition, and for all his regret and terror at what can occur when he lets his anger, hasty decisions, and fanatical goals drive him to extremes, he STILL decides that blowing up a fucking church and in the process murdering the greatest voice of reasonable compromise in the city of Kirkwall is an acceptable idea. What was the point of having him learn that his extreme acts could endanger all he wished to protect earlier in the game if he's just going to ignore it?

There's a whole plethora of other reasons why Anders magically exploding the Chantry is a load of crap, too. Besides basically negating everything he knows and has learned about himself and any wisdom Hawke may have shared with him about it, it's also incredibly hypocritical for his character. All throughout the game, Anders is harsh in judging Mages who resort to the forbidden Blood Magic and pacts with demons in order to achieve their ends of resisting their Templar captors and pursuers, even in the case of Merrill, who, while shown not to have a realistic understanding of the risks of her dabbles in the dark arts, pretty clearly has far more restraint, self-control, and innocent good nature than Anders himself does. So after a whole game of Anders disapproving of Mages taking an approach of going to any immoral and dangerous length to remain free, how does Anders force the city to war on the issue of Mage rights? Why, by destroying a church containing a woman that encourages peaceful cooperation, through an act of magical terrorism, of course. Because THAT'S true to his character, right?

Someone at Bioware is a fucking idiot.

Other reasons for why this opening to the finale is stupid exist (such as the disparity between this building-destroying spell's size and power and that of all other examples of magic previously seen in either game, for example, or why Anders would be stupid enough to force open conflict when his side is at a severe disadvantage numerically and socially, and is unprepared for such a struggle), but they're smaller nitpicks, trivial compared to the problem of trying to reconcile Anders's character to this act.

But that's just the BEGINNING! The Fail continues all through the game's finale!

Alright, so, the next part to this finale is the reaction to Anders's war-mongering. Meredith, the head of the Templars, and Orsino, the head of the Mages, are both understandably upset with this turn of events. Neither one wanted the innocent and decent Reverend Mother to die--Meredith owed her service and reverence as a member of the same religious order, and Orsino was a big fan of the woman's ability to restrain Meredith from just outright murdering any Mage she passed by in the hallway. Of all the people in the city of Kirkwall, these 2 have some of the greatest cause to be devastated and enraged by Anders's murderous idiocy. And hey, to some extent, they react predictably--Meredith declares that this act necessitates a city-wide racial cleansing of the Mages that have now been proven through Anders to be too dangerous and unpredictable to live (I suppose, given how little sense it makes for Anders to have done this, the "unpredictable" thing is kind of warranted), and both leaders are not happy with Anders.

But "not happy" is about as much as there is to it! Meredith is not known for having any restraint when it comes to taking down a Mage that she suspects is dangerous. Orsino's spent many long years trying to convince the city that Mages aren't inherently dangerous or unstable so long as you treat them with common decency, and give them some measure of freedom.** And now, after all that work, one rogue Mage has brought about a spectacle that destroys all credibility of Orsino's reassurances and speeches, vindicates the ignorant belief that corruption and destruction can come from even the most benign-seeming Mage, and forces a holy war that will probably end with the deaths of every Mage in the city including Orsino himself, and possibly many more Mage deaths across the world. So Meredith is violently paranoid, and Orsino's entire life just went down the drain. Do you know what they decide to do with him?

Oh, nothing.

No, really. Rather than blow the guy up, as you'd expect Orsino to do out of fury and despair, or run him through, as you'd expect Meredith to do out of fury and the same fanatical devotion to duty that she's had from the moment the game first mentions her, they take off to rally their forces for the upcoming battle, letting the fate of Anders be decided by his friend, the main character, Hawke. Yeah...pretty out of character for Meredith there, at the very least. I mean, all this is decided after a quick battle with some individuals from the side that Hawke sides against, so if you have Hawke side with the Mages, Meredith isn't necessarily in a position to do anything about Anders, and I guess it's not unimaginable that Orsino wouldn't want personal retribution on Anders...I guess. But if you have Hawke side with the Templars, then it's Meredith and her forces that have the advantage after the skirmish, so she has ample opportunity to act in accordance with her character and take out this exceptionally dangerous Mage who just murdered a woman of God with extreme prejudice. But as I said, she, like Orsino, is fine with just leaving Hawke to decide what to do with Anders. I know she's got a lot to do, what with the whole sudden, bloody war running through the streets and all, but I feel like a violently paranoid religious fanatic whose divine boss has just been randomly exploded by an embodiment of everything she fears is conspiring against her would find the time to make one quick stab, or at least insist a little harder that she put him to death.

I'm also not entirely happy with the part of this scene where Hawke does decide whether Anders lives or dies. I mean, the scene's done fairly well overall, I suppose, but it's here that another party member, Sebastian, insists that Anders must die for what he's done, and will leave the party and swear revenge if Hawke does not choose to execute Anders. I mean, it's in character for Sebastian to do. And I suppose SOMEONE ought to be appropriately personally enraged with Anders for causing the situation. But this sequence ultimately makes the game incomplete without Sebastian, who you have to pay extra money to have. For the specifics of this, and why it makes me annoyed, see my last DA rant, Dragon Age 2's The Exiled Prince Downloadable Content.

