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.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, April 25, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Mass Effect 2's Downloadable Content
And here comes another add-on rant.
As a note, I say on a few of these that they're free with the game, which is kind of true and kind of not. Basically, when you buy the game from a store, it comes with a card for the Cerberus Network, which allows you to download several DLC packages for no charge. Thing is, you actually do pay MORE for a copy of the game that comes with the card for that network, so you ARE paying for the Cerberus Network, and thus, the benefits it comes with are not actually free. This is something that Bioware would prefer that people not figure out, as they not only like to promote their Cerberus Network stuff as "free," but also to pout and say that their fans are unreasonable when said fans complain about some of the crappy add-ons that they have to pay for (pointless shit like extra armor styles or alternate appearances for certain characters). Bioware is fond of whining, at that point, "But we gave you all this other stuff for FREE! You people are never satisfied! I WORK AND I SLAVE OVER A HOT STOVE ALL DAY ETC." It's probably the first time I've seen this company be outright disingenuous, and its focus on exploiting loyal fans and complaining if that exploitation isn't 100% successful is disturbingly reminiscent of SquareEnix's current business plan. I sure as hell hope THAT won't continue. Bioware's misleading--hell, outright dishonest--wording aside, however, the Cerberus Network's content, even if not actually "free," is still a good deal for the overall cost, given how many DLC packages you get with it that have some actual content.
Anyway, let's get this going.
Zaeed Massani: Zaeed is free with the Ceberus Network. Basically, this DLC adds a new team member, a famous bounty hunter, to Commander Shepard's squad. Zaeed's as much a character as any other; they skimped on nearly nothing with him--he has unique dialogue reactions when he's in your party to many parts of the game, he has scenes of his own in the final mission when needed, and he has his own special Loyalty Mission for you to play through as any other character would. All he lacks is regular dialogue for when you speak to him on the ship (although he still has plenty to say in an NPC fashion, so that's no strike against him) and a mission to actually recruit him, which would have been nice, but is an acceptable loss when everything else is right. He's a pretty fun character to listen to, he's got some history that's interesting, and his Loyalty Mission gives him an acceptable bit of character development--nothing stellar, but certainly not bad, either. Zaeed's a solid DLC addition, to be sure.
Normandy Crash: This one's tiny. As a single 10 to 20 minute mission with no dialogue and only slight plot relevance that doesn't involve any action, you wouldn't think I would have any positive remarks about it, but life is pretty unpredictable--I actually really liked this one. The overall idea of recovering pieces of your former ship is decent, the execution is exactly as it should be--quiet, reflective, mournful, and lonely--and the choice given to you of where to place the memorial marker is a nice touch, letting you decide what was the most important and symbolic part of the first Normandy to honor with a statue. The DLC also provides posthumous character development for a relatively minor, yet memorable, NPC from Mass Effect 1, Navigator/XO Pressly. Overall, this minuscule DLC packs a lot of atmosphere, meaning, and even a bit of character development into its few minutes.
Firewalker: Another free Cerberus Network download, the Firewalker DLC pack adds 5 minor missions to the game that incorporate a new vehicle, a hover attack vehicle thingy called the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead's controls are pretty slick, it shoots missiles quite handily, and the missions have a small story tying them together of trying to locate missing scientists and an ancient artifact. It's not an especially strong story entry, but it's nice in that the plot acknowledges the goings-on of the Mass Effect galaxy while Shepard's fooling around with his main quest, reminding us of the importance of the Protheans that Mass Effect 1 established and perhaps promising future developments with this DLC's events. Not a bad little hour or two of extra game play, if not at all memorable.
Kasumi - Stolen Memory: Now THIS is more like it. This is probably the best add-on I've seen since Fallout 3. With this DLC, you get Kasumi, a new party member who, like Zaeed, fits in like she was always in the game, having reactionary dialogue throughout the game and her own scenes to play out during the last mission, but with more character depth than Zaeed. You also get a new mission to play through that focuses on Kasumi, and the mission is, honestly, pretty damn good. The mission itself is pretty cool, it has a good element of plot to it, and it develops Kasumi's character quite nicely. Thumbs up on this one, definitely.
Overlord: Not the best Bioware's done, but not bad. This DLC is basically a few missions connected by a side story of short-sighted ambitions causing inhumane treatment of the innocent in the name of the greater good. It's decent, and its nature reminds me a bit of the various side quests from Mass Effect 1, which often had similar tones and ideas. And anything that reminds me of ME1 ain't a bad thing--I think the only failing ME2 had was its strong dissimilarities to its predecessor. So Overlord's alright. But it isn't great. And as an extra that costs $7 instead of just being packaged with the Cerberus Network (which would have made more sense anyway, given that it uses the Hammerhead, which came with the Firewalker DLC, which was a Cerberus Network package), I can't in good conscience say it's worth the price.
Lair of the Shadow Broker: Very nice, this one. With a good story and some much-needed character development for Liara, both of which tie up loose ends that the game proper just kind of left, this is definitely a high quality DLC. It's exciting, well-told, and interesting pretty much from start to finish, and all the bonus content at the end is a real gem--after gaining access to the Shadow Broker's data and files, Shepard gets to read up on the intel the Broker has on Shepard's companions and friends, which means lots of neat tidbits to further develop most of the game's major characters. Many are amusing, many are insightful, some are even touching--it's all great stuff. Hell, I'd actually say that the development you get for the characters as an end bonus to this DLC is the most worthy reason to play through it. There are several little gameplay bonuses to this DLC, too, that go beyond what you'd expect, so that's nice, too, I suppose. But the main reasons to play a DLC are all there and solid with this one.
The Arrival: The Arrival's a pretty decent DLC. Initial reaction to it by fans was that it was "predictable," and this is generally true for anyone who's familiar with Reaper technology, the rarity of one of Shepard's missions going without a hitch, and Shepard's penchant for lecturing ancient apocalyptic horrors on the virtues of the human spirit--so, in essence, predictable to anyone who's played Mass Effect. But if my recent enthrallment with the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon has taught me anything,* it's that predictable conclusions can still be interesting and worthwhile if you have a skilled creative mind behind them. And this DLC is such a case. Yes, you'll probably see the twist coming in some capacity, but the events of The Arrival are still neat, and very relevant to the major story of the series--more so than most other DLCs, I think. In fact, this add-on feels less like a contained side story like most of the above do and the ME1 add-ons did, and more like an important part of the overall plot of the Mass Effect trilogy's events. There's nothing incredible in here, and the mission, while full, is over kind of quickly for the price, but it's a solid little adventure, it gets the player's focus back on track with the main story after a lot of DLC packages that kinda deviated away from it, it's exciting, it features the return (and first visual appearance) of an important secondary character from ME1, and it helps to transition from ME2 to the upcoming ME3 (I think; I won't know for sure until we actually see ME3, but that's what it feels like). So I'd say it does most everything Bioware wanted it to, and is decent and worth the price of admission as much as any Downloadable Content ever is. A good way to conclude ME2's set of add-ons, as ME3 looms.
And that's that. On the whole? I think Mass Effect 2's Downloadable Content has been a pretty good thing. Sure, there were a couple that really weren't all that noteworthy, and Bioware's shady policy regarding the Cerberus Network is very disappointing. But the majority of the add-ons were good offerings, and I don't feel like any of them were an outright rip-off, and both of these points make Mass Effect 2's set of add-ons a marked improvement over those of Dragon Age 1, so Bioware's certainly improving. Bethesda's Fallout 3 add-ons were still a better deal and half the time were of greater storytelling quality, but ME2's additional content nonetheless leaves me with a positive impression.
