A Blog Dedicated to the Works of Marcos Pisanis and other random topics including video games, politics, philosophy, art, movies and tv shows, and other assorted things.
Darlings! Good to be back. Now it's time for the PS2 Gems Part 2.
So for this one, we have a couple of series on here so I'll go into the first games and then just basic plot for the sequels if made.
1) Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army and Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon: Another member of the Shin Megami Tensei series, Raidou Kuzunoha is a devil summoning detective of the Raidou Kuzunoha clan of devil summoners chosen by ability rather than decent lineage. He must solve mysteries while fighting in an arena with other demons like Ukobach, Parvati, Kudan, and others whether they are mainstays of the overall SMT series or new demons made only for the Raidou Kuzunoha series. It's a fun RPG but it is seriously difficult. Also, it's fun exploring Tokyo in Pre-WW1 era Japan.
The game is a real-time RPG so you'll be commanding your demons to do their abilities but you can also let them go crazy at your own risk. I personally enjoyed the mystery of Raidou Kuzunoha. Though it can be a little difficult to follow, if you ever pick it up and forget where to go, the detective agency you go to has files of all the things you did up to current events and your friend, Detective Shouhei Narumi will tell you what to do next as well as your talking cat Gotou.
Also the sequels main Saving Grace is the new mechanics. It's pretty much the same Tokyo to explore but with more demons, the ability to summon two at a time, the alignment system of the mainstream SMT series, and the Luck System (which is the main theme and issue of problems [plot and gameplay-wise]) in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon. Good luck gets you bonuses and an easier game, and bad luck makes it a bitch to survive. Both games are for PS2 but you can download them on the PS3 if you own one.
2) Shadow Hearts 1,2, and For the New World: Ok, this one is a triple threat so I'll just go and talk about them in order since they all are chronologically like that.
Shadow Hearts 1 is an RPG from the defunct Sacnoth Gaming Company, meant to be a rival to the Square Enix company, which never worked out since before FTNW the company declared bankruptcy and the weird part is all 3 games were published to the outside market by other gaming companies. (The first two were published by Midway of Original Mortal Kombat fame and the third by XSEED Games known for ... I don't really know. I don't play many XSEED games to know or remember.) But weirdly enough, it's understandable why this RPG didn't do so well due to being truly hidden. But now to the game. Shadow Hearts runs on a graphics engine similar to Final Fantasies VII through IX. It would've worked out if FFX didn't make an appearance in the same year. (Brutal Right?)
So the story is focused upon a rude hero (it actually calls the guy "Rude Hero" before you go and save the "Girl in Danger") named Yuri Hyuga who saves "Girl in Danger" Alice Elliot. The two walk their way through China to find out more about the evil Warlock Roger Bacon and his plans to reincarnate the universe. You travel with 4 other characters and all 6 have some pretty interesting and sometimes funny conversations depending on who you choose to accompany you at times.
Just know that Yuri is your main guy so can't switch him out for the "He's the Protagonist" tropes and rules of RPGs. However, Yuri is a Harmonixer, a man who can absorb demons powers and transform into them. And every character has their own style of attacks with some ranging more with certain magical or physical attacks but Yuri is generally the well-rounded guy thanks to the demons. And the turned based style doesn't get boring with the quick time event Judgement Ring. This device in the game allows you to do your abilities but you have to time it on the colored spaced correctly to advance. Sadly, the coloration is very difficult to see, but luckily the spinner line is colored so you can fill in your work. Oh, and if you fail, you won't be able to use certain abilities or attack only so much.
The main highlight of the game is the atmosphere. It's dark, enemies are grotesque monsters from Cthulu Mythos, in fact, the series is loosely inspired by such stories. (Just remember kiddies, you can't beat Cthulu because he's simply the fear of the unknown and there is no way to beat the unknown. It's indifferent to you.) Also, exploring Europe and China is fun with an overworld map with specific locations to be lead to so you won't feel lost with the flow of this RPG. Oh, and you might want to take your time in China because you can't return back from their in the second half of the game. But this alternate history, RPG is fun.
Shadow Hearts 2 improves on the system and the graphics and voice acting (the first one doesn't have much) is great and enjoyable. The sidequests you do for all the characters makes it awesome for it levels ups your abilities for them from collecting Oils for synthesis potions and Tarot Cards for Luck effects, finding compositions of Wagner's Operas to improve sword fighting, photo shooting enemies to summon their abilities, and fighting wolves in competition for Best Wolf makes the interactions funny in the generic anime style and also the cool bonus dungeons in post-game are pretty cool. The plot focuses on an international secret society's plans for evil and also Yuri is back after the tragic death of Alice from the first game. With new allies Blanca the Wolf, Gepetto the Puppeteer (and Alice's Uncle), Karen the German Lieutenant in WWI escaping as a fugitive of war, and others. All of them team together, traveling through Europe and Japan while also fighting against some of the evilest demons summoned by the secret society, Sapientes Gladio.