So anyways, yeah, the immediate aftermath regarding Anders is poorly done in several regards. So let's continue on. Things progress pretty naturally for a bit, with Hawke and company proceeding through the combat in the streets between the Mages and Templars to the place of the final showdown between Meredith and her Templars, and Orsino and his Mages. Aside from the very random appearance of Carver or Bethany along the way if he or she joined the Grey Wardens, this part is fine. So let's skip to the next part, the Templar attack on the Mages' home. Meredith and Orsino have one final vocal confrontation, and the lines are drawn. And this is a terrific time to mention why this moment, and the face-off between these 2, is not nearly as dramatic or gripping as it should be.

See, it's like this. This game's final conflict, the great showdown, the battle that everything has been leading up to, is between Mage and Templar. Orsino represents the Mages, Meredith represents the Templars. You even see them facing each other in an artsy fashion on the title screen. It's the game's big thing. So why, why exactly, is it that, in a game that spans a Prologue and 3 Acts, the first time we EVER see Meredith or Orsino is at the very end of Act 2? Yes, that's right, the individuals who embody their faction, the personal representations of the game's main conflict, the heads of the social unrest around which this entire game revolves, are FIRST SEEN in the LAST THIRD of the game! How much dramatic tension can there really be from conflict between 2 individuals who you have barely begun to know? These are the major leaders, the most plot-important NPCs in the game! The whole game's plot revolves around the factions they lead! Why in the world would they be rushed in at the last minute!?

Oh, sure, the game does MENTION them occasionally from early on. Meredith's name and policies do come up in conversation enough for the player to have a grasp of what her schtick is, and Orsino is, well, barely mentioned in any significant capacity, but not totally unknown. But hearing some rudimentary information second-hand about a character is not an adequate way of familiarizing a player with a character so fundamentally important to the game's ultimate conflict. Meredith and Orsino should have shown up earlier in the game, had their significance to Dragon Age 2's events SHOWN, not whispered, and in that process, there should have been far more interaction between them and Hawke, because as of this finale, the player has very little personal understanding of these 2, no real connection with them and scanty knowledge of their backgrounds, personalities, and motivations. It's just...it's like only finding out what candidates are running for president 10 minutes before you have to vote for one. The most you can glean from what little time you have to familiarize yourself with them is elementary at best.

So yeah, anyways, we finally get to the final battle. You have a moment to prepare, whichever side you choose, during which you can have Hawke talk to his/her party members one last time for some of those finale-speeches that party members always do in RPGs. These aren't really anything particularly special, certainly nothing as moving or epic as the ones in Dragon Age 1 were, but I don't really know how that could be improved--such speeches work well at the end of a long journey, and don't apply as well to an unexpected situation such as this one--so I can't really count that against the game. Then the fight starts.

Here's the next part of the finale that is stupid! No matter who you side with, you're going to have to fight and kill Orsino. If you sided with the Mages, he'll be so overwhelmed by the battle's cost in lives that he'll go to extreme measures, and have to be put down by Hawke and company. This can be dumb in and of itself, since it's quite possible to have Hawke mount such a very strong defense against the enemy Templars that you don't see any Mage casualties actually happen, and either way it's questionable, as Orsino will lose it pretty quickly. I mean, it'll be like 5 minutes of fighting a handful of Templars, then Orsino will panic. If you sided with the Templars, the situation is slightly less stupid, as Orsino would actually have a good reason to lose his cool with Hawke and company carving their way to him.

However, the real problem with this scene is that it happens at all. What I mean is, Orsino is resorting to extremely forbidden, ethically intolerable magics. Apparently he knew this serial killer mage from earlier in the game, and uses his abominable research to combine himself with a crapload of dead bodies to make a hideous, uncontrollable freak. Now, what little we've seen of Orsino in this game just doesn't add up with this. The guy criticizes Meredith repeatedly for her being completely paranoid, for her seeing forbidden, dangerous magic everywhere she looks. He stands for the idea that Mages are not inherently dangerous or prone to corruption. And now out of NOWHERE he announces that he's well-versed in some of the most heinous, irresponsibly dangerous magic seen in the series so far, and then immediately employs it.

Even if you can argue that it's not completely unbelievable to his character that he would be involved with unholy patchwork necromancy pioneered by a serial killer--I could see possibly arguing that it's important to the narrative to show even the most seemingly trustworthy of Mages not incorruptible when pushed into a corner, although that's only sidestepping the out of character issue, not actually addressing it--the scenario is still stupid for being unbelievable. Are we really supposed to buy the idea that the most prominent Mage in the city, who is publicly outspoken about Mage rights, and consistently argues with his Templar keepers, was able to, while under the watch of a paranoid religious tyrant, sufficiently research and practice an almost entirely unknown form of forbidden magic in total secret? I realize that the game shows a lot of Mages being able to learn forbidden magic without the Templars catching on, but this guy is the most well-known, influential, and politically powerful Mage in the city. You can't tell me Meredith wouldn't be watching him like a hawk!

Oh, yeah, speaking of Meredith. So, after beating Orsino, you'll have to fight Meredith, the final boss of the game, whether you're allied with her or against her. This is a more believable scenario than having to fight Orsino no matter what, because Meredith's obviously so nuts at this point that she sees enemies everywhere, even in allies. The problem, though, is WHY Meredith is crazy. While the little information the game's given the player over its course about Meredith has always implied that she's pretty paranoid, she only got really crazy recently, and the reason for that is now revealed. It is--GASP--the red Lyrium Idol's fault! Yes, the Lyrium Idol, that made Bartrand go crazy earlier in the game, was purchased by Meredith and forged into a sword for her, and that has made her insane and obscenely powerful!