Now, will Bioware continue to improve with Dragon Age 2's add-ons, or will it go back to the generally disappointing DA1's add-ons for inspiration? And how will the somewhat recent Fallout: New Vegas's add-ons measure up against its own predecessor's? We'll just have to see.
* Shut the fuck up. MLPFiM is awesome and 100% acceptable by masculine standards. It beat the shit out of 4chan and there's like thousands of other guys who love it. Look it up if you don't believe me.
As a note, I say on a few of these that they're free with the game, which is kind of true and kind of not. Basically, when you buy the game from a store, it comes with a card for the Cerberus Network, which allows you to download several DLC packages for no charge. Thing is, you actually do pay MORE for a copy of the game that comes with the card for that network, so you ARE paying for the Cerberus Network, and thus, the benefits it comes with are not actually free. This is something that Bioware would prefer that people not figure out, as they not only like to promote their Cerberus Network stuff as "free," but also to pout and say that their fans are unreasonable when said fans complain about some of the crappy add-ons that they have to pay for (pointless shit like extra armor styles or alternate appearances for certain characters). Bioware is fond of whining, at that point, "But we gave you all this other stuff for FREE! You people are never satisfied! I WORK AND I SLAVE OVER A HOT STOVE ALL DAY ETC." It's probably the first time I've seen this company be outright disingenuous, and its focus on exploiting loyal fans and complaining if that exploitation isn't 100% successful is disturbingly reminiscent of SquareEnix's current business plan. I sure as hell hope THAT won't continue. Bioware's misleading--hell, outright dishonest--wording aside, however, the Cerberus Network's content, even if not actually "free," is still a good deal for the overall cost, given how many DLC packages you get with it that have some actual content.
Anyway, let's get this going.
Zaeed Massani: Zaeed is free with the Ceberus Network. Basically, this DLC adds a new team member, a famous bounty hunter, to Commander Shepard's squad. Zaeed's as much a character as any other; they skimped on nearly nothing with him--he has unique dialogue reactions when he's in your party to many parts of the game, he has scenes of his own in the final mission when needed, and he has his own special Loyalty Mission for you to play through as any other character would. All he lacks is regular dialogue for when you speak to him on the ship (although he still has plenty to say in an NPC fashion, so that's no strike against him) and a mission to actually recruit him, which would have been nice, but is an acceptable loss when everything else is right. He's a pretty fun character to listen to, he's got some history that's interesting, and his Loyalty Mission gives him an acceptable bit of character development--nothing stellar, but certainly not bad, either. Zaeed's a solid DLC addition, to be sure.
Normandy Crash: This one's tiny. As a single 10 to 20 minute mission with no dialogue and only slight plot relevance that doesn't involve any action, you wouldn't think I would have any positive remarks about it, but life is pretty unpredictable--I actually really liked this one. The overall idea of recovering pieces of your former ship is decent, the execution is exactly as it should be--quiet, reflective, mournful, and lonely--and the choice given to you of where to place the memorial marker is a nice touch, letting you decide what was the most important and symbolic part of the first Normandy to honor with a statue. The DLC also provides posthumous character development for a relatively minor, yet memorable, NPC from Mass Effect 1, Navigator/XO Pressly. Overall, this minuscule DLC packs a lot of atmosphere, meaning, and even a bit of character development into its few minutes.
Firewalker: Another free Cerberus Network download, the Firewalker DLC pack adds 5 minor missions to the game that incorporate a new vehicle, a hover attack vehicle thingy called the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead's controls are pretty slick, it shoots missiles quite handily, and the missions have a small story tying them together of trying to locate missing scientists and an ancient artifact. It's not an especially strong story entry, but it's nice in that the plot acknowledges the goings-on of the Mass Effect galaxy while Shepard's fooling around with his main quest, reminding us of the importance of the Protheans that Mass Effect 1 established and perhaps promising future developments with this DLC's events. Not a bad little hour or two of extra game play, if not at all memorable.
Kasumi - Stolen Memory: Now THIS is more like it. This is probably the best add-on I've seen since Fallout 3. With this DLC, you get Kasumi, a new party member who, like Zaeed, fits in like she was always in the game, having reactionary dialogue throughout the game and her own scenes to play out during the last mission, but with more character depth than Zaeed. You also get a new mission to play through that focuses on Kasumi, and the mission is, honestly, pretty damn good. The mission itself is pretty cool, it has a good element of plot to it, and it develops Kasumi's character quite nicely. Thumbs up on this one, definitely.
Overlord: Not the best Bioware's done, but not bad. This DLC is basically a few missions connected by a side story of short-sighted ambitions causing inhumane treatment of the innocent in the name of the greater good. It's decent, and its nature reminds me a bit of the various side quests from Mass Effect 1, which often had similar tones and ideas. And anything that reminds me of ME1 ain't a bad thing--I think the only failing ME2 had was its strong dissimilarities to its predecessor. So Overlord's alright. But it isn't great. And as an extra that costs $7 instead of just being packaged with the Cerberus Network (which would have made more sense anyway, given that it uses the Hammerhead, which came with the Firewalker DLC, which was a Cerberus Network package), I can't in good conscience say it's worth the price.
Lair of the Shadow Broker: Very nice, this one. With a good story and some much-needed character development for Liara, both of which tie up loose ends that the game proper just kind of left, this is definitely a high quality DLC. It's exciting, well-told, and interesting pretty much from start to finish, and all the bonus content at the end is a real gem--after gaining access to the Shadow Broker's data and files, Shepard gets to read up on the intel the Broker has on Shepard's companions and friends, which means lots of neat tidbits to further develop most of the game's major characters. Many are amusing, many are insightful, some are even touching--it's all great stuff. Hell, I'd actually say that the development you get for the characters as an end bonus to this DLC is the most worthy reason to play through it. There are several little gameplay bonuses to this DLC, too, that go beyond what you'd expect, so that's nice, too, I suppose. But the main reasons to play a DLC are all there and solid with this one.
The Arrival: The Arrival's a pretty decent DLC. Initial reaction to it by fans was that it was "predictable," and this is generally true for anyone who's familiar with Reaper technology, the rarity of one of Shepard's missions going without a hitch, and Shepard's penchant for lecturing ancient apocalyptic horrors on the virtues of the human spirit--so, in essence, predictable to anyone who's played Mass Effect. But if my recent enthrallment with the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon has taught me anything,* it's that predictable conclusions can still be interesting and worthwhile if you have a skilled creative mind behind them. And this DLC is such a case. Yes, you'll probably see the twist coming in some capacity, but the events of The Arrival are still neat, and very relevant to the major story of the series--more so than most other DLCs, I think. In fact, this add-on feels less like a contained side story like most of the above do and the ME1 add-ons did, and more like an important part of the overall plot of the Mass Effect trilogy's events. There's nothing incredible in here, and the mission, while full, is over kind of quickly for the price, but it's a solid little adventure, it gets the player's focus back on track with the main story after a lot of DLC packages that kinda deviated away from it, it's exciting, it features the return (and first visual appearance) of an important secondary character from ME1, and it helps to transition from ME2 to the upcoming ME3 (I think; I won't know for sure until we actually see ME3, but that's what it feels like). So I'd say it does most everything Bioware wanted it to, and is decent and worth the price of admission as much as any Downloadable Content ever is. A good way to conclude ME2's set of add-ons, as ME3 looms.
And that's that. On the whole? I think Mass Effect 2's Downloadable Content has been a pretty good thing. Sure, there were a couple that really weren't all that noteworthy, and Bioware's shady policy regarding the Cerberus Network is very disappointing. But the majority of the add-ons were good offerings, and I don't feel like any of them were an outright rip-off, and both of these points make Mass Effect 2's set of add-ons a marked improvement over those of Dragon Age 1, so Bioware's certainly improving. Bethesda's Fallout 3 add-ons were still a better deal and half the time were of greater storytelling quality, but ME2's additional content nonetheless leaves me with a positive impression.