Shadow Hearts 3 takes SH2's system and just tweaks it a little to make it somewhat unique. This plot focuses instead on Johnny Garland as he is a detective finding out what happened to one of his clients subject of interest as he is killed by a monster coming from a mysterious portal. Along the way, two Native Americans, one a harmonixer and the other, a specialist in Gun-Fu (I'm not making this up. It's how quirky Shadow Hearts is) ask Detective Garland to help them hunt down Prof. Gilbert, a former client of Johnny's. Along the way, even more, weird characters like a Brazillian Ninja, a Vampire who eats positive and negative calories to change fighting styles, a fat Cat who fights with Drunken Fist, and a Mariachi with a flamethrower in his guitar make up for another cast of weirdos. (But Weirdos in a good way.) There isn't much to say due to gameplay being familiar already and I would say it has the weakest story due to not focusing on the original cast of Shadow Hearts but it doesn't mean it's unenjoyable. I especially like the Cthulean style more with the enemies you fight making the slight horror aspects show from the game.
All 3 games are available for PS2 only sadly.
3) Haunting Ground: I mentioned this one for my Halloween list of video games but I didn't go deep into plot and horror as well as gameplay. Haunting Ground is a survivor horror game with its origins in the parent game Clock Tower. Basically, you are a young girl, Fiona Belli, and she is mysteriously kidnapped to a castle where she meets four residents that have their own mysterious agendas. Each of them stalks the poor girl but she has made a new friend. Hewie the Dog can be made to attack enemies and find items but this game is mostly focused on sneaking. So with that, you can be quite a tricky sneaky player but there are four different endings depending on certain situations. I'll let you guys figure it out. Also, I nearly forgot to mention that there is an alchemy lab for you to make all sorts of items to help in your journey so it'll make it easier. Haunting Ground is sadly only for PS2.
4) Psychonauts: Before Inside-Out Happened, this game got you inside people's heads literally. This cult classic Tim Shafer game lets you play Rasputin, a young psychic wishing to be a psychic agent to put his powers to potential against his anti-psychic father's wishes. You have an arsenal of psychic powers from Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, and others to fight off mental issues and training grounds to power yourself against an unknown threat. Each of the level designs is very clever from expressing certain characters' personality to expressive environments showing some NCP's mental health issues. This is also one of those games that tries to be funny, yet it works and it's a hilarious game. I have to stop sometimes so I can enjoy the jokes that come into the game. And in 2019, we'll be getting a sequel. Psychonauts is available on PS2, PS3, PS4, XBOX, XBOX 360, and PC.
5) Okage: Shadow King: The reason I put this very hidden gem on here was for finding on The PS2 for PS4 games at the PS Store. This game has a very Tim Burtonesque style and aesthetic and also features some pretty funny dialogue. The story focuses that the main character's shadow has been taken over by Evil King Stan but upon learning he's not the only evil King, he has taken revenge on our protagonist to hunt down all the fake evil kings. The game is very funny with dialogue choices the protagonist can make and plays like the standard RPG from early FF games and don't let your MC die or it's game over. If you like Tim Burton, this game will be up your alley. But it plays like a standard RPG with the aesthetics and humor being saving grace. There is no voice acting other than a cheesy narrator. This game is for PS2 and PS4.
So here are 5 games to Enjoy. Sorry I haven't posted much due to working on paying my rent. But hopefully, once I pay it off this month, I can write more articles with some political and some gaming news/suggestions.
Ok Everyone, This one took me a while because I want to show Kaneko's versatility when it comes to designing demons but it also has a bit of history as we'll look into his early designs so we'll be looking at some past designs from the first Megami Tensei games and like SMT 2 and Nocturne. We'll focus a part of this series to Kaneko's successor. (Masayuki Doi. His works have been mixed among the fans, (Myself included) but he does have a combo of hits and misses and when he hits, he does it well.) But before we do the demons, let's look at his human designs first.
Kaneko's main style is varied but his human designs have a very simplistic look. But what he lacks in making distinct facial features and looks, (Almost all characters have a similar profile look) he makes up for in Fashion! Kaneko is a master of following fashion trends from casual, classy, to the haute couture.
So from this design, we see Kaneko's usage of color more in emphasizing what our protagonist wears. We see this a lot with many of his human characters. His character's skins are usually pale to emphasize the clothes being the main characteristics of the MC. But notice the patterns and colors of the clothes. They're modern and that's the main separation of clothes seen in Fantasy games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts where clothes seem made arbitrarily to emphasize the fantastical elements of the story. Let's compare to the KH2 outfit of one of my favorite protagonists, Sora. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/kingdomhearts/images/6/6d/Sora_%28Art%29_KHII.png/revision/latest?cb=20130917025201) The clothes could look pretty normal but with the emphasis on the straps being a major outline and the overly baggy pants being both unrealistic and a tribute to Mickey Mouse (Sora originally wore Mickey's colors of white gloves, yellow shoes, and red pants). Also, the huge zipper lines for Sora's overshirt as well as his trademark shoes also should be noted. Exaggeration is in this aspect of the KH universe, SMT tries to be more subtle but also reflects Kaneko's philosophy.
