Entry 135: "Nier" Pt.3 End

Dear Internet,

                Well, I am a day late and a Gald short.  I said that I would usually post these reviews on Friday, and here it is Saturday.  I was up late yesterday in an attempt to finish off "Nier" so that I could write a full review.  By the time that I had finished "Nier," it was too late to write a final review.  I think we can all learn something from this experience.  I need to start these reviews earlier so that I can make sure I have enough time.  And you need to remember the definition of "usually."  But I jest, unlike "Nier."

                "Nier" is a game that takes itself too seriously.  From the story to the message that it wants to impart on the player, "Nier" does not know how to lighten up until it absolutely has to.  Everything is taken with the same layer of dark narrative and done so poorly at that.  Take how the game handles the quest to cure Yonah and how it attempts to force the audience to care.  We know as an audience that Nier cares deeply for his daughter.  He is constantly trying to find a way to save her from a death sentence.  That is the whole point of the quest that he sets out on from early on in the game.  However, there is little to no emotional bond that occurs between the character of Yonah and the audience because there is little to no attempt to create that bond.  Early on in the game, there is next to no interaction with her as a character.  We only get a few lines of dialog here and there with a few fetch side quests thrown in.  We are meant to care for her not because we have grown fond of her from a depth of interaction with her but because she is a plot item.  She is there as a reason to go around and explore.  The player does not have to even interact with her at all beyond a few forced dialog bits.  We know she is most likely going to be OK by the end of the game in one way or another since denying this would be one amazing anti-climax.  There is not a real threat of losing her at all, just missing her a little while.  Unlike a game like "Valkyria Chronicles," where having one of your soldiers fall in battle can risk them dying permanently and you will never use them again, "Nier" cannot reproduce this effect by just telling the audience that they are supposed to care about the plot character.  I cared more about the super minor characters in "Valkyria Chronicles" way more than Yonah because there was a real threat of losing the character.  It made me want to protect and keep those characters safe because it would have been my own fault for losing them.

It does not help the fact that the game openly denies interaction with her.

                There is a scene in "Nier" where a certain character permanently changes their physical form significantly, to the point that they look more like a monster than human.  They naturally freak out at such a change, breaking down and crying a little.  Less than two minutes later they say about the transformation, "I was terrified at first, but I think I'm okay with it."  This kind of turnaround of emotion within a short amount of time and with so little force to do so is a reflection of the game's poor story pacing.  The character lost their mortal body but was perfectly alright with it mere minutes later.  The whole transformation felt unneeded to the plot, instead feeling as if the development team had created a character design that they did not want to go to waste.  In fact, Nier himself receives a redesign after a time skip in the game which feels more like forced implementation of unused art assets.  I say this because prior to the time skip he receives immensely physical wounds through his upper body and abdomen, but after the time skip he is wearing an eye patch.  His eye had not been damaged.  Is the eye patch supposed to illustrate how battle weary he has become since before the time skip?  It only brings forth the question of how he lost his eye since it was not injured when we last saw him.  If the aim is to show the character's culmination of his battle exploits that have formed him into the character that we see after the time skip, how about we see him with the scars of the battle that we saw him fought, not the ones we did not see?  Every time we would then see those scars, we would remember the incident that formed them, reminding us of a specific even in the game's story.  Instead, we get an eye patch because eye patches means he is a tough guy.

                Then there is the death of a side character that cannot be avoided no matter what which should come as no surprise to anyone who plays the game.  I say this because the opening movie that plays every time the game is launched clearly shows the character dying.  This is not the only spoiler that occurs within the opening movie.  All one has to do is watch the movie just once for a number of images to keep popping into their heads as they play the game to have a number of plot points lose their impact when they finally occur.  This is not something that is unique to "Nier."  A number of Japanese games that I have played like to do this.  They take all of the game's highest quality cinematics and mash them together to form an opening movie.  This is not something all that bad in upon itself.  One usually wants to put their best foot forward when showcasing the game in an effort to pump up the player and get them excited to see what the game has in store for them.  However, when the game throws together the most pivotal scenes into that mash up and includes plot hints as well, it becomes a ruining experience that devalues the game's story.  