Now, will Bioware continue to improve with Dragon Age 2's add-ons, or will it go back to the generally disappointing DA1's add-ons for inspiration? And how will the somewhat recent Fallout: New Vegas's add-ons measure up against its own predecessor's? We'll just have to see.
* Shut the fuck up. MLPFiM is awesome and 100% acceptable by masculine standards. It beat the shit out of 4chan and there's like thousands of other guys who love it. Look it up if you don't believe me.
Monday, March 14, 2011
General RPGs' AMVs 2
Well, by now you guys have probably figured out that I am quite partial to a truly excellent AMV, given that every time I find one I feel is really great, I do a whole long rant on it. Of course, one does not often find a fantastic RPG AMV whilst browsing the internet...in fact, given the number I've found that are so great that I deem them worthy of personally keeping and subsequently ranting about, I'd say, quite seriously, that your chances of finding a great RPG AMV are about 100 to 1. I mean, that really seems to be the ratio I've experienced.*
Still, even if a truly skillful, exceptional AMV is extremely rare, that's not to say that there aren't a good few AMVs out there that are, if not great, at least decent, sometimes even good. I'm sure has hell not going to spend 2 - 4 weeks writing out an analytical rant for each of them,** but hey, just because they're not amazing, that doesn't mean they don't deserve some note for at least being competent, right? Just the ability to rise above flat mediocrity with RPG AMVs is uncommon enough that it ought to have some recognition. Hence, here is a list of 13 RPG AMVs that are at least pretty good, and worth a watch, organized by game. Why 13? Because it's enough to give you a good handful but not enough to overwhelm you, and because superstitions are for wusses.
And hey, by the way, if you watch one of these and like it, be responsible and give it a Thumbs-Up, or even leave a positive comment. It distresses me how few views and feedback quite a few of these AMVs have, considering that there was clearly some decent effort put into quite a few of them.
CHRONO
Chrono Cross: Plastic Blue, by xXOverXStudiosXx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8SCU9ybSjQ
The music used is Blue, by The Birthday Massacre. Can't say I'm a fan of the music in any capacity, but ah well. The visual nature of this AMV is very impressive, using tints and visual effects up the wazoo to create a music video that nearly perfectly portrays the surreal, turbulent emotions and twists of the music. This is done so well that I was very tempted to keep this AMV in my personal collection as one of the very best ones out there--but in the end, I opted not to, because while Chrono cross's videos work well enough for the song, I feel like you could have taken a great many games' FMVs and gotten an equal result with the same amount of visual effects. In essence, there's not much to this AMV that ties it more strongly to the game it uses than would tie it to any other game whose visuals it could have chosen instead. Nonetheless, a pretty impressive offering.
Chrono Trigger: Chronology Anthology, by Parasite02: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU9O_3VEtTs
The music used is Book of Days, by Enya. This is a pretty good tribute video, with the music and scenes being well-coordinated. There's a lot of neat visual artistry, too, although there are times when it gets excessive and distracting.
Chrono Trigger: This War is Ours, by Smndo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xgIG2wCWzo
The music used is This War is Ours, by Escape the Fate. Lots of visual effects thrown in here, and most are pretty well-used, although there are several times during this video during which I wish things would slow down and be less rapid and confusing. However, putting that (and the, er, less than perfect English used in the video) aside, this is a really neat AMV, using the song to its full extent at several times (particularly at the part starting at 1:15) and including visuals not only from the FMV anime cutscenes, but also from official art, AND the pixellated gameplay itself--and always effectively. I'm often annoyed with the fact that AMVs are as a general rule afraid to include video of actual gameplay for any RPG made before the Playstation 2 era, because if you use it effectively in the right doses, as this AMV does, it enhances your work without being distracting. This is especially handy with a game like CT, whose FMV offerings are distinctly limited to work with.
DRAGON AGE
Dragon Age 1: In Paradisum, by Darkozl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLt8EhtotNI
The music used is Requiem for a Tower, by Clint Mansell. This AMV is an enjoyable tribute to the game, and uses speeches from the game well with the song's prominent build-up. That's all, really, I can't say much more about it--it's just pretty darn good.
FALLOUT
Fallout 3: My World, by FalseEmperor13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYhoWv39qIs
The music is My World, by Brand New Sin. You may remember FalseEmperor13 from one of my earlier AMV rants, Fallout 3: If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children will be Next. This AMV isn't excellent like that one, but it's a pretty solid offering, using the heavy, action-oriented tune and lyrics well with the game's visuals to illustrate the idea of a world that's forsaken anyone who wants to live decently in it. The AMV also uses Tenpenny and Dukov from the game to embody the lyrics referring to the one who gets what they want from the world, which is a nicely appropriate connection.
FINAL FANTASY
Final Fantasy 9: Bloody Nails and Broken Hearts, by LeviSouthward: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSDPNs4YGf4
The music used is Bloody Nails and Broken Hearts, by Billy Talent. For a game that is so often paired with calmer, more melodic tunes, this AMV surprises you with how well FF9's impressive visuals can also work with a harsher, faster, more action-oriented song. Several good choices on what clips to match to certain parts and lyrics of the song make it that much better.
Final Fantasy 9: Dragon Boy, by Thistledemon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-c8EpSKts
The music is Dragon Boy, from the Spirited Away soundtrack. The visual beauty and grandeur of Final Fantasy 9 is a perfect match to the comparable beauty and grandeur of Spirited Away's music, and this song in particular works very nicely to make a tribute to FF9's epic, gorgeous world and adventure. Many good cases of scene selection here, too, that help emphasize the music's qualities. I just wish it didn't end so abruptly, because the AMV winds up feeling incomplete, particularly since the final scenes didn't seem to conclude the video in any particular way.
Final Fantasy 9: She's so High, by Fellow Hoodlum Inc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtJO14xMcVk
The music used is She's so High, by Tal Bachman. This song really works for Dagger as a character, the scene selection to go with the music is usually well-chosen for working with the tune, and how can you not love using Kuja to portray Aphrodite?
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Girlfriend, by Amandamaya123: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxHZ7sYkXNA
The music is Girlfriend, by Avril Lavigne. Honestly, this song is annoying as hell to me, but I must say, the scene selection is at several times damn clever, and fun to watch. The expressions and actions in the scenes used often match up extremely well to the (obnoxious) lyrics of the song, and make for a rather fun watch, even if the idea that Link and Midna have any particular romantic chemistry is...fanciful, to put it mildly.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Hand of Sorrow, by 00peachy00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSqAXHzHGDo
The music is Hand of Sorrow, by Within Temptation. This AMV uses the artistic and powerful visuals well to match the strong, epic feeling of the music, and there are also several nice visual effects thrown into it that enhance the AMV but never go overboard (which is a common problem with AMVs that add visual effects). The one major flaw to this AMV is that it's simply over too soon; the song cuts out before it's finished, leaving the feeling that there should have been more.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: High School Never Ends, by Amandamaya123: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ia3yHJ4lXk
The music is High School Never Ends, by Bowling for Soup. This one's just clever and amusing overall, using visuals of the game's characters to illustrate the song's lyrics from start to finish. Sometimes the connection's vague, but often it's done very well, and the overall effect is lighthearted and fun.
PARASITE EVE
Parasite Eve 1: Parasite Eve Blinded me with Science, by Fellowhoodlum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLamjcrrbzg
The music is She Blinded me with Science, by Thomas Dolby. It seems strange, but this light-hearted, quirky song winds up working really well with Parasite Eve's disturbing visuals, changing them from creepy and at times gross to entertaining and mad-science-y. But hey, PE1 is a present-day science fiction RPG, so everything really does wind up fitting pretty well with the song, aided by the AMV maker's talent at selecting scenes and transitions that work with the song's tune and lyrics.