Now there are some more famous Kaneko characters. Let's look at Madam from SMT II. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/5/50/SMTII-Madam.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090623072243) Madam is the governess of Valhalla, a section of Tokyo Millenium. This design Kaneko made shows his love for Haute Couture designs with a combination of formal dress and abstract patterns and designs. (Notice the chains and overexaggerated collar) But Kaneko successfully makes the design look natural to Madam and makes one feel as if you could meet this eccentric woman someday. Maybe at a high fashion show or a rich dinner party. But even other supporting cast members also have fashionable and modern styles that emphasize their looks.
Isamu from SMT: Nocturne (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/b/bc/Nocturne-IsamuNiita.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081210030909) has a very punk and gothic aesthetic from Ripped Jeans, predominantly black clothes, the demonic Belt Buckle (I think it's foreshadowing but if you guys ever play this game, let me know what you think about the Belt Buckle being a foreshadow element. Also, if it helps, the face on the buckle looks similar to Kaneko's design of the demon Azazel.), and cap which covers his right eye. But yet it's fashionable and you could imagine someone wearing this in a contemporary setting.
Kaneko even goes further to period style clothing, specifically 1920's Japan. Heavily inspired by Japan's late Meiji period and Jazz Age Japan, Kaneko features his character designs from the Devil Summoner Series to be just as individualistic from other characters of the mainline SMT series. Shouhei Narumi, Raidou's mentor and friend, is all cut clean and dapper with a 3 piece brown suit. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/6/60/DSRK-Narumi.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170417100235) The bowler, popular for its time, fits perfectly into Narumi's suit and the tie is an individualistic touch but still matches with the overall suit. The curly hair is also a nice touch to focus a little on Narumi's appearance being a bit messy like his personality sometimes.
And for another lady, let's focus on the Narumi Detective Agency's (unofficial) Investigative Journalist, Tae Asakura. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/3/3a/DSRK-TaeAsakura.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090523083854) Tae refers herself to be a modern woman and it's no surprise given her cosmopolitan look. Also inspired by Western Fashion, Tae prefers being individualistic by going with the modern lady's look with her Peter Pan haircut under her lady's bowler. Also, she wears a white blouse to compliment her overall light creme outfit of a business skirt and matching overcoat. Her posture has a sly and curious look to her, reflecting her role as a journalist digging up gossip on all sorts of places including places where other devil summoners congregate to find clues about their own personal agendas. Tae's look reflects the beginnings of the 20th-century woman and Kaneko does an excellent job of coming up with her design and characterization from just a single look.
Lastly, Let's look into Stephen this time. (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/4/43/STEVEN.png/revision/latest?cb=20121008155542) If you haven't guessed, Stephen in the games is based on the late Stephen Hawking, wheelchair and all. In this game series, Stephen is a scientist who helped create the digital demon database summoning system. So he has knowledge of the demons but in style to Hawking, he has traveled into the multiverse and watches to see what the protagonist does. The Bright Red Suit called immediate attention to him but unlike the ideas of passion and rage, he's quite calm and analytical. Soothing but stern. And his facial features and glasses are also reminiscent of Stephen drawing further parallels from Reality vs. Fantasy. Even his wheelchair is similar to Hawkings but added with more gadgets for Interdimensional transportation and demon summoning.
Now before I go, I want to mention that Part 4 will focus on the Demons of Megami Tensei and include pictures of YHWH and Lucifer as well as other demons that Kaneko has designed so it will take longer than anticipated for this article to come out. But here's a quote from Kaneko to describe his philosophy of SMT.
Profile
"Another thing that bothered me was the trend of the main character always being portrayed as someone special -- a legendary warrior, for example. It was the equivalent of saying you can't succeed unless you're from a wealthy family, and I just couldn't stand that. I wasn't born with special genes, and I'm sure most other players weren't either. No matter who you are, if you're given a chance and have the guts to try your best, you can become a hero... That became the concept of Megami Tensei."
So as I finished Rebecca, those haunting words at the beginning of the novel haunted me once again. "Last Night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again." Daphne du Maurier focuses primarily on Gothic Storytelling in a more suspenseful and psychological mentality on focusing on the main aspect of jealousy, living in another's shadow, and
Plot: (Basic Plot because spoilers will ruin the whole book and the suspence and surprise) In Monte Carlo, our unnamed narrator meets with the mysterious Maximilliam (Maxim) de Winter. After a few short days of courtship, though unknown to our protagonist, he proposes matrimony and they are off to Maxim's home, Manderlay. But our