Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day

Outside of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo is known for helping produce and direct compilation animé films, such as; Neo Tokyo, Robot Carnival and Memories, his most recent endeavour being ‘Short Peace’, a collection of animé shorts featuring other directors as well as himself.

In the UK, this has been released as part of a package along with Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day by Suda 51, a side-scrolling, action game by the same company that brought us that wonderful gem Killer is Dead, which I loved so much.

The animé has 4 stories, the first of which, ‘Possessions’, was nominated for the Best Animated Short at the Oscars this year, concerns everyday Japanese objects which have become possessed with spirits after years of neglect and a lost seamstress who happens upon them. The art style is bold and defined, with lots of Japanese folklore effused in the story and animation. Probably the oddest and most unique, the surreal depictions and sound design are the obvious indicators for its acclaim.

Also inspired heavily by Japanese culture is ‘Combustible’, a tale of a geisha whose sweetheart leaves to become a fireman, the art style is reminiscent of Ancient Japanese art, with cream, black hues and an isometric angle in most scenes. This is probably the most beautiful of the shorts and also the shortest, the abruptness and lack of immersion, not having enough time for the story to become attached, make it somewhat frustrating.

The PEGI-16 rating this collection carries is clearly certified in mind of ‘Gambo’, the third feature about a disheveled ronin who enters a village that is plagued with an amourous oni who visits and nicks the women, meanwhile, Polar Bear. The most ludicrous and unexplained of the lot, Gambo ‘bears’ all, literally, the gore, tits and more are quite shocking, a bit like the voice acting which is sketchy in parts, the ending also a let down by introducing stupid and unnecessary shovel ideas into an already brilliantly realised animation, however the fluid animation and action are more than enough to make up for it.

The final part, ‘A Farewell to Weapons’ is my favourite with more traditional animation and utilises the style of Otomo, the short presents a futuristic world where soldiers don Power Armour (the real kind) and destroy unmanned robotic vehicles. The scenes offer more dialogue than previously and the action scenes are extremely well animated, as befits the expectation following his signature art, being the longest, it would seem they really blew all the budget here too. The armour depicted are the best I have ever seen on-screen, they look realistic and seem to function the way they ought. The plot is Philip K. Dick-esque which suits me fine, but the tone shifts somewhat uncomfortably to a shaky ending, losing traction after a pretty good impact.

Overall the animé was fun and thought -provoking, the new ideas and settings in older Japan are welcome, the high quality of animation is astounding, still though, I think that the two especial favourite shorts of mine in Memories are still much more enjoyable and mind-bending than anything Short Peace has to offer.

Aaaand now for the fifth additional piece, well… the less said the better really.

The gameplay of Ranko Tsukigime’s Longest Day is very monotonous, it only has a couple of buttons and aims, go right, jump and hit shit, occasionally the game will do something dickish and loop which you won’t notice until the fifth or so run-through because both the artistic and level design are so generic, you also have to do something arbitrary before you are allowed to escape, nice. There are a few boss battles, which the gameplay changes for each, from awkward platforming to slow shmups and some really aggravating ‘faux’ wrestling. The best thing about this game is the cut-scenes, at the start you will be counting down the seconds for him to decide he has tired of the facade of storylines and jumps abruptly to the action or simply something weird or random happens, but as the short, 50 minute game continues, these scenes descend into hilarious self-parody, which is actually enjoyable.

The game isn’t worth it, but if you want to own the animé it is the only way to go, the only saving grace after purchase being the elaborate ridiculousness of the game’s ever-changing cut-scenes. I paid £37.99 for this game, even including the storyboard artbook that came with it, it is still horrendous value for money, with the animé totalling 68 minutes and the game only 50, you only get 2 hours for a full-priced release. Perhaps it should have been renamed ‘Short Piece’.

Holding right a lot.[/caption]

Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day

Magic Realism - Then and Now

One Hundred Years of Solitude – 1967

At the peak of the Latin American Boom in the late 60′s and 70′s, One Hundred Years of Solitude was published by Columbian author, Gabriel García Márquez, and is known today as the seminal novel of Magic Realism, incorporating themes of love, loss and as eponymously suggested, solitude.