Parasite Eve 1: Superstitious Feeling, by ShawnDDude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4roryDASXiY
The music is Superstitious Feeling, by Harlequin. This tribute is really very good, with the music portraying just the right mixture of mystery, tension, and urgency to match the atmosphere of PE1.
And that's it for now. Hope you found at least a few of these enjoyable. Since I only rarely stumble across a truly amazing AMV, expect to see more 13-pack rants like this one about the decent AMVs I happen across in my searches for greatness. Although even decent AMVs can be uncommon, so even these will only happen once in a while.
* Of course, take out Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy 8, and Final Fantasy 7-related AMVs from that mix, and you're probably down to a 50 to 1 chance.
** That really is how long I usually take to get my AMV rants done. Yes, I do, indeed, sometimes suck to a ridiculous degree.
Still, even if a truly skillful, exceptional AMV is extremely rare, that's not to say that there aren't a good few AMVs out there that are, if not great, at least decent, sometimes even good. I'm sure has hell not going to spend 2 - 4 weeks writing out an analytical rant for each of them,** but hey, just because they're not amazing, that doesn't mean they don't deserve some note for at least being competent, right? Just the ability to rise above flat mediocrity with RPG AMVs is uncommon enough that it ought to have some recognition. Hence, here is a list of 13 RPG AMVs that are at least pretty good, and worth a watch, organized by game. Why 13? Because it's enough to give you a good handful but not enough to overwhelm you, and because superstitions are for wusses.
And hey, by the way, if you watch one of these and like it, be responsible and give it a Thumbs-Up, or even leave a positive comment. It distresses me how few views and feedback quite a few of these AMVs have, considering that there was clearly some decent effort put into quite a few of them.
CHRONO
Chrono Cross: Plastic Blue, by xXOverXStudiosXx: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8SCU9ybSjQ
The music used is Blue, by The Birthday Massacre. Can't say I'm a fan of the music in any capacity, but ah well. The visual nature of this AMV is very impressive, using tints and visual effects up the wazoo to create a music video that nearly perfectly portrays the surreal, turbulent emotions and twists of the music. This is done so well that I was very tempted to keep this AMV in my personal collection as one of the very best ones out there--but in the end, I opted not to, because while Chrono cross's videos work well enough for the song, I feel like you could have taken a great many games' FMVs and gotten an equal result with the same amount of visual effects. In essence, there's not much to this AMV that ties it more strongly to the game it uses than would tie it to any other game whose visuals it could have chosen instead. Nonetheless, a pretty impressive offering.
Chrono Trigger: Chronology Anthology, by Parasite02: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU9O_3VEtTs
The music used is Book of Days, by Enya. This is a pretty good tribute video, with the music and scenes being well-coordinated. There's a lot of neat visual artistry, too, although there are times when it gets excessive and distracting.
Chrono Trigger: This War is Ours, by Smndo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xgIG2wCWzo
The music used is This War is Ours, by Escape the Fate. Lots of visual effects thrown in here, and most are pretty well-used, although there are several times during this video during which I wish things would slow down and be less rapid and confusing. However, putting that (and the, er, less than perfect English used in the video) aside, this is a really neat AMV, using the song to its full extent at several times (particularly at the part starting at 1:15) and including visuals not only from the FMV anime cutscenes, but also from official art, AND the pixellated gameplay itself--and always effectively. I'm often annoyed with the fact that AMVs are as a general rule afraid to include video of actual gameplay for any RPG made before the Playstation 2 era, because if you use it effectively in the right doses, as this AMV does, it enhances your work without being distracting. This is especially handy with a game like CT, whose FMV offerings are distinctly limited to work with.
DRAGON AGE
Dragon Age 1: In Paradisum, by Darkozl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLt8EhtotNI
The music used is Requiem for a Tower, by Clint Mansell. This AMV is an enjoyable tribute to the game, and uses speeches from the game well with the song's prominent build-up. That's all, really, I can't say much more about it--it's just pretty darn good.
FALLOUT
Fallout 3: My World, by FalseEmperor13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYhoWv39qIs
The music is My World, by Brand New Sin. You may remember FalseEmperor13 from one of my earlier AMV rants, Fallout 3: If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children will be Next. This AMV isn't excellent like that one, but it's a pretty solid offering, using the heavy, action-oriented tune and lyrics well with the game's visuals to illustrate the idea of a world that's forsaken anyone who wants to live decently in it. The AMV also uses Tenpenny and Dukov from the game to embody the lyrics referring to the one who gets what they want from the world, which is a nicely appropriate connection.
FINAL FANTASY
Final Fantasy 9: Bloody Nails and Broken Hearts, by LeviSouthward: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSDPNs4YGf4
The music used is Bloody Nails and Broken Hearts, by Billy Talent. For a game that is so often paired with calmer, more melodic tunes, this AMV surprises you with how well FF9's impressive visuals can also work with a harsher, faster, more action-oriented song. Several good choices on what clips to match to certain parts and lyrics of the song make it that much better.
Final Fantasy 9: Dragon Boy, by Thistledemon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-c8EpSKts
The music is Dragon Boy, from the Spirited Away soundtrack. The visual beauty and grandeur of Final Fantasy 9 is a perfect match to the comparable beauty and grandeur of Spirited Away's music, and this song in particular works very nicely to make a tribute to FF9's epic, gorgeous world and adventure. Many good cases of scene selection here, too, that help emphasize the music's qualities. I just wish it didn't end so abruptly, because the AMV winds up feeling incomplete, particularly since the final scenes didn't seem to conclude the video in any particular way.
Final Fantasy 9: She's so High, by Fellow Hoodlum Inc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtJO14xMcVk
The music used is She's so High, by Tal Bachman. This song really works for Dagger as a character, the scene selection to go with the music is usually well-chosen for working with the tune, and how can you not love using Kuja to portray Aphrodite?
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Girlfriend, by Amandamaya123: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxHZ7sYkXNA
The music is Girlfriend, by Avril Lavigne. Honestly, this song is annoying as hell to me, but I must say, the scene selection is at several times damn clever, and fun to watch. The expressions and actions in the scenes used often match up extremely well to the (obnoxious) lyrics of the song, and make for a rather fun watch, even if the idea that Link and Midna have any particular romantic chemistry is...fanciful, to put it mildly.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Hand of Sorrow, by 00peachy00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSqAXHzHGDo
The music is Hand of Sorrow, by Within Temptation. This AMV uses the artistic and powerful visuals well to match the strong, epic feeling of the music, and there are also several nice visual effects thrown into it that enhance the AMV but never go overboard (which is a common problem with AMVs that add visual effects). The one major flaw to this AMV is that it's simply over too soon; the song cuts out before it's finished, leaving the feeling that there should have been more.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: High School Never Ends, by Amandamaya123: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ia3yHJ4lXk
The music is High School Never Ends, by Bowling for Soup. This one's just clever and amusing overall, using visuals of the game's characters to illustrate the song's lyrics from start to finish. Sometimes the connection's vague, but often it's done very well, and the overall effect is lighthearted and fun.
PARASITE EVE
Parasite Eve 1: Parasite Eve Blinded me with Science, by Fellowhoodlum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLamjcrrbzg
The music is She Blinded me with Science, by Thomas Dolby. It seems strange, but this light-hearted, quirky song winds up working really well with Parasite Eve's disturbing visuals, changing them from creepy and at times gross to entertaining and mad-science-y. But hey, PE1 is a present-day science fiction RPG, so everything really does wind up fitting pretty well with the song, aided by the AMV maker's talent at selecting scenes and transitions that work with the song's tune and lyrics.