                I said last about mentioning the game's fishing and farming aspects.  Let me just say that there are extensive fishing and farming mechanics.  You can fish in a number of locations that even include quicksand.  You can farm anything from wheat to flowers.  It can even be enough to be a game on itself, especially considering that there are a few difficult goals within those aspects of the game.  I only have one problem with these things.  What in the world do they have to do with the core game?  Absolutely nothing I tell you.  You only have to fish once in the game, and you do not even have to farm to complete the game.  Neither of these things have got anything to do with the core game mechanics.  Reeling in a major catch does nothing to make you hit harder.  Growing a tulip will not make your magic any better.  Or at least I am not aware of such things.  I do not mind a small diversion in some games, even if it is to break the monotony that some can fall into.  But when there is such a large side game that does nothing to correlate itself to the main game, it just feels silly to include it.  I would rather go play a "Harvest Moon" game or "Fishing Resort" at that point.  If the diversion is to the point of being another game itself then it would be better to just go play a game that does that diversion much better.

                I will end just saying that the game world is recycled fluff.  There are only about five or six dungeons that get revisited a number of times, too many times in my opinion.  Sure, when you revisit one or two, you will get an added room or corridor to explore but this is the same problem that "Skyward Sword" suffered from.  Both games have a few giant worlds that take a while to get from one end to another, which highlights their size, but both games end up feeling empty due to a limited number of locations that matter which are visited way too often.

                "Nier" is not a bad game.  It is just generic.  It is another one of the multitude of Japanese games that have got more angsty and brooding characters than substance.  There is even the token city that gets destroyed completely.  The central gameplay is fine, just underdeveloped for the most part.  I looked forward to some of the enemies whose attacks made the battlefield resemble a bullet hell game.  The multiple endings are not all that interesting other than the extra backstory of Kaine.  The only thing that I would say is worth its weight is the game's soundtrack.  The soundtrack alone is worth listening to even without playing the game.  But I cannot go recommending a whole game on just one single aspect.  The game is an alright diversion for a while, but I cannot think of dumping more time into it.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S.  Next will be "Four Faultless Felons."

Entry 131: "Spriggan" (1998)

I was disappointed at the lack of Cornish faeries.

Dear Internet,

                Later this month, the film "Noah" will be making its theatrical debut across at least one country.  Lo and behold, it will be following the Biblical story of a non-unioned carpenter taking a divine interest in animal husbandry and fresh water traveling.  Now, what does this have to do with the animated film "Spriggan," based on a seven year running Japanese comic?  Well, I'll get to that point in a paragraph or two.

                "Spriggan" is very open about its brutally violent nature.  The opening scene includes at least three deaths by ultrasonic vibrations.  This is one of those films that makes me want to have a body count ticker in the bottom right corner of the screen.  Unless the character has got a name, they are most likely going to be cannon fodder before the end.  Considering that there is at least one secret paramilitary organization in the film, it only makes me wonder how such an organization could exist considering that the sheer amount of people that are dying would probably guarantee them a reserved position at the local unemployment office.  People die left and right in such numbers that it is boggling to think that they are not nearly as secret as they hope to be.

                But let me start off by telling a little about the plot.  "Spriggan" centers around Yu Ominae, a high-school student in Japan and a member of the secret military organization known as ARCAM, a group created to keep under wraps a number of ancient artifacts from a forgotten society.  Early on in the film, Yu's classmate is shown to commit involuntary suicide by means of an incendiary vest.  Yu is mildly injured in the resulting explosion.  This event prompts Yu to take action within the organization to find out the details despite his superior denying Yu to take on any missions while being injured.  He learns that ARCAM has discovered the remains of Noah's Ark.  However, unlike the scriptural description of the vessel, this ark is at least four times larger and made from a material that cannot be affected by traditional human means.  What follows is a struggle between ARCAM and another secret organization that wishes to gain possession of the ark for their own personal reasons.  Between cyborg soldiers, inhuman levels of pain tolerance, telekinetic children and the occult, "Spriggan" pulls from a variety of different angles in an attempt to keep the audience glued to the screen.