The novel follows several generations of the Buendía family who founded a town called Macondo in Columbia, which forms the setpiece to the story as the time passes. There is no particular focus on any of the characters for the duration of the novel, as such, there is no protagonist, however certain key members do subvert the paradigm, which in turn reinforces many key themes throughout.

Set in the late 1800′s stretching through seven generations and a hundred years, there’s an enormous sense of time and its passing in the shift of history, which is outlined with the backdrop of the Thousand Days’ War, a civil conflict between the ruling conservatives and the liberal revolt, sparked by the conservative government rigging elections. The town of Macondo exudes Latin American culture, while also maintaining the unique magic which gave birth to an entire genre of writing. Each time the allusions come across as handed down, conceivably mad and somewhat sardonic, yet it’s more a case of representing the people of Macondo, than the atmosphere.

A smart novel that treads softly between modernist Magic Realism, and folklorish whispers, that allow the novel the freedom to explore the fantastic in a serious tone, and the melancholy with fortitude.

Cloud Atlas – 2004

Amidst all the blandness of the noughties, books other than Harry Potter were published, read and well-received, such as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. It was nominated for several big name awards such as the Booker prize as well as Sci-fi gaff, like Arthur C. Clarke and Nebula awards – a rare occurrence that, for me, necessitated reading, fortunately the release of the film by the Wachowskis rendered this book cheaper for me to obtain and so I finally managed to read it after 10 years.

Featuring 6 inter-woven stories, the novel is a vignette spanning hundreds of years, from the colonisation of Australia to years in the future, after humanity has forsaken itself. Likewise, the writing style is changeable, from sweeping and existential (in the pop philosophy sense) to subjective and momentary.

Although not in a modernist style like Marquez’s work, Cloud Atlas enjoys sci-fi elements as well as philosophical musings that inform the plot rather than the feel of the novel, each character feels like an outsider rather than a part of a whole, and the many genres allow freedoms to express the characters better, such as the conspiracy plot and the young journalist.

Unlike many newer novels that attempt to emulate older style writings, Mitchell is able to pull it off, with correct use of archaic language and ideas, the novel works as well as a piece of historical fiction as it does anything else. There is less obvious Magic Realism at work, with the cloud hanging over it mostly, rather than being steeped in it like One Hundred Years, it would little affect the composition if taken out, but adds as it is.

There is no real comparison to the two, despite being the same genre Cloud Atlas and The One Hundred Years of Solitude are very different pieces, whose only real similarity is the allowance of realistic freedoms in order to engage their readers and form worlds more exciting and realistic than even our own.

Whilst writing this Gabriel García Márquez passed away on 17th April 2014, aged 87, as such I have decided not to edit my piece on the novel, for fear of revisionism, despite my favourable opinions. However, what one can say is that, he not only created the seminal novel of Magic Realism, he also defined a country’s literary perception the world over, with his tales of fantasy that transcends eras and cultures.

Magic Realism - Then and Now

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

What’s better than a little sit down with a game about a killer bear, trapping students in a house and making them kill each other? Well, probably a lot of things, but few could be weirder.

In the Japanese visual novel style, (watered-down adventure game; or games for lazy people) Danganronpa follows a typical adventure game format, with sections being devoted to talking to people, story sections and wandering around, while the other part is detective work and court-style simulations in order to figure out who the killer is for that chapter. An atypical Battle Royale-style, the plot involves an elitist school whose students are the best of their respective fields, when the doors are all bolted up, they are asked to kill one another and get away with it, or be locked up forever, this means that there, for the most part, is no immediate agency allowing the rest of the game to play out as character-building exercise.

The story is linear, there is little you can do to affect anything, there is only one proper ending and little need for replayability, unlike in 999, where branching paths make different endings, with two playthroughs forming the bulk of the storyline.

Plenty of people to kill off.[/caption]

Also unlike other visual novels, there is a huge emphasis on character levelling, each time you choose to spend your free time with someone you can level your relationship up and gain extra skills for use during the courtroom battle segments, this is pretty ironic as it means you are essentially hanging around with people so you can get skills from them, in order to beat them later. So not a very ‘pro’ tagonist then.

The different relationships with the characters can give new insight into the story, and also means that if you wanted to replay the game, you can use the fore-knowledge to optimise your time spent with them.