Parasite Eve 1: Superstitious Feeling, by ShawnDDude: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4roryDASXiY
The music is Superstitious Feeling, by Harlequin. This tribute is really very good, with the music portraying just the right mixture of mystery, tension, and urgency to match the atmosphere of PE1.
And that's it for now. Hope you found at least a few of these enjoyable. Since I only rarely stumble across a truly amazing AMV, expect to see more 13-pack rants like this one about the decent AMVs I happen across in my searches for greatness. Although even decent AMVs can be uncommon, so even these will only happen once in a while.
* Of course, take out Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy 8, and Final Fantasy 7-related AMVs from that mix, and you're probably down to a 50 to 1 chance.
** That really is how long I usually take to get my AMV rants done. Yes, I do, indeed, sometimes suck to a ridiculous degree.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Fallout: New Vegas's Lousy Karma System
Traditionally, Fallout games keep track of a player's actions using Karma. For doing something good, like giving a thirsty beggar some water, asking for no reward for a service rendered, or seeing how many rounds of ammunition one mob boss's head can hold, you get Karma. For doing something bad, like selling your friends to slavers, blackmailing merchants, and setting off a dormant nuclear warhead in the middle of a busy town because a neighboring town leader thinks the place is an eyesore, you get negative Karma. Your Karma score would influence various things, mostly the way that NPCs would react to you, your available options for a few quests, whether bounty hunters or mercenaries will eventually start hunting you down, and most importantly, whether potential party members would join you, and if so, which ones. It's a nice little idea that enhances the game's enjoyment and gives extra emphasis to the idea that your actions in the game have consequences by giving your actions overall some long-term results to accompany whatever immediate effects you've caused.
Fallout: New Vegas introduces an accompanying system in its installment, that of Reputation. There are several groups of influence and power throughout the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas, and what you do for or to them affects how that faction as a whole sees you, which in turn determines how they react to you and what quests and rewards they're willing to give you.
I like the idea in theory. After all, not everyone on one side or the other of Good vs. Evil should have the same values. If you get a bunch of Negative Karma because you can't help stuffing people's pockets with live grenades, it follows that a bunch of chaotic, anarchistic, crazy drug-users might react well to you, but a company of organized slavers probably wouldn't be all that impressed, even if both groups are on the Bad side of Karma. Having individual Reputation scores for each faction provides a chance for more plot relevance for your actions, making things more realistic, and also emphasizing the importance of the different factions to the Mojave Wasteland setting. Good idea!
Bad idea: relegating EVERY major effect traditionally associated with the Karma system to the Reputation system for the factors. They left Karma in the game, but it's almost entirely irrelevant now. First of all, there's barely ANY result of really high or really low Karma. The companions who can join you are dependent on your Reputation; the only one that actually cares about you being a psychotic mass-murderer is Cass, and she can be talked out of leaving you for your baby-eating ways, anyway. NPCs' reactions to you only seem to significantly change from Reputation--whether angels sing in your presence or you kick puppies with lead boots on, all any given NCR official cares about is whether or not you've been helpful to his country previously. Few NPCs have any biases beyond those faction-related. What quests are available to you are the same way--if there's any discrimination going on for whether a quest is offered to you, it's based on what factions you're friendly with, not whether or not you're a trustworthy individual in general. With few exceptions, the Reputation system has made Karma irrelevant.
Second problem: at least half the NPCs in the game belong to a faction, so killing them only affects your Reputation, not your Karma rating. So, hey, if you're not a fan of the New California Republic and want to serve another faction, feel free to open fire on a squad of unsuspecting NCR soldiers sitting down to have lunch. Sure, the NCR won't like you gunning down defenseless peace-keepers...but it won't make you a bad person, apparently! Now the only people you have to worry about killing indiscriminately are independent NPCs (which will give you bad Karma) and gang members (which will give you good karma). So if you actually CARE about what your Karma score is, your options for affecting it the way you want to are much more limited than they used to be. And who you're shooting at isn't the only thing that doesn't work the way it used to regarding Karma--while it was frowned upon in Fallout 2, grave-robbing is apparently A-OK in Fallout: New Vegas. You'd think someone in the town of Goodsprings would care that you're violating their grandmother's corpse on the off-chance that she was buried with a Stimpack hidden in her coffin, but nope.
And y'know, getting back to the idea that faction-specific kills don't influence your reputation, there's one aspect of it that I really have to say is ridiculous. Now, in the example I gave, you're killing a bunch of soldiers for the New California Republic faction in cold blood. Now, that's a pretty immoral act that you'd expect negative Karma for, but I can almost understand why you might not have a Karma penalty applied. I mean, it's hard to argue that the NCR isn't at least partially good, but they're very imperialistic, and even if they're bringing about a far safer, better form of life for the people of the Wasteland, they ARE doing it through fairly standard imperialistic military methods. You could be a good person and still disagree with the NCR's way of doing things, and support another fairly good faction instead. So even if it SHOULD be an evil act to kill such soldiers if they're not attacking you, I guess I can accept that it's associated with the act of opposing a faction that you could object to while still being a good person.
But the same Karma problem is present with members of Caesar's Legion! Kill a Legion recruit, and you'll only be awarded negative Reputation for them, but your Karma won't be affected. Now seriously...why the HELL do you not get good Karma for killing a Legion NPC? Come on. Other factions may have aspects of moral ambiguity, but you can't honestly try to tell me that a morally decent person could support Caesar's Legion. This is a faction that burns, pillages, and murders everything in their path, destroying every male it can't make one of its own, and enslaving every female as a supposedly inferior being. Sure, they exemplify militaristic discipline and abhor the drugs that run rampant throughout the Wasteland...but that discipline is savage brainwashing, and they act on their hatred for chems by crucifying anyone they suspect of using them. In fact, the Legion just crucifies just about anyone it dislikes for any reason--they're big fans of horrible, tortuous public death. And hey, might I again mention, ENSLAVING HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE. Being sexist asswipes convinced of the inferiority of women in all things is bad enough as it is--using that philosophy to enslave all women to serve all their labor needs is amazingly evil. I'd say it's worse than just having normal slavery, but slavery is already the absolute polar end of the moral spectrum in my mind, so I guess it can't actually get worse.
So, essentially, Caesar's Legion is a group that combines the cruelties, barbaric violence, and dogged imperialism of Rome, the brainwashing power of the Third Reicht, the empire-built-off-slaves part of Ancient Egypt or the deep pre-Civil War US South, and the gender philosophies of...well, pick just about any society and go back a little ways to the point where women had absolutely, 100% no rights and were considered inferior in every way. Some cultures won't require you to turn too many pages of history back to find it.
Can someone PLEASE explain to me why feeding a Legion member a bullet breakfast does NOT give me positive Karma? Is there REALLY any moral ambiguity associated with this faction that could reasonably lead a good person to support them?
And when I ask for explanation, I mean a REAL one. Not the lame-ass failure of an excuse that's been going around, claiming that since Caesar's Legion is using all these terrible, evil acts toward the goal of creating, maintaining, and spreading a form of civilization, it falls into a neutral zone for morality to the Fallout universe. No. That is fucking stupid. Maybe if Caesar's Legion had been a faction existing early in the series, like within the first few decades following the world's destruction, that claim could be made, because at that point, there really wasn't anything anywhere resembling civilization that I know of, so perhaps seeing the Legion as the ONLY alternative to chaotic, violent, deranged anarchy would have been able to make it a "neutral" kind of choice. Maybe. But in the setting of Fallout: New Vegas, having the Legion be considered anything but brutal, heinous evil is, and I can't emphasize this enough, fucking stupid. Because by that time, that area of the Fallout wastelands has got the New California Republic as an option for civilization, and Mr. House, the New Vegas families, the surrounding towns, and the various smaller factions ALL present viable opportunities for civilization. You're not choosing between Caesar's idea of civilization or none at all. You're choosing between one legitimate form of civilization (the NCR), another conglomerate of legitimate civilizations (the towns and factions of New Vegas and the surrounding area as they already exist), or a form of civilization that finds honor in brutality, enslaves half its population for a condition they can't change under false claims that it's inferior, and delights in monstrous torment. So saying that Caesar's Legion could be considered a "neutral" moral choice in any way for the setting of New Vegas is so arrogantly short-sighted and reeking of idiocy that I wish I could hit each and every person who makes that claim in the mouth so hard that they'll look like a checkerboard the next time they grin.