                This is all well and good, but there is an important fact to remember about the film.  It is being based on a specific arc that occurs in the source material.  The film is not the entirety of the story that the original manga wished to tell.  This of course does not allow it a handicap in any sort of way.  A film has to stand on its own merits and present itself to an audience as a standalone item.  It cannot rely on hoping the audience is caught up with some other medium to be able to tell the story.  "Spriggan," thankfully, does not do this, but certain elements do highlight the fact that the film is but one of a series of tales in an overarching plot.  Some of these elements include the character Jean Jacquemonde, a number of lines made by the film's main antagonist, and the back story of main character Yu.  While these do not create a whole detraction from the film, they do create a nagging feeling when viewing the film.  I found the character Jean to be most notable of these nagging sensations, mostly due to his repeated appearance whenever the film wrote itself into a corner and needed a way out.  Has Yu got into a fight he might not win? Jean shows up and nearly solves the problem single-handedly.  Yu snaps and goes on a personal vendetta?  Jean stops him from going crazy.  Yu gets caught in a collapsing structure?  Jean appears out of nowhere to help Yu hobble away.  It feels artificial in the very least and just makes me wonder if the character was thrust into the film to appease the original fanbase of the manga.  

                I mentioned the film "Noah" at the beginning of this rant for now obvious reasons.  "Spriggan" takes a science fiction approach to ancient stories.  I have no qualms about this.  It is an interesting take, even if it is not all that original.  Pointing the finger at prehistoric aliens has been around for decades prior.  The only thing that the film, or at least the subtitles, constantly irked me was the fact that the characters would constantly refer to the ark itself as "Noah."  They would only sporadically call it the arc or refer to it as a ship.  It is as silly as referring to Little Bastard as James Dean.  But I should not be so critical of this.  It probably stems from a Japanese habit or something of the sort.  One thing that the film does interestingly enough is being able to spin the ark from being a solution to being a problem.

                The film does have one pivotal problem.  The film is suspense based, deeply encroached in mysteries and secret societies, which means that quite a lot of information is not readily made known to the audience.  The balance of knowledge, ignorance, and revelation is a delicate game where if one begins to outweigh its position all three topple.  There is no other element that so strikingly comes across as poorly balanced as does Yu's back story.  Throughout the film, there are numerous references to where Yu came from, why he is a teenage soldier, and his various previous interactions with the film's antagonists.  If the audience is even paying attention, they can piece together what the characters are saying into a reasonable understanding of how Yu got into the position he is currently in.  The only hole maybe being the reason as to how Yu gained superhuman abilities.  Instead of treating the audience as having two brain cells to rub together, it decides to completely illustrate Yu's background as a child soldier in the middle of the film's climax.  This in turn slows down one of the most pivotal moments of the film so it can display information that could have already been reasoned out or just plain out neglected due to the minutia of its importance.  This deluge of character exposition is poorly placed and halts a climatic confrontation that also sadly gets slammed to the ground quickly.  The final fight is just plain uninteresting and does not logically work considering that Yu overpowers his enemy despite being in a clear disadvantage.  

                "Spriggan" is not a bad film.  The entire narrative works, and it can be entertaining at times.  It pulls from the hardcore 80's era of graphic violence and cannon fodder individuals.  I am reminded in part of "Genocyber" and how that treated non-named characters.  However, it also makes me think of the "Full Metal Panic" series, which came out a few years later, and was able to explore many of the same elements expertly.  Overall, I am underwhelmed by "Spriggan." It aims for a lofty narrative by interjecting numerous elements throughout the film, but fails to culminate into a story that can stand on its own.  Too many elements causes the film to feel spread out too thinly.  Perhaps the manga had better pacing and was able to introduce the various themes well, but the film feels too much like a segment of the comic was ripped to make a movie.  At the same time, if there are plot-holes, they are patched over with either a 30 second scene or a line to smooth things over.  Both are true and sadly work against each other.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Next is "Sympathy for Lady Vengence."