Much like other visual novels, the characters do carry animé tropes, which can be rather annoying and unnecessary, fortunately there are also a few interesting developments which make the situation a lot more bearable, despite being a game which intends to kill off most of its characters, it still has lots of surprises in store.

Clocking in about 20-25 hours, the game is longer than most visual novels/adventures localised to the west, and is about as long as a normal visual novel in Japan, however, with most of your time spent wandering corridors, exploring and talking to people, there is a lot more interesting gameplay than the usual fare.

Although not as compelling as 999 or as charming as Ace Attorney, the game forms its own niche with its unique gameplay elements, art-style and animé style storyline and characters and with a sequel on the way this looks to be a rather promising franchise.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Ulysses by James Joyce

Wow, this placed has turned into a ghost town, eh? I guess reading Ulysses leaves little else on your social plate, what with it being over 900 pages, I suppose re-reading it after getting half way through didn’t help matters either.

Now I am neither clever enough nor patient enough to give this a proper review or essay on it, besides, one can find them anywhere, so instead I am just going to give some thoughts that I have on this, and perhaps when I am a little older and wiser, I can laugh at this fool here. God, I hope I get older and wiser instead of just dead or stupid and perhaps even worse, married.

The plot follows the ups and downs of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, drawing many parallels between them and Odysseus and Telemachus, but goes on to evolve into further, more complex themes, with allusions to theology, technology and war.

I’ve read hardly any Irish literature, at least not many that aren’t fantasy, and fewer still ones that grasp Irish culture. I was asked whilst reading, what Ulysses is about, and having some more time to think about an answer, I would describe it as ‘a quintessential day in the life of two men in Dublin’, which is a whole lot better than ‘a man who goes about to a funeral’, which was all I afforded at the time.

The book is known as one of the best of all time, so you can expect some pretty pukka writing, which incorporates many different forms during one of the chapters and all kinds of wonderful and amazing literary techniques which have been analysed to death by now, but as general reading goes, I enjoyed the fast-paced descriptive writing,  and the dialogue is surprisingly witty. However, this book is a slog and no mistake. The overwhelming length of sentences and the almost surreal edge to the chapters, give this book a really heavy pacing, (after all it is only one day that passes in the book) which on journeys, simply put me to sleep.

The result being that, it ultimately belongs to the crop of books like “In Search of Lost Time” that deserve to be read when one is fully capable of understanding it, I am probably not going to drag myself through another novel like this, at least not merely for a false sense of prestige, as, if you don’t fully understand or appreciate it, that makes the whole venture pointless.

 

Ulysses by James Joyce

Bloody Otome games! Sweet Fuse VS Hakuoki

Right, so, for whatever reason, I decided to buy and play some Otome games, that is, female-aimed dating sims or visual novels from Japan.

Sweet Fuse

First up, is this late-release on the PSP, in the UK it is only available to download, for some reasonable sum.

The game is created by Idea Factory and Otomate, in conjunction with Comcept, the story revolves around a young woman who so happens to be Keiji Inafune’s niece, who is attending the opening of his new theme park when a strange pig terrorist takes over and threatens to blow the place to kingdom come, lest 7 people are able to complete a task set each day. Obviously this leaves our leading lady with a harem cast of 7 losers who she can potentially hitch up with throughout the course of the game.

As a visual novel there is lots of text and some decision making to be done, even the more interesting gameplay is still just a series of inputs. Sometimes you will be put in situations where you can choose what you want to do, and when there is a puzzle, your character can choose a certain word in order to ‘intuit’ a solution, nice going there game.

There are some issues with some of the game, for example, one of the characters attempts to hit a child and another, well… a few others are also complete nutters.

This might just be a fetish thing, I’m not entirely sure.

Additionally, the main character is somewhat lacking in personality outside of mindless optimism, but I suppose if you’re playing this game you probably don’t care what the woman is like.

There are multiple routes in the game, I only did a few of them but really one is enough for the average player, the game pace is pretty fast and if you want to be dating a certain character you have to be pretty snappy on accepting the opportunities, I also noted that in order to make sure you don’t accidentally get some other chump, you basically have to be a complete dick to everyone that isn’t the desired ‘beau’ for that playthrough.