Anyway...I think I've gotten a little off-topic. Back to business. There are many good innovations with Fallout: New Vegas, and the Reputation system works very nicely by itself, but they really just dropped the ball completely on properly incorporating the traditional Fallout Karma system for New Vegas. It's so totally insignificant to the game's entirety that it might as well not even be there, and the developers were so obsessed with making the faction Reputations a big deal that they created a separation between Reputation and Karma that at several times, like with the Legion somehow not being considered evil, seems outright stupid.
Fallout: New Vegas introduces an accompanying system in its installment, that of Reputation. There are several groups of influence and power throughout the Mojave Wasteland in Fallout: New Vegas, and what you do for or to them affects how that faction as a whole sees you, which in turn determines how they react to you and what quests and rewards they're willing to give you.
I like the idea in theory. After all, not everyone on one side or the other of Good vs. Evil should have the same values. If you get a bunch of Negative Karma because you can't help stuffing people's pockets with live grenades, it follows that a bunch of chaotic, anarchistic, crazy drug-users might react well to you, but a company of organized slavers probably wouldn't be all that impressed, even if both groups are on the Bad side of Karma. Having individual Reputation scores for each faction provides a chance for more plot relevance for your actions, making things more realistic, and also emphasizing the importance of the different factions to the Mojave Wasteland setting. Good idea!
Bad idea: relegating EVERY major effect traditionally associated with the Karma system to the Reputation system for the factors. They left Karma in the game, but it's almost entirely irrelevant now. First of all, there's barely ANY result of really high or really low Karma. The companions who can join you are dependent on your Reputation; the only one that actually cares about you being a psychotic mass-murderer is Cass, and she can be talked out of leaving you for your baby-eating ways, anyway. NPCs' reactions to you only seem to significantly change from Reputation--whether angels sing in your presence or you kick puppies with lead boots on, all any given NCR official cares about is whether or not you've been helpful to his country previously. Few NPCs have any biases beyond those faction-related. What quests are available to you are the same way--if there's any discrimination going on for whether a quest is offered to you, it's based on what factions you're friendly with, not whether or not you're a trustworthy individual in general. With few exceptions, the Reputation system has made Karma irrelevant.
Second problem: at least half the NPCs in the game belong to a faction, so killing them only affects your Reputation, not your Karma rating. So, hey, if you're not a fan of the New California Republic and want to serve another faction, feel free to open fire on a squad of unsuspecting NCR soldiers sitting down to have lunch. Sure, the NCR won't like you gunning down defenseless peace-keepers...but it won't make you a bad person, apparently! Now the only people you have to worry about killing indiscriminately are independent NPCs (which will give you bad Karma) and gang members (which will give you good karma). So if you actually CARE about what your Karma score is, your options for affecting it the way you want to are much more limited than they used to be. And who you're shooting at isn't the only thing that doesn't work the way it used to regarding Karma--while it was frowned upon in Fallout 2, grave-robbing is apparently A-OK in Fallout: New Vegas. You'd think someone in the town of Goodsprings would care that you're violating their grandmother's corpse on the off-chance that she was buried with a Stimpack hidden in her coffin, but nope.
And y'know, getting back to the idea that faction-specific kills don't influence your reputation, there's one aspect of it that I really have to say is ridiculous. Now, in the example I gave, you're killing a bunch of soldiers for the New California Republic faction in cold blood. Now, that's a pretty immoral act that you'd expect negative Karma for, but I can almost understand why you might not have a Karma penalty applied. I mean, it's hard to argue that the NCR isn't at least partially good, but they're very imperialistic, and even if they're bringing about a far safer, better form of life for the people of the Wasteland, they ARE doing it through fairly standard imperialistic military methods. You could be a good person and still disagree with the NCR's way of doing things, and support another fairly good faction instead. So even if it SHOULD be an evil act to kill such soldiers if they're not attacking you, I guess I can accept that it's associated with the act of opposing a faction that you could object to while still being a good person.
But the same Karma problem is present with members of Caesar's Legion! Kill a Legion recruit, and you'll only be awarded negative Reputation for them, but your Karma won't be affected. Now seriously...why the HELL do you not get good Karma for killing a Legion NPC? Come on. Other factions may have aspects of moral ambiguity, but you can't honestly try to tell me that a morally decent person could support Caesar's Legion. This is a faction that burns, pillages, and murders everything in their path, destroying every male it can't make one of its own, and enslaving every female as a supposedly inferior being. Sure, they exemplify militaristic discipline and abhor the drugs that run rampant throughout the Wasteland...but that discipline is savage brainwashing, and they act on their hatred for chems by crucifying anyone they suspect of using them. In fact, the Legion just crucifies just about anyone it dislikes for any reason--they're big fans of horrible, tortuous public death. And hey, might I again mention, ENSLAVING HALF OF THE HUMAN RACE. Being sexist asswipes convinced of the inferiority of women in all things is bad enough as it is--using that philosophy to enslave all women to serve all their labor needs is amazingly evil. I'd say it's worse than just having normal slavery, but slavery is already the absolute polar end of the moral spectrum in my mind, so I guess it can't actually get worse.
So, essentially, Caesar's Legion is a group that combines the cruelties, barbaric violence, and dogged imperialism of Rome, the brainwashing power of the Third Reicht, the empire-built-off-slaves part of Ancient Egypt or the deep pre-Civil War US South, and the gender philosophies of...well, pick just about any society and go back a little ways to the point where women had absolutely, 100% no rights and were considered inferior in every way. Some cultures won't require you to turn too many pages of history back to find it.
Can someone PLEASE explain to me why feeding a Legion member a bullet breakfast does NOT give me positive Karma? Is there REALLY any moral ambiguity associated with this faction that could reasonably lead a good person to support them?
And when I ask for explanation, I mean a REAL one. Not the lame-ass failure of an excuse that's been going around, claiming that since Caesar's Legion is using all these terrible, evil acts toward the goal of creating, maintaining, and spreading a form of civilization, it falls into a neutral zone for morality to the Fallout universe. No. That is fucking stupid. Maybe if Caesar's Legion had been a faction existing early in the series, like within the first few decades following the world's destruction, that claim could be made, because at that point, there really wasn't anything anywhere resembling civilization that I know of, so perhaps seeing the Legion as the ONLY alternative to chaotic, violent, deranged anarchy would have been able to make it a "neutral" kind of choice. Maybe. But in the setting of Fallout: New Vegas, having the Legion be considered anything but brutal, heinous evil is, and I can't emphasize this enough, fucking stupid. Because by that time, that area of the Fallout wastelands has got the New California Republic as an option for civilization, and Mr. House, the New Vegas families, the surrounding towns, and the various smaller factions ALL present viable opportunities for civilization. You're not choosing between Caesar's idea of civilization or none at all. You're choosing between one legitimate form of civilization (the NCR), another conglomerate of legitimate civilizations (the towns and factions of New Vegas and the surrounding area as they already exist), or a form of civilization that finds honor in brutality, enslaves half its population for a condition they can't change under false claims that it's inferior, and delights in monstrous torment. So saying that Caesar's Legion could be considered a "neutral" moral choice in any way for the setting of New Vegas is so arrogantly short-sighted and reeking of idiocy that I wish I could hit each and every person who makes that claim in the mouth so hard that they'll look like a checkerboard the next time they grin.