How does the Idol do that? Why was it made? Who made it? Is it malicious, or just inanimate rock? Who knows? Maybe Bioware. Certainly not we, the gamers, because if Bioware does have any concrete ideas about the nature of this plot contrivance of theirs, they're sure as hell not interested in sharing them. This object contributes in a major way to the events of the game and the final conflict that the game's meant to lead up to, and all we know about it is that it glows red and people become assholes by touching it. It's basically Bioware saying, "A wizard did it. A rock wizard."

Ugh. So anyway, final battle happens, it's all epic and over the top and everything that a final battle is, and of course, to emphasize how epic it is, all of Hawke's friends are allowed to fight--those not in the party will be computer-controlled allies on the field of battle. Decent. And much with Dragon Age 1's final battle, other NPCs start to show up as the battle goes on. Cullen, a Templar who recognizes that Meredith's brain is buggier than Fallout: New Vegas on its release day, assists Hawke, and Donnic, one of the city's law officers, may also come to Hawke's aid, provided that you had him and Aveline hook up and Aveline's still with you at that point. These are fine, they make sense, NPCs who have a stake in Hawke's victory and/or feel a personal connection to 1 of Hawke's party. But others who can join in the battle are Zevran and Nathaniel.

Zevran and Nathaniel are party members from Dragon Age 1, Zevran in the main game and Nathaniel in the bland Awakening expansion. In DA2, Zevran is seen briefly during a side quest, as is Nathaniel. While you can assist each of them during these sidequests, their presence in the game and connection to Hawke and the city of Kirkwall are, frankly, completely inconsequential. Nathaniel I guess I could see having some slight stake in the battle if Carver or Bethany is a Grey Warden and thus his comrade, but that's a slight stretch. And Zevran really just doesn't have any reason to be there. Seems like they were just grasping at straws for someone else to throw into the final battle.

So, finally, Hawke's bunch defeats Meredith, and the game is over. And that's where the finale really gets annoying. See, poor writing's a bitch, and all the stuff that didn't make sense was frustrating, but few things are a kick to a gamer's nuts quite like an unsatisfying, sloppy, half-assed ending, and Bioware really did their most to do their very least here. There is just practically goddamn nothing. The story's narrator, Varric, ends his tale that he's telling to his interrogator, the player is informed a little of the global repercussions of this final battle, but all important specifics just aren't there. Basically, this is the gist of it, paraphrased less than I would have liked:


Varric: And that's about it. No one knows where Hawke's been for ages now. None of his/her companions have stayed with him/her, except (Insert Romantic Interest's Name Here). Also, I don't feel like relating what any of Hawke's companions are up to now.

Interrogator: So you've taken up days of my time spinning this yarn about Hawke just so you could tell me exactly dick about what I really needed to know, which was, y'know, what happened to Hawke and where he/she is now.

Varric: Yeah, pretty much. I know you probably could have been dealing with this whole religious and social revolution that's been going on as a result of Hawke's actions, but I apparently have got nothing. You'll just have to be satisfied with a conclusion that isn't in any way conclusive. That's just how it goes when the writers get to the end and realize they have no goddamn clue what they wanted to do and are just sick of the whole thing.

Interrogator: Please go away.

Varric: You betcha!

(Exit Varric. Enter Leliana, for some reason)

Interrogator: Yeah, so, that was extremely disappointing.

Leliana: Oh, WAS IT? Or is not knowing what happened to Hawke, combined with the disappearance of Dragon Age 1's hero which has been very barely referenced until now, ACTUALLY a way of AWESOMELY implying that there's more to come, something on the horizon so epic that both Hawke and DA1's hero have perhaps secretly left to team up against it maybe?

Interrogator: No...I'm pretty sure it's just extremely disappoin--

Leliana: ROLL END CREDITS!


Yeah, rather than give any conclusion whatsoever to this damn game, Bioware just puts a couple more carrots in front of our noses. None of the major issues of the game are settled, what ended up happening to pretty much all the important characters is never addressed, and the most you even learn of the protagonist's fate is shadowy, utterly shameless sequel bait.

Incidentally, I'd just like to note, here, that sequel bait endings don't HAVE to be a bad thing. Mass Effect 2 has a sequel bait ending, in that, having dealt with the threat of the Collectors, Shepard must now turn back to the coming invasion of the Reapers, which are shown to be drawing uncomfortably close to the galaxy. This is okay, because the game's focus, beating the Collectors as an extension of the Reapers and assembling a team and alliances that will be able to stand against the Reapers when that battle comes, has been taken care of, concluded very well. DA2 just opens up new cans of worms for its main focus of Mage vs. Templar in its ending, and drops the personal conclusions for the important characters of the game altogether.