Entry 130: "Epic Mickey 2" Pt. 2 End

Dear Internet,

                I was able to finish off the main story of "Epic Mickey 2" today.  If I took the time to complete all the various side-quests, I might be able to add another five hours on to the play time, but I will stop playing here.  The length of the game does not surprise me.  I knew that it was shorter than the original by the average play times I have seen.  I did think it was going to last me a bit longer since I was doing some of the side-quests as I was going along, but I still finished the main game in 10 hours.  So, I will try to cover everything I can in this last post.

                The gameplay is very similar to the first game.  The paint/thinner mechanic returns, as well as the game's dual morality system.  The controls of course are a bit different because I am using the Wii U gamepad this time.  Instead of pointing the aiming cursor with a remote, the cursor is controlled with the right control stick.  This in turn also moves the game's camera, which is helpful.  Added to the control scheme is the co-op move button which comes from the biggest change of the game.  Throughout the game, the player is accompanied by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  Oswald can either be played by a second player who can jump in and out of play seamlessly or the computer controls Oswald.  Oswald is controlled with a Wii Remote and Nunchuck and handles nearly exactly as Mickey did in the first game, short of a few differences.  He has a remote with him that can shoot electricity or take control of electrical panels.  On top of that, he can glide while falling so he can jump farther than Mickey.  Most of this is moot if you are playing by yourself.  Oswald just becomes a little helper that follows you around.  He is there mostly so that someone can jump in and play at any time.

                With this in mind, I found myself sometimes frustrated with the rabbit because I would get to a location and have to wait for him to get where I was or wait until the game spawned him next to me.  There are a number of puzzles that require co-operation between Mickey and Oswald.  What this usually means is that both characters have to pull switches or spin gears at the same time.  Think the dual key lock mechanisms you see in war films before they launch the final big bomb.  The AI handles it well enough when Oswald finally catches up to the player.  Other than that, Oswald does help out in combat by stunning enemies, but I did not find him all that helpful.  The only thing that did make him greatly helpful was that if the player uses up all their health points and is not in a toxic pit Oswald can revive the player with a limited amount of health points.  This is helpful because it prevents the player having to return to the last checkpoint when dying.  Oswald does need to revive Mickey within a certain amount of time before the game automatically makes the player return to the last checkpoint, so it is not a full-proof method.  

                The game obviously has a shorter main story as compared to the first one.  It does however make up this with the fact that there are many more side quests to do.  I do not think I even finished a quarter to a third of the quests.   "Epic Mickey 2" has got more things to collect and find than the original.  It helps that after finishing the story, the game does not start over like the first.  Instead, the player is able to wander around and finish the various quests they had not completed.  It trades off re-playability for a singular long play.  However, this comes with a drawback.  The game for some reason feels smaller than the original.  Maybe, it is because the levels feel smaller than the first game's levels or because they can be played through and explored quickly.   It may be just my imagination, but many of the game's levels can be visited once and be forgotten since the player can explore them entirely and quickly.  

                I should not make it seem that the game has no good qualities.  It did make me laugh quite a number of times and smile fondly at others.  Take the Mad Doctor for example.  In nearly every one of his appearances, he sings when he talks.  He talks as if the game was a musical, with full rhyme and tempo.  It is such a stark contrast to everyone else that it feels completely out of place, which makes it all that more funny.  Then there is the Jimmy Stewart robotic tour guide.  Or how about the goofy way that Oswald waddles around?  Then there are the good gameplay mechanics.  There are numerous ways that the player can get around the Wasteland provided that they meet certain requirements.  Train stations, film reels, and balloons all make traveling easier if the player spends a little amount of time to ease the annoyance.  The game thankfully remembers which segments are painted in or thinned out rather than resetting each time you re-enter the area.  The pause menu is much better than the first game's, displaying much more information and having a more accurate map.  The environments are designed well enough to make them fun to explore.  