Anyway...I think I've gotten a little off-topic. Back to business. There are many good innovations with Fallout: New Vegas, and the Reputation system works very nicely by itself, but they really just dropped the ball completely on properly incorporating the traditional Fallout Karma system for New Vegas. It's so totally insignificant to the game's entirety that it might as well not even be there, and the developers were so obsessed with making the faction Reputations a big deal that they created a separation between Reputation and Karma that at several times, like with the Legion somehow not being considered evil, seems outright stupid.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Mass Effect 2's Loss of Atmosphere
I've always had a soft spot for well-made science fiction space epics, things like Star Wars (not counting the newer trilogy) and Star Trek (not counting...well, half of it). I love the thrill of alien worlds and their infinite possibility, the ideas of intergalactic governments and alliances working together or at war, the endless possibilities that are presented, the creativity of alien species and cultures, and the way it can all relate back to humanity, providing lessons about ourselves that are really no less applicable to us in this day and age than they are to these fictional space farers of the distant future. Or the long ago in a place far, far away.
This is part of why Mass Effect 1 had such a hold over me. It was just such a perfect space epic. It really had everything one could ask for--adventure, excitement, high technology, space battles, human nature, exploration, aliens, and so on. And the other part of why I loved ME1 so much was that it did it all so very well, with a very good cast, a great plot, neat ideas, and thorough explanation of its universe's setting. My enthusiasm for the space opera aside in general, ME1 is a great RPG in its own right.
Mass Effect 2 never held the same power over me, much though I hoped it would. It's not for lack of quality, to be sure--the plot of ME2 is decent (although admittedly not nearly as good as its predecessor), and the characters are very good, some even excellent. And as a science fiction game, it's terrific, filled with creativity and effort in all the many facets of its genre. The aliens are still interesting and diverse, the technologies are still eye-catching and awesome, and everything is still defined with great depth via the game's codex listings.
Yet as I played ME2, I found that there was something missing from it, some crucial part that had given the original its magic. ME2 had more polish, more involved settings, better action, and even a generally superior cast of characters...yet its atmosphere, its soul, simply lacks something its original had, and this missing component will always prevent it from being truly great, as ME1 is.
I've wondered why this is since I finished playing ME2, and I've had a few ideas about why it is, most of which I've discarded. At first I thought it was perhaps because Mass Effect 2 is just plain a lot darker than its predecessor, both in tone and in the story's events. I've mostly discarded this idea, though, as there are other science fiction stories of a darker nature that retain their spellbinding qualities.* I also considered the possibility that the further exploration and definition of the ME universe in ME2 could have done it, adding too much realism and detail to what before was a creative universe far more imagined than actively seen and defined. But I don't really think it's that, either. ME2 doesn't really show you that much more of its galaxy than ME1 did, even most of the game's settings are harsher than the original's tended to be. And I really don't think that fleshing out your created universe can ever be detrimental to telling its stories, unless you're just doing it poorly in general, which is not the case with this game at all.
I think, however, that I've figured it out, what the sequel to Mass Effect is lacking that keeps it less than a true space epic for me. It's the mysticism. You see, to me, I think a big, epic space science fiction series needs a hint of the wondrous, the inexplicable, the supernatural.
To explain what I mean, let's look at my favorite space epic, Star Wars.** With Star Wars, you get all kinds of really awesome science fiction ideas all meshing together beautifully--you get huge, interstellar conflicts, tons of aliens (both sentient and not), neat futuristic technology, epic clashes of good and evil, equally epic clashes of the human spirit against itself, countless interesting worlds and astral locations you can visit and explore, big space battles, good characters...you have it ALL, and it almost always is fun and interesting to watch. Yet there is more than that, one grand, all-encompassing thing that ties the hundreds of stories of the Star Wars universe together with more than simple continuity: The Force.
I'm going to assume that you don't need an explanation of The Force. I mean, is there anyone old enough to read these rants who hasn't seen enough of Star Wars to have a general idea of it? I hope not.
The Force adds a huge dose of mysticism to Star Wars, and by its effects, the true character and distinguishing feel of Star Wars is formed. Oh, sure, lovable rogues, hotshot space pilots, amusing droids, grand space battles, and many other parts of the series are essential aspects that also give it its character. But it's the mystical essence that binds all life, that guides the fates of all beings, and that gives rise to the Jedi that truly defines this series. It's through The Force that Star Wars delivers its best insights on human nature, creates its most memorable warriors and villains, allows for its greatest feats and contrivances, and provides moral and even religious foundation for its great struggles. The Force gives we, the audience, a greater feeling that the events we view or read are immense and far-reaching, and a better sense of how deep and limitless the Star Wars galaxy is. Anything and everything can be waiting to be discovered in Star Wars's locations and its history, and no matter what it is, it will be or will have been of great importance to The Force and thus the fate of everything, even if it has been forgotten by (or was never known to) the galaxy's records.
Some space epics have mysticism more than others. Star Wars obviously has a huge dose of it. But I think that, for it to truly draw one in and entrance an audience as grand and amazing, there does have to be SOME element of the unknown and fantastical. Star Trek has many times had its crews encounter various mysterious occurrences in their travels that they have no explanation for, such as the Guardian of Forever time portal thingy. That there could be such objects and beings of mysterious origins, of great power impossible to understand fully, that there could be objects and places left behind mysteriously, waiting to be rediscovered but perhaps never fully accounted for, gives the series a sense of wonder at times, and a mysterious grandness to the exploratory cause of the Star Trek crews. Without these elements of mysticism, Star Trek would still have most of its other aspects and their worth intact, but it WOULD have a lack of something intangibly desirable to it.
Mass Effect 1 had this hint of mysticism, mainly in the Protheans, and the cycle of destruction of the Reapers. Spoilers ahead, naturally; it's best you be familiar with Mass Effect before reading this. The Protheans, as the most recent species destroyed by the Reapers in their recurring extermination of all life, left behind traces of their civilization that are surrounded by mystery for most of the game. Trying to understand the mysteries of the Protheans, most prominently the reason they disappeared, is the touch of mysticism that helps ME1 draw us in, the promise of something old and awesome to be discovered in the past of outer space. And once the answer is found, and the Reapers' cycle of destruction revealed, the mysticism remains, becoming now the questions of how many times over the galaxy has witnessed this occur, what species there might have once been, what the lost history of the Keepers might be, what the Reapers are, where they come from, whether their purpose is one that we even COULD understand if they were willing to say. Although I'd say that Mass Effect 1 is a sci-fi epic primarily of adventure, action, aliens, and astronomical awe and advances,*** that touch of the unknown and mysterious gives it a nice tone and backs up the grand scope of its story.
Mass Effect 2 just...well, it just doesn't really have this. The fate of the Protheans, their legacy, it's no longer in focus. You can't explore planets for pieces of lost cultural history for the older races of the galaxy any longer. The motivations, the origins, the nature of the Reapers...these are no longer questioned, no longer even put forth as significant. The here and now, the tangible, the thought of what's happening and not the why or how of it, these are what Mass Effect 2 focuses on overall. And hey, it's all pretty damn cool, it makes for a good story, and there are many terrific aspects, like several of the new characters, that really satisfy a player eager for intellectual quality. But there IS something lost in ME2's narrow focus on a tougher, faster, more no-nonsense setting and storytelling style that ME1 had, something mystic and spellbinding, and I do mourn it, because that was truly what took a good game, and made it a science fiction classic.