Even if your ending is nothing but sequel bait, it can STILL be done better. Take Knights of the Old Republic 2 (whose sequel bait was unfortunately never to be resolved with another game). Yes, almost the entirety of the ending to the game is focused on the fact that the main character, The Exile, is now going to take steps to deal with the upcoming threat of the Sith, which KotOR1's protagonist, Revan, has already left to take on.*** For starters, immediately after the final battle, the player DOES get a chance in KotOR2 to hear some sort of conclusion for the places and people of importance to the game, as Darth Traya relates glimpses of their futures to The Exile. You don't exactly see all of it, but at least they're mentioned. More importantly, though, the sequel bait didn't just come out of NOWHERE. Many are the times in KotOR2 that, through conversations and plot events, the idea of a looming threat of the Sith is mentioned, and Revan's disappearance linked with this (forgive the phrasing, but it works) phantom menace. So when KotOR2's ending focuses on The Exile taking steps to prepare in one way or another for the Sith, it's something that makes sense, and puts a lot of the game into a different, but appropriate, perspective, one of preparation of another warrior to deal with the true threat that has been the underlying evil at the edge of everything in the game. It's RELEVANT. Significant! Poignant, even. It's intellectually sound and, while an obvious hook and lead-in for future adventures, there is some satisfaction to be had in it.***

With Dragon Age 2, as I said, it's just out of the goddamn blue. There are maybe a couple very vague, seemingly unimportant references made to DA1's hero's disappearance made during DA2's events, certainly no true suggestion made with words, course of plot, or atmosphere of game events that would imply great significance to the DA1 hero's absence, either to the world stage or to DA2's setting, events, and characters.

So there you have it. The finale starts with a poorly-conceived plot event that doesn't fit with the personality of the character perpetrating it, the finale is nonsensical or stupid throughout its course, the writing for it is a clearly sloppy hack job at several key points, it focuses on characters that have barely even been encountered until that point (yet manages to unrealistically mangle what little you DO know about one of those characters), and perhaps worst of all, the ending itself is practically nonexistent, offering no actual conclusion, no reference to or acknowledgment of any of the game's events and player's decisions, just absolutely goddamn NOTHING but transparent, desperate, poorly executed sequel-bait that only the most shallow and easily led of morons could possibly feel excited about. If I ever make a list of the worst RPG endings of all time--an idea that had not occurred to me until this very moment but, thanks to Dragon Age 2, seems extremely plausible--you can bet your ass DA2's will place highly on the list. This game's ending is just absolutely worthless, and the finale events leading up to it are utter bullshit. Shame on Bioware for this atrocity against storytelling.














* This, by the way, is the worst example of a company interpreting its own character that I've seen since...well, earlier this year, when I watched Lufia 2's remake utterly destroy the character of Guy...but despite the lack of time between these, Anders's character in Dragon Age 2 is built off the foundations of very poor writing. In Dragon Age 1's Awakening expansion, Anders was a witty, enjoyable, and generally cheerful guy who easily got caught up in the wonder of being free from the Circle's overbearing rules. He was a free spirit who perpetually refused to be shackled. It's not that he didn't bear the desire for Mages to be freed from the captivity that the Circle inflicted on them, and it's not that he wasn't capable of darker emotions...but the idea that he was secretly harboring such an intense, burning loathing for the world's unfairness that he could twist a spirit of Justice into a spirit of vengeful wrath is absurd. The jump from comical free spirit who laments and resists the world's injustice to brooding freedom fighter who can only just barely contain his blind fury is unreasonable even when Bioware tries to explain it away with "A wizard did it. A ghost wizard," and their explanation of the specifics of this magical exchange just make it less plausible.

** Of course, Anders is a COMPLETELY free Mage who has many acquaintances and friends that respect him, so he'd basically be a model example of how Orsino stresses a Mage should be treated. And this model of a healthy Mage blew up a church to cause a religious racial war. Again, great job on thinking things through with this plan, Anders. Thanks for the confused message, Bioware.

*** I think there's more to this ending that's going to be unearthed in a fan-created restoration project for the game that I'm keeping an eye on, but this will still be the focus of it, just done better thanks to the presence of content that was intended to be there from the start.

Wild Arms 2's Kanon's Abilities

I've seen a lot of methods that RPGs employ to determine how the characters in the player's party learn new abilities. They're quite numerous, really...sometimes characters just learn new moves when they level up, sometimes there are separate experience points devoted to leveling up special attacks, some games have spots on a grid of sorts that you can activate to learn new powers, and plenty of games actually just sell the new skills in stores. Plenty of times, 1 or 2 abilities are only learned from certain quests or completing specific plot events. One of the ideas that I actually really liked (for reasons I can't quite explain) was Final Fantasy 9's system of having most abilities learned from going through enough battles while wearing a certain piece of equipment.* Sometimes these ways of having characters learn new talents is creative (spell creation in Treasure of the Rudras, Plume usage in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume), and sometimes it's not (level-up learning in Dragon Age 1, Tech Points in Chrono Trigger), just as it sometimes provides a game with balance and provides diverse battle roles for characters (pre-established Sphere Grid areas in Final Fantasy 10, ability slot limitations in any given Shin Megami Tensei title), and sometimes is unbalanced and stupidly just makes every character in the game interchangeable (Materia in Final Fantasy 7, Job Classes in Final Fantasy 5). But despite a fairly strong variety in how games handle the process of gaining abilities, it's a rare occasion when I find a system that I really can't stand.

Wild Arms 2, however, is that rare occasion. Or rather, the character Kanon is. In WA2, most every character has their own unique way of gaining abilities. Plot events provide a few for everyone, Brad and Ashley get the rest of theirs from finding certain items, Lilka goes to a shop for hers, Marivel gets her abilities by draining them from the right enemies, and Tim adds to his move set when he kills enemies with a certain summon monster equipped. Some of these are more time-consuming and annoying than others (Tim and Marivel), but they're all pretty functional and basic methods. Kanon, however...basically, she gains new abilities when she uses her current ones.