Basically pissed-off mode.[/caption]

Considering this game is really little more than an erotica, (without eroticism) I was fairly surprised with the level of quality of not only the game mechanics, GUI and the art, but also the story and character development, somehow it ends up as more than the sum of its rather embarrassing parts and easily defied expectations. Obviously the game is aimed at hetero-femmes so it’s not for everyone, but I do think there is some merit to those who are willing to play it that are outside its targeted parameters.

I’m still not entirely sure what the point of Keiji Inafune is though.

Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom

Somehow Sweet Fuse wasn’t quite enough Otome, so next I moved onto this rather popular PSP game.

Set during the Meiji Restoration in Japan, when the Shinsengumi are on the rise to power, the game follows Chizuru, a young woman who is saved by them whilst searching the dark streets of Kyoto for her father. She remains in their confines as they share the same goal and her knowledge of them poses a threat.

Despite having the same developer as Sweet Fuse, Hakuoki manages  to subvert almost every trope that the former supports, by having a more robust plot and better characters. The game is entirely text-based, with no other element outside the very few decision-making moments, it also boasts a nigh-entire lack of otome-esque moments, outside of the last couple of chapters, at which point the story seems to go rather downhill anyway as it strays from the reality that it formerly portrayed.

By this I am mostly talking about how the subject of vampirism is strangely added into the events of the Meiji restoration seemingly informing the course of history. Obviously this tied with the romance in the latter half make for some fucking cringy gameplay that will have you hiding behind chairs to escape prying eyes of shame.

There are more bad endings in this game, meaning if you don’t want to waste loads of time playing it to screw up, then you might want to consider a walkthrough or something as sometimes it’s not always clear what options do what.

The visuals are pretty whilst also maintaining a rather old and rich look with earthly colours used to set the sombre tone of the game, at rich contrast with the pinks and brightness of Sweet Fuse. The game plays quite well but could do with some more streamlined mechanics.

Because only wistful men are desirable.[/caption]

In the end, it’s easy to say this is the better game in most aspects, it has some great story even if spoiled by ridiculous supernatural stuff and the characters are much more interesting and don’t feel like cardboard cutouts of a girl’s fantasy, however it is all of this that is its biggest weakness. It’s overall a bit depressing and boring, the characters and story are a little too serious considering it’s a bleeding Otome game, there are little instances of excitement or humour and it just weighs you down by the end.

So in the end the winner is… Sweet Fuse.

It’s more exciting, funny and honest, even if it’s not for everyone. The characters are mostly stupid but they seem to be more-ish to talk to if nothing else.  I wouldn’t get too excited over this victory though, it’s more like a win derived from the opponent being ill that day, or something that would be given out as a congratulations for turning up. So…

Well done, Sweet Fuse. Well done.

Bloody Otome games! Sweet Fuse VS Hakuoki

999 Revisited

A little while ago, I played a game called 999 on the DS which I reviewed. It’s a visual-novel style adventure game which has multiple pathways leading to different endings, this formula changes the game dramatically depending on your decisions in-game.

Last time I picked this up, I had only completed a single route (consequently the worst one in the game) and couldn’t be bothered with any more at the time.

My enthusiasm for writing having since depleted, I decided to replay it and get a different ending to see if it could change my somewhat ‘average’ opinion of the game.

This time, I played through two routes of the game and as an amendment to my previous review, please just assume that pretty much most negative stuff I said, is a positive depending on the route you take. The game is far better than to be judged on a single route alone, if you don’t want to play through more than once, then perhaps you might not want to pick this up. However, the point in this article is not to re-review, but merely as a platform for me to just talk about some of it in more detail. So I’m afraid I have to issue this before I go on.

Spoiler Warning: Click to view

I originally took the SUB path, but recently played the SAFE and TRUE endings. 

So, from what we know, Akane becomes Zero in order to preserve the timeline in which she is saved by Junpei, she exists corporeally throughout the game and during what I expect are time mis-alignments, or connection issues when  trouble is happening in one of the timelines, she begins to discorporate, resulting (oddly) in her being ill. The mask, albeit mainly used for the nerve gas, is, what I presumed, a reference to her problems as in Japan, breathing masks are used when a person is ill.