Who does not like Robo-Stewart?

                Overall, I found the game to be enjoyable, but it had a lot it could improve upon.  The biggest problem is of course its length being so short, but it was an enjoyable two days.  If you play this game with the mind of getting through it as fast as you can, you will burn out and speed along pretty quickly.  You can try to spend as much time exploring and looking for all the game's secrets, but I do not know if you will feel compelled to spend time looking for obscure treasures.  "Epic Mickey 2" is mediocre but it is far from being a bad game.  It is just underwhelming with what is expected for a sequel from the first game.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

Entry 124: "The Sword with No Name" (2009)

You are not getting more images than this today.

Dear Internet,

                "The Sword with No Name" is a 2009 South Korean romance film set in the late Joseon period.  A literal translation of the original title "불꽃처럼 나비처럼" would be "Like Fireworks, Like Butterflies" which makes sense with some of the films imagery and a lot more sense than "The Sword with No Name."   Specifically, the fictitious film takes place from around 1866 until 1895.  It is most important to highlight the fictitious aspect of the film within the same breath as the very real dates because the film tells of the very real Empress Myeongseong and her fictitious lover/admirer Moo-myeong.  

                The film centers itself around the two characters Moo-myeong, the bounty hunter who as a child had witnessed his mother being killed for practicing Catholicism, and Ja-yeong, the soon to be bride of the king of Joseon despite her obvious hesitations.  Ja-yeon decides to visit the ocean once more before her marriage to ease her mind.  Along the way, she comes across Moo-myeong, whom she asks for a boat ride down the river to the sea.  The man agrees, and both get close to one another during the trip.  After her marriage, Moo-myeong attempts to gain entry into the royal guard so that he can be closer to Ja-yeaong or even see her for that matter.  Even after proving his courage and entering into the guard, it is not for some time before he gets the chance to talk to her again.  Meanwhile, there is a political conspiracy that comes from the outside Japanese influence and from the old king and regent of Joeson.  The political side erupts and threatens not only Joseon's stability as a country but also the life of Ja-yeong.  It is up to Moo-myeong to save the queen while remembering both of their positions as ruler and subject.

                You can tell already that the film is a romance first with a history lesson taking back stage.  The dynamic of the two main characters is the constant string throughout the film.  In the beginning, we wonder if they are going to run off and she will not marry the king.  In the middle, we wonder if they are going to run off and leave the king.  In the end, we wonder much the same as in the middle.  The relationship between the two never gets more than platonic, although there was a night in a damp and cold cave that left me more than confused.  Despite this, or because of this, their non-sexual relationship the romance was for the most part done very sweetly.  You can see the devotion Moo-myeong has for Ja-yeong throughout the film.  His feelings do not stem straightly from shallow reasons like Ja-yeong's appearance or status.  He continues to strive to protect her with his very life for the entirety of the film.

                I will not even try to touch upon the historical accuracies of this film.  I will save that for someone much more knowledgeable in that department.  If you know your Korean history, the film's suspense filled scenes that risk the safety of the queen melt away in a moment.  It is like wondering while watching a biographical film about Julies Caesar if he is going to die on the battlefield.  If you have paid attention to that section of your history class in school, you do not have to worry about him until March comes rolling around.  If you know how the actual queen had died, then you know what to expect of the film.  The only question then for any sort of suspense is if Moo-myeong is going to die first.  His life is constantly in jeopardy.  Even when they return from the trip to the ocean, he ends up taking a few knives to his back in protecting her.  This leads into the action oriented scenes that dot the film.