Now, at first glance, this COULD be functional, if it were measured in constants. What I mean is, if the system was set up where Kanon would get, say, Super Slash 2 after using the ability Super Slash 1 a certain amount of times, then this would be fine. You could count out how many more uses you would need until you gained her next move. Simple. A little time-consuming no doubt, but simple.

But it's not constant. It's random. Any time you use Super Slash 1, there's a certain percent chance that Kanon will learn Super Slash 2 after using it. This is not such a big deal with the first of her abilities to learn, since they've got chances of 1/4 and 1/12, which are pretty good--a few uses and you'll probably get the next abilities fast enough. But her best abilities, Phalanx and Eagle Claw? The chance that you'll learn them from using her abilities are, at any given use, 1/48 and 1/96, respectively. One out of NINETY-SIX. That means that out of 96 uses of Phalanx, you can only reasonably expect 1 of them to result in Kanon learning her final ability.

That by itself is totally unreasonable, of course, particularly since there's actually no guarantee that you won't be exceptionally unlucky and still not have gotten Eagle Claw after 96 tries. But, my friends, the terrible nature of this process does not end there. One must also consider the circumstances necessary to use the high-powered attacks that you need to in order to potentially activate Kanon's Eagle Claw. You see, in Wild Arms 2, there is not MP, persay--there are Force Points. You basically start every battle with a Force Point total equaling your character's level, and the way to get more during battle are:


Attack
Get hit by an attack
Use a very rare FP restoration item
Use 1 certain summoned monster's ability


So to raise your FP, you're going to be, one way or another, involved in a battle that takes multiple turns. And the cost for the ability Phalanx, which you need to use to get Eagle Claw, is...90 FP. This means that until Kanon has reached level 90, which is something like 35 levels higher than you need to be to comfortably beat the entire game, you have to be in combat for at least a couple turns to use Phalanx at all. What does that mean? It means that if you want to pursue Eagle Claw during normal enemy encounters, you're going to have to increase the amount of time you spend in random battles by at least twice. And with that comes the consideration that normal enemies are only going to take one hit from Phalanx before dying, as it's rather powerful, you're going to be increasing the time you fight normal enemies by at least 100% just for the opportunity to try for the new ability 3 times or so. That SUCKS.

The other option you can take is to use the only battles that you'll normally get Kanon 90 FP in due to their length--boss battles--to spam the move over and over. This is almost as annoying, though, because if you're just hitting the boss with one move every turn, you're still increasing the amount of time you're spending in monotonous RPG combat, and if you're using any attacks more than Phalanx, the boss dies too quickly for Kanon to have used the move often enough to have any chance of learning the damn Eagle Claw ability.

In my replay of WA2 a few months ago, I did both methods--the only attack I used against bosses was Phalanx, and I increased the length of several normal enemy encounters so that I could have Kanon fire off Phalanx a couple times (and I'd just like to note, in case it's been forgotten, that just getting the Phalanx ability is an annoying, random, time-consuming process in itself!). You know when I finally learned the goddamn Eagle Claw ability? Second to last dungeon. That's, what, a THIRD of the game that you can spend waiting for this damn ability to show up, hindering your progress the entire time?

And yes, I do realize that I could have just stopped with Phalanx and (apparently) gotten through the game just fine with it alone. Not only do I realize that, I heartily recommend it--hell, I think Phalanx by itself is too much of a pain in the ass to learn for Kanon, so anyone planning to play the game, just stick to the other abilities she can learn. But whether a player CAN make do with a less-effective work-around is not the point--the point is that the player should not HAVE to avoid this tedious idiocy.












* Final Fantasy 6 actually had this idea first, but it was tragically underused, almost completely eclipsed by the far less interesting Magicite system of learning magic, which ruined most of the game's characters' battle individuality.

Kingdom Hearts 2's Villain Problem

I'm sorry I've only been updating twice a month, fellas and fella-ettes. I work at Men's Wearhouse, and this time of year is absolute madness there, what with prom kids and wedding parties launching full-on invasions of our rental areas. Just bear with me for another month, and I'll get back to updating thrice each month, on the 5s. If I can actually keep thinking up things to yammer about, of course.


I very much liked Kingdom Hearts 2. In fact, up to and including 2, I've thought the series is pretty great. They're creative, their plots are executed well, several have neat ideas, and KH: Chain of Memories might have been tortuous to actually play, but it was certainly interesting in many regards to the power of memories and so on. I have not gone any further with the series than KH2, though, so I can't say for sure whether it's still good overall or not. I can only work with knowledge of the first 3 in the series.

If there's one problem I have with the series, though, KH2 in particular, it's with half of the original characters. Kingdom Hearts does fine with most of its characters taken from Final Fantasy (as long as you're not looking at Nomura's clumsy, careless mishandling of any character he didn't personally invent), and it does a terrific job with its interpretations for most of its characters of Disney origins. But when it comes to the characters whose origins are Kingdom Hearts alone, it's pretty split.