As Zero she goes through some cold decisions that will ultimately question her moral standing, it’s simple to assume that as a result of the requirements to survive, the game itself and the necessity to act the part throughout the modern nonary game, Akane has got Multi-Personality-Disorder. The entire modern nonary game is unfortunately predicated on the fact that a 9 year old girl can’t solve a simple sudoku which was fairly amusing.

While playing through the game, I believed that Lotus was Alice (All-Ice) as she is wearing weird Egyptian-esque clothes and has no connecting purpose to being there, however it became immediately apparent that the entire existence of Alice and Lotus was pointless after Alice is revealed to be a separate person all together.

A few plot holes/Inconsistencies were raised in the final True ending playthrough, after saving the kids through the vent, Seven loses Akane, who gets captured and put back in the incinerator. Why didn’t they go back through the vent? The rope should have been pulled back up as otherwise Ace would have been able to follow them. They had 20 minutes to do this yet they didn’t bother? Akane also mentions that they can hear the children that had made it through the door before them going up the stairs ahead of them, meaning there is another route to the other side of the incinerator surely? Other problems soon ended up being solved, with due attention.

There are some pretty good questions and answers here, as some of my thoughts were cleared up by them, they might be useful for other players with concerns.

It really is well worth the time of playing again, I’m so glad I did. It takes about 7-9 hours to do first time round but when again sometimes it might only take about 3-4 hours.

 

999 Revisited

Year of the Vita

This coming year should be seeing the PS4 and Xbox One trounce all over other systems, but instead we’re being treated to a nice slew of games for the 3DS and PSVita. Where exactly are the new consoles going?

The 3DS enjoyed a fantastic rise in system and software sales, thanks to such quality titles and major first party releases from the likes of the Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem and Luigi’s Mansion series.

While the PS4 and Xbox One enjoyed record-breaking system sales, the software line-up was far from award-winning with such dreary titles as Knack and Ryse dragging themselves to the behemoth consoles.

But surely this will be their signature year, with a short run-up this is their time to shine?

Well, not really.

The PS4 is seeing the latest Infamous instalment, Second Son, which although a successful series, it’s not going to shift many new consoles, nor is it a hugely anticipated title. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes looks to be less than a cast-off to the series, apparently lasting only 2 hours and going for dirt cheap on stores like Gamestop.

Xbone is getting the new not-so-exclusive Titanfall, whose new press-releases appear to be getting less and less positive causing anger among some hopeful, yet premature fans, Quantum Break, which isn’t a videogame and Halo which is not releasing any time soon.

Basically the new consoles are just expensive pieces of kit, that try very very hard to make wank like Fifa look good enough to buy. Whereas the lovely, spangly portable consoles, yes, even the forgotten bastard Vita, especially, are getting a beautiful roster of fun and interesting games, but most importantly, NEW IPs, such as Danganronpa, Toukiden and Conception (II but we never saw the first one).

Returning franchises will see titles such as Prof. Layton VS Ace Attorney, Yoshi’s New Island and Inazuma Eleven 3: Team Ogre Attacks! The Vita has a further instalment in the little-known trap-strategy series, Deception IV and a few more new titles, Demon Gaze and Mind Zero. Even the Wii-U has some substantial games to offer this year with, Super Smash Bros, Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze and hopefully we might see some of the new Monolith Soft game.

Looking back at some of these titles I notice that they’re all Japanese, but there are very few, noteable western releases coming out, thanks wholly to the major western companies pulling out from the Wii-U and pooh-poohing the portables. Western devs don’t understand how to effectively make middle-range games, which are usually what the Japanese devs are great at. Yes, Indie titles and Triple A releases come out a storm in the west, with some of the best being released these past few years, but if they’re not on the new consoles what good is that?

I feel that as I am getting older and more cynical, I really have lost all the excitement I used to feel when a new console came out. The latest crop had unappetising previews and since they’ve come out they have garnered little excitement outside the respective console-wank circle, which I don’t have a habit of liaising with.

A lot of people bought Xbones and PS4s, but I am not sure if they’re going to shift many more until their lineup has strengthened significantly.

I suppose it’s no big deal. I can just wait. I have things to do in the meantime.
I’m still trying to play through all of my DS games…

Year of the Vita