                There is an immense portion of the film that is dedicated to action scenes.  Moo-myeong wields a weapon that looks like a cross between a butcher knife and a machete.  It is an intimidating weapon that he used in his life as a bounty hunter and continued to use while a palace guard.  It does seem out of place in the film, especially when he continues to wear it while garbed in a regulated uniform, but at least the film treats it with a purpose rather than merely having the weapon as a flashy object.  When he fights, he makes obvious use of the blade's unique design rather than using it as a longer bladed weapon.  The fights in the film are there most likely to amuse the boyfriends and husbands of the woman that had dragged their man to go see the film.  Thankfully, the film does not shirk away from giving its all to entertaining the thrill seekers in the audience.  The first major fight occurs between Moo-myeong and the master swordsman Noe-jeon, who is also the captain of the guard.  Their battle is quickly shifted to computer graphic assisted choreography.   This basically means that it becomes a fight between super-humans instead of being realistic.  That does not mean it is not entertaining.  The two men jump about two small boats on a lake, kicking and slashing to the point that the camera can barely keep up.  Only one other time in the film did I notice that the fight was heavily altered using computer graphics to make it more dynamic.  The second time was a little too over the top for my taste, actually melting away the setting.  What makes me hesitant to like the second time is the fact that there are witnesses to the fight.  The film can play off the first fight as being over the top because the two men are fighting alone, but since the second fight is being witnessed by a large group of people, the over-the-top action feel out of place.  It is still fun to watch it, but the gnawing problem hits the back of my head.

                Within the film, there is a great level of political intrigue and conspiracies that take place.  They were confusing to me for much of the film.  It was only about halfway through the film that I fully understood what I should have.  This might have more to do with the how common knowledge of the timeframe is for the average South Korean as compared to an outside viewer than it have to do with the amount of information that the film gives out.  If this is the case, then I cannot strike it against the film.  I did, however, find parts confusing enough that I was lost for large amounts of time.  Eventually, I pulled together who was backstabbing who, but perhaps I might just be slow when it concerns Asian politics.

                Then there is Moo-myeong's origin scene.  The film opens up with Moo-myeong as a child witnessing his parents being killed for practicing Catholicism.  This is a harsh stain on the history of Korea, but the film paints it less as a crime against religion and more of an attack against Westernization.  This might be because this was the reason for the attack since through the film, the old guard is seen striving to keep Joeson free from Western influence.  The old king constantly fights with the queen about how she interjects Western ability and individuals into the inner court.  The film wants to makes sure that the clash of East meets West is the center point for the confrontation between generations and individuals.  This is all well and understandable, however, the fact that Moo-myeong is shown to having lost his parents in one of these clashes years ago is a big hole in the story.  I do not mean that it creates a hole within the narrative, but that it creates a hole in his character.  Other than the Christian name that his mother gives him, Johannes, and a cross shaped scar on his chest that is never explained, he has no connection to those that dies that night years ago.  He does not seek out some sort of vengeance or shown to have any sort of ill will towards those that killed his parent.  In fact, there is no connecting theme to his past to the events that occur elsewhere in the film.  It just dissolves instead of being a character trait.  At that point, there really is no reason to having him be born of Catholic parents or even parents who were "Westernized."  The persecution scene is there only to illustrate the level of resistance that Joseon had to Western influences, not add character depth to Moo-myeong.  

                "The Sword with No Name" is an average film.  It does somewhat OK with the romance, action, and suspense, but nothing great or memorable worth revisiting for a second time.  You might find a moment or two that is poignant, but it is surrounded by a lot of filler.  I should not make it seem like the film has got nothing going for itself.  The romance is handled very well, showcasing Moo-myeong's devotion and the conflict with Ja-yeong having to be queen to a king she does not love.  Instead of shirking their responsibilities, like flighty children, they act accountable, respecting one another and the duties of the other, even if that means denying themselves.  The film does this one thing well, but the rest was just average.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S. Next is "Parasite Dolls."