On the one side, you have the main characters, Sora, Kairi, Riku, Namine, and Roxas. These ones are pretty good. Riku's an annoying ass in KH1, but his character gets much better in KHCoM, and he stays decent in KH2. Sora's an engaging hero who has a fresh feel to him, and you can see him grow in many ways throughout the games, while staying himself overall. Kairi's more appealing as an ideal than a character thanks to her essential part of the games' plots yet extremely small involvement in them, but what little we see of her seems alright. And I liked Namine, though she's woefully underdeveloped as a character. Roxas is...pretty bland, honestly, but not bad, I guess. It's not HIS fault he's stuck in the 5 most boring and pointless hours of KH2, and that his deepest character development is done mostly while he's off-screen. So the main characters are good overall. And the few supporting original characters aren't bad...Ansem's kind of just there as a plot point, but it's not in any bad capacity, and Pence, Olette, and that other kid that Roxas makes friends with are all okay, for minor NPCs.

But on the other side, you have all the original villains of the Kingdom Hearts series. Not the Heartless, mind--I mean the important individuals, not the legions of goons. These are the Heartless Ansem-Mimic whose proper name I forget, Dark Riku, and Organization 13. Now, Dark Riku is the exception here, because he's actually a pretty decent villain once he starts getting all existential and such. But the Ansem-wannabe is pretty generic. And almost all of Organization 13's members are irrelevant, worthless, utterly empty characters with no significance beyond their membership, and the members that DO have something resembling characterization are worse, a collection of generic anime villains whose oppressively convoluted plans are stupid and motivated by selfish and dumb reasons that barely make any sense.

Of course, SquareEnix having a host of lousy villains is nothing new. Even in Square's heyday, they couldn't seem to make a good villain to save their corporate life. "Classic" Final Fantasy villains included a megalomaniac tree that made Snidely Whiplash look like a deep and thoughtful villain, a moon man that had to have other people do everything for him to enact a plan to destroy people that he hated for no adequately-explored reason, a future sorceress that did the same thing as the moon man only for even more vague reasons and with less sensible methods, and a lame rip-off of The Joker that had none of his depth, just going for an "I'm evil for evil's sake! ...Because I'm CRAZY!" mentality. And don't even get me started on Sephiroth and the Turks.

The real problem I have with KH2's set of pathetic, empty villains is that the game didn't HAVE to be stuck with them, at least not in such a prominent role. You get a game like, say, Final Fantasy 12, and, well, you're stuck with the lame, poorly-imagined villain that you've got. Vayne is the best villain they've got because he's the ONLY villain they've got, the only one that's been written for the game that can properly take his role. He may suck, but there's no real alternative because they didn't make one.

But with Kingdom Hearts, the company has literally dozens of great villains available to choose from. Each Disney location visited, each set of characters met, has a villain to offer. Once they'd added the Heartless into the mix, Square was all set. They didn't NEED to do any more, because with a mindless horde of baddies in place to provide power for the bad guys and EXP-fodder for the good guys, Square had many villains they could put into the spotlight that came from Disney. Who can deny the villainous charisma of grand schemers like Ursula, Jafar, Scar, Hades, and Maleficent? The petty darknesses that make individuals like Gaston, Cruella, the queen of Snow White, Tremaine, and Barbarossa such interesting and personal nemeses?

Square has access to these great villains. And Square proves throughout the series that they can not only accurately represent Disney characters, they can actually sometimes make them BETTER. Yet rather than take this opportunity to use an already great villain and make them the spotlight, Square disregards this resource and relegates it to a lesser, even unimportant role. With the exception of Maleficent and Pete, every Disney villain is confined to their single part of the game, a small-time villain rather than anything of huge significance to the plot. And while Maleficent seems for most of KH1 to be the grand villain behind everything, she's eventually one-upped by the KH-original Ansem-wannabe. Then she's made a tiny support villain KHCoM (though to be fair, the setup of the plot to that game necessitates this), and, worst of all, finally relegated to a role of lesser opposition in KH2, a mere afterthought to Organization 13 that is shown through both the story's structure and through actual events in the game not to have nearly the power or importance of these idiotic Nobodies.

I mean, are you KIDDING me? This is freaking MALEFICENT! The only Disney villain so steeped in power that the hero can only beat her by CHEATING. Had the prince in Sleeping Beauty not had the little fairies setting him free, giving him equipment, and finally enchanting the sword to basically be a 1-Hit KO Homing Missile, Maleficent would have won with EASE. You're telling me that Square thought a collection of generic pretty-boys with stupid ambitions that amount to them crying into a pillow "WHY ME WHY CAN'T I FEEEEEEL STUFF THE RIGHT WAY SNRRRK I'M SO GONNA WRITE A BAD SONG ABOUT THIS SOB" would make more compelling and powerful antagonists than the mistress of evil, a wrathful wielder of magics as dark and wicked as her vengeful spite?

And how about some of the other villains I mentioned? I'll grant you that the takeover plans of Scar, Ursula, and Hades are personal enough that they could indeed be content with just ruling their own lands and not attempting to conquer all the Disney worlds and thus become major game villains, but what about Jafar? That boy was ambitious enough that he could easily fill the role of a villain out to threaten everything. And the queen from Snow White would make a fine secondary villain; you could have her attempting to kill off the Princesses of Heart, determined to be the fairest of ALL worlds, not just her own. And how about a villain from a Disney franchise not already in the KH games? I mean, imagine what interesting motives and methods you could give Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame to be the main villain of a game with such a set-up. The guy's already a fascinating villain, hung up on his own inner demons, seeing his hatred for gypsies and his lust for Esmerelda as an internal battle between God and the Devil instead of just 2 different sides of ugly, twisted evil. Imagine all the neat stuff you could do with him in a setting like Kingdom Hearts, with small, dark demon-type things (the Heartless) spreading to every world, preying on people's emotional weaknesses...the reactions he would have, the motivations he might acquire to take control of all worlds or of the Heartless, the reasons he might have for seeking out the fabled Kingdom Hearts, and so on.