* Although, for the record, I do wish ME2 hadn't set such a darker, more gritty tone than ME1 had. It seems unnecessary at times, and as a player I often feel displaced by it when seeing characters and locations that seem significantly altered from the their incarnations in the first game by this darker tone. I have my suspicions that this shift in plot atmosphere was done at least as much for marketing purposes as it was for any related to creative direction.
** To be more precise, the original trilogy and the extended universe created by many terrific authors like Timothy Zahn, as well as the extended universe created by many worthy published comics and great games like the Knights of the Old Republic series. I mostly don't think about Episodes 1 - 3 in this consideration, as well as most of the stuff associated with them. It's too painful.
*** I like alliteration.
This is part of why Mass Effect 1 had such a hold over me. It was just such a perfect space epic. It really had everything one could ask for--adventure, excitement, high technology, space battles, human nature, exploration, aliens, and so on. And the other part of why I loved ME1 so much was that it did it all so very well, with a very good cast, a great plot, neat ideas, and thorough explanation of its universe's setting. My enthusiasm for the space opera aside in general, ME1 is a great RPG in its own right.
Mass Effect 2 never held the same power over me, much though I hoped it would. It's not for lack of quality, to be sure--the plot of ME2 is decent (although admittedly not nearly as good as its predecessor), and the characters are very good, some even excellent. And as a science fiction game, it's terrific, filled with creativity and effort in all the many facets of its genre. The aliens are still interesting and diverse, the technologies are still eye-catching and awesome, and everything is still defined with great depth via the game's codex listings.
Yet as I played ME2, I found that there was something missing from it, some crucial part that had given the original its magic. ME2 had more polish, more involved settings, better action, and even a generally superior cast of characters...yet its atmosphere, its soul, simply lacks something its original had, and this missing component will always prevent it from being truly great, as ME1 is.
I've wondered why this is since I finished playing ME2, and I've had a few ideas about why it is, most of which I've discarded. At first I thought it was perhaps because Mass Effect 2 is just plain a lot darker than its predecessor, both in tone and in the story's events. I've mostly discarded this idea, though, as there are other science fiction stories of a darker nature that retain their spellbinding qualities.* I also considered the possibility that the further exploration and definition of the ME universe in ME2 could have done it, adding too much realism and detail to what before was a creative universe far more imagined than actively seen and defined. But I don't really think it's that, either. ME2 doesn't really show you that much more of its galaxy than ME1 did, even most of the game's settings are harsher than the original's tended to be. And I really don't think that fleshing out your created universe can ever be detrimental to telling its stories, unless you're just doing it poorly in general, which is not the case with this game at all.
I think, however, that I've figured it out, what the sequel to Mass Effect is lacking that keeps it less than a true space epic for me. It's the mysticism. You see, to me, I think a big, epic space science fiction series needs a hint of the wondrous, the inexplicable, the supernatural.
To explain what I mean, let's look at my favorite space epic, Star Wars.** With Star Wars, you get all kinds of really awesome science fiction ideas all meshing together beautifully--you get huge, interstellar conflicts, tons of aliens (both sentient and not), neat futuristic technology, epic clashes of good and evil, equally epic clashes of the human spirit against itself, countless interesting worlds and astral locations you can visit and explore, big space battles, good characters...you have it ALL, and it almost always is fun and interesting to watch. Yet there is more than that, one grand, all-encompassing thing that ties the hundreds of stories of the Star Wars universe together with more than simple continuity: The Force.
I'm going to assume that you don't need an explanation of The Force. I mean, is there anyone old enough to read these rants who hasn't seen enough of Star Wars to have a general idea of it? I hope not.
The Force adds a huge dose of mysticism to Star Wars, and by its effects, the true character and distinguishing feel of Star Wars is formed. Oh, sure, lovable rogues, hotshot space pilots, amusing droids, grand space battles, and many other parts of the series are essential aspects that also give it its character. But it's the mystical essence that binds all life, that guides the fates of all beings, and that gives rise to the Jedi that truly defines this series. It's through The Force that Star Wars delivers its best insights on human nature, creates its most memorable warriors and villains, allows for its greatest feats and contrivances, and provides moral and even religious foundation for its great struggles. The Force gives we, the audience, a greater feeling that the events we view or read are immense and far-reaching, and a better sense of how deep and limitless the Star Wars galaxy is. Anything and everything can be waiting to be discovered in Star Wars's locations and its history, and no matter what it is, it will be or will have been of great importance to The Force and thus the fate of everything, even if it has been forgotten by (or was never known to) the galaxy's records.
Some space epics have mysticism more than others. Star Wars obviously has a huge dose of it. But I think that, for it to truly draw one in and entrance an audience as grand and amazing, there does have to be SOME element of the unknown and fantastical. Star Trek has many times had its crews encounter various mysterious occurrences in their travels that they have no explanation for, such as the Guardian of Forever time portal thingy. That there could be such objects and beings of mysterious origins, of great power impossible to understand fully, that there could be objects and places left behind mysteriously, waiting to be rediscovered but perhaps never fully accounted for, gives the series a sense of wonder at times, and a mysterious grandness to the exploratory cause of the Star Trek crews. Without these elements of mysticism, Star Trek would still have most of its other aspects and their worth intact, but it WOULD have a lack of something intangibly desirable to it.
Mass Effect 1 had this hint of mysticism, mainly in the Protheans, and the cycle of destruction of the Reapers. Spoilers ahead, naturally; it's best you be familiar with Mass Effect before reading this. The Protheans, as the most recent species destroyed by the Reapers in their recurring extermination of all life, left behind traces of their civilization that are surrounded by mystery for most of the game. Trying to understand the mysteries of the Protheans, most prominently the reason they disappeared, is the touch of mysticism that helps ME1 draw us in, the promise of something old and awesome to be discovered in the past of outer space. And once the answer is found, and the Reapers' cycle of destruction revealed, the mysticism remains, becoming now the questions of how many times over the galaxy has witnessed this occur, what species there might have once been, what the lost history of the Keepers might be, what the Reapers are, where they come from, whether their purpose is one that we even COULD understand if they were willing to say. Although I'd say that Mass Effect 1 is a sci-fi epic primarily of adventure, action, aliens, and astronomical awe and advances,*** that touch of the unknown and mysterious gives it a nice tone and backs up the grand scope of its story.
Mass Effect 2 just...well, it just doesn't really have this. The fate of the Protheans, their legacy, it's no longer in focus. You can't explore planets for pieces of lost cultural history for the older races of the galaxy any longer. The motivations, the origins, the nature of the Reapers...these are no longer questioned, no longer even put forth as significant. The here and now, the tangible, the thought of what's happening and not the why or how of it, these are what Mass Effect 2 focuses on overall. And hey, it's all pretty damn cool, it makes for a good story, and there are many terrific aspects, like several of the new characters, that really satisfy a player eager for intellectual quality. But there IS something lost in ME2's narrow focus on a tougher, faster, more no-nonsense setting and storytelling style that ME1 had, something mystic and spellbinding, and I do mourn it, because that was truly what took a good game, and made it a science fiction classic.
* Although, for the record, I do wish ME2 hadn't set such a darker, more gritty tone than ME1 had. It seems unnecessary at times, and as a player I often feel displaced by it when seeing characters and locations that seem significantly altered from the their incarnations in the first game by this darker tone. I have my suspicions that this shift in plot atmosphere was done at least as much for marketing purposes as it was for any related to creative direction.
** To be more precise, the original trilogy and the extended universe created by many terrific authors like Timothy Zahn, as well as the extended universe created by many worthy published comics and great games like the Knights of the Old Republic series. I mostly don't think about Episodes 1 - 3 in this consideration, as well as most of the stuff associated with them. It's too painful.
*** I like alliteration.
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