At any rate, Square had a lot of options for who could be each KH game's major villain, options that spanned every level of diabolical intent and every kind of negative emotion and desire. They've no excuse for having lackluster, annoying evil-doers as the top opposition to the heroes in these games, and frankly, restricting the villains with serious potential to tiny roles is stupid.

Dragon Age 2's The Exiled Prince Downloadable Content

When I do a rant on an RPG's add-ons, I typically list all the ones of significance out and look at them all at once, then judge the game's extra content as a whole afterwards. That was the plan with Dragon Age 2 at first, but as I wrote this out, it shaped up to be a rant in and of itself. Since it's so long, and since DA2 is still relatively new and relevant, and finally since I feel that there's a message worth conveying here, I decided I'd make this its own post. I'll probably refer back to it come the day I've finished my add-on rant for Dragon Age 2, but for now, The Exiled Prince DLC warrants some attention.

The Exiled Prince is a downloadable set of extra content for Dragon Age 2. This add-on was available for free with the DA2 Signature Edition, which was basically a premium edition of the game available to anyone who pre-ordered it before a certain date. If you didn't pre-order it in time, it costs $7.

Judging this one is hard. On its merits alone, it's a good add-on. The Exiled Prince basically adds a new character to your party, Sebastian, along with several quests and scenes pertinent to him. They don't really skimp on Sebastian at all as an addition to the party; he has roughly the same amount of character development and interaction with the plot as most of the other party members, and is a romantic interest for female protagonists. He's a long ways off from being a great character, but he's decent enough (and "decent" is as good as any DA2 character gets). So based just on that, I'd say the add-on's worth the price.

Yet I nonetheless have issues with this DLC's circumstances. Like Zaeed Massani of Mass Effect 2 and Shale of Dragon Age 1, Sebastian's package was available the day the game was, which begs the question of why it isn't just part of the game, period. If Bioware's planning to have this character be a part of their game, and have the time and resources available to do all the programming for him, then he should BE IN THE GAME. An add-on should be an ADD-ON, an extra part you can add to the game later, NOT a piece of the game that was MISSING. Look at it this way: if you buy a 100-piece jigsaw picture with a picture of a fish on the box, then when you correctly place all 100 pieces of that puzzle, you had better damn well have a complete picture of that fish. If, after you finish the puzzle, you discover that the picture of the fish is actually incomplete, and requires a separate 3 pieces sold separately from the 100 that come in the box, you have EVERY REASON to be angry, because you were RIPPED OFF. You paid for a product with the understanding that it was complete, and it wasn't. And that's not fair.

Now, I can forgive Mass Effect 2's character Zaeed (and later Kasumi). And I can forgive DA1's Shale. The reason for this forgiveness is that these characters, though seamlessly worked into the game as companions, are additions, not missing parts. Even though they can all take part in the plot and have scenes during the games' finales, the overall game's events and plot--the overall picture of the fish in the puzzle metaphor--does not require them. ME2's final mission can go as well or poorly with or without Zaeed and Kasumi, and what additions they have for the game are pretty much all strictly related to them. DA1's Shale has content to add to the game that is much the same--it's good to have, but not significant or vital to the plot proper. Basically, if you don't get Zaeed, Kasumi, or Shale, all you will really miss out on are Zaeed, Kasumi, or Shale, and a few side quests directly pertaining to them.

But here's the problem with Sebastian. Up until the game's finale, Sebastian gives every appearance of being like these previous 3 add-on characters I've mentioned. But at the game's finale's beginning, Sebastian suddenly has a very strong impact on the plot. Basically, he will force upon the protagonist the choice of either killing Anders for his fucktarded and hypocritical murderous magical warmongering, or losing Sebastian's respect and help forever. The determination of what to do with Anders is a pivotal decision for the plot's course, and having Sebastian force the issue with a threat of consequences either way increases the dramatic nature of the scene. This one scene makes Sebastian significantly engaged with Dragon Age 2's core storyline--more so even than Fenris and Merrill, 2 non-add-on party members! The presence of Sebastian adds an important aspect to the events of one of the most important moments of Dragon Age 2's plot--which means that if you don't have The Exiled Prince add-on, your DA2 experience will be incomplete. You will not just be missing out on a character and things involving him--you'll be missing out on part of the actual plot of the game.

THIS is why I am VERY angry with The Exiled Prince. The finished product of Dragon Age 2 was created with the intention that he should be part of it. Removing him and selling him separately is CHEATING THE CUSTOMER. It may be fine and dandy for me and anyone else who pre-ordered the game to get him for free, but there ARE gamers, and plenty of them, who did not pre-order and thus will have to pay extra to get a complete experience of the story of Dragon Age 2. That is NOT acceptable, and SHAME on Bioware for such dirty business.

General RPGs' Animal Characters

Faithful reader Ecclesiastes brought up a subject for conversation the other day that arose from my SMT Persona Social Link Comparison rant: dogs in RPGs. I noted in that rant that Persona 3's Koromaru's character was inadequately developed, and that dogs in RPGs generally get a bad deal like this, which I have also mentioned more than once in the past. So you can thank or blame Ecc for this one.

Animal characters. In RPGs' never-ending mission to create the most bizarre and colorful diversity in their casts possible, they often make use of non-humanoid characters to fill out the playable character list. And hey, in theory, it's a good idea--adding in the personality and pathos of a different species to the cast could be refreshing and reflect well on the other characters' development. But in practice, it's pretty much always a severe disappointment.

Now, before I go any further, I should probably explain what I mean by an "animal character." Because when Ecclesiastes was talking to me about it, he wondered what I thought of Red XIII, from Final Fantasy 7, who, while not nearly as well-developed as several others of the game's cast, seemed to be a character of decent depth. And this would be a good example...if I counted Red XIII as an animal character. But he's not.

Look. It's like this. If it talks like a human and it thinks like a human, it's a human character. If Red XIII had been humanoid in FF7 instead of a red dog-lion thing, absolutely nothing significant would have needed to be changed for his development. His personality, his issues, his concerns, his approach to situations, his responses to and relationships with others, his thoughts, his speech, every major mental aspect to him is sentient in a human capacity. He is a human character that happens to have been placed in a non-human body. His physical differences from the others can be considered, in terms of the audience's perspective, at most to be a cultural difference. He is not an animal character. As far as I'm concerned, if it talks the talk of a human character, it IS one.*

Now, Koromaru in SMTP3? Dogmeat in the Fallout series? Puffy in Grandia 1? These are animal characters. They generally exhibit a level of intelligence that animals do, they act as animals do, their concerns and interests are bestial (though in a tamed way). They don't talk, they don't ponder their family's past, they just do animal stuff.

Unfortunately, actual animal characters rarely get adequate character development. Now I DO understand that there are limitations of what I can expect from an animal character. And I am not expecting much, I honestly am not. But I do know that there can be SOMETHING beyond what I see all the time. Koromaru's actually on the higher side of RPG animal characters, in that we have an actual, understandable reason for him to be with the team, and he does express emotions, within the capacity you'd expect for a smart and devoted dog. But they still could have developed his canine personality more than they did, and given his development stronger consideration--the loss a dog can feel after the death of their owner can be a remarkably powerful and touching thing, and we didn't get very much on that from Koromaru. A little, yes, but only enough to cement his place, not enough to explore it.

And it IS possible to make a good animal character; I've seen it before more than once. Maybe not in RPGs yet, but that means nothing. Off the top of my head, Kaw, the crow from Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books, fits the bill. Kaw is a character throughout the books that is lively, curious, and continually mischievous, yet also noble and brave. He does talk, yes, but only in as much capacity as any crow might, no more intelligent than you would expect a crow to be (as long as you ARE aware that they're very, very smart birds). It's through his actions, not his dialogue, that you get a feel for his character, and while he doesn't grapple with self-doubts and coming of age and so on like the characters around him, he DOES exhibit playfulness, pride, loyalty, bravery, and other traits and emotions that a pet raven might. Alexander gives Kaw a personality that distinguishes what kind of crow Kaw is, but not one that distinguishes him from being a crow altogether.

I mean, I GUESS there are some examples in RPGs where actual animal characters are handled well enough...some of the animals in the Suikoden series aren't really any less characterized than most of the other characters in the game, I guess. And I admit that in Secret of Evermore, the main character's dog is actually exactly right. I mean, all they really portray is a nosy, playful mutt that the main character is utterly incapable of controlling, a dog that causes way, way more problems than it's worth. But it IS Secret of Evermore, which is a humor RPG--you can't reasonably expect powerful emotion and philosophy, just good laughs. And on that, the dog delivers in a good, canine capacity. So...I suppose that there is ONE well-done animal character in RPGs at present.

Nonetheless, having an animal character that's written well for a humor RPG is not exactly the same as having animal characters that fit well into your standard, more serious and thoughtful RPG (even though I do love a good humor RPG). Why couldn't Persona 3 have gone that little bit extra with Koromaru, instead of just dropping his character development after his introduction? Why doesn't Dragon Age 1 do anything with its Mabari Hound? I mean, the game does some work to set up his breed's traits and tout them as really awesome, so why is it when you get him that he's little more than an extra body that pees on trees? Why is it that neither of the Fallout series's Dogmeats is ever given any sort of personality beyond following random strangers in Vault suits? If Flammie is going to turn out to be such an important part of the plot's finale in The Secret of Mana, shouldn't they have given it more than 5 seconds and like 2 lines of other characters' text to create a character for it? And the list goes on.

Animals DO have personalities. They CAN feel certain powerful emotions, and exhibit distinctive character traits. But they don't act the same as us, and they don't react to things and think about them the same way as us. There IS potential there for an animal character with strong depth--you just have to know how to show that depth WITHOUT forcing a human mindset on the creature. And unfortunately, I've yet to see an RPG get it right in any serious capacity.


04/21/20 UPDATE: Amaterasu, the protagonist of Okami, is pretty close to exactly what I have yearned for in an animal character. So it can be done! Here's hoping more like her will grace the RPG genre someday.








* I can make an exception on talking when it's, like, one single time during a plot-relevant moment. Say like Bahamut Lagoon, where there's a moment near the game's end where this guy psychically hears the minds of the dragons that have traveled with the game's protagonist through the journey, and relates the dragons' love and devotion. That's a one-time thing, and it's a special circumstance, not just the animals deciding to open their mouths and deliver a diatribe. The rest of the time, they don't give any particular indication of human-level intelligence, so they still count as animal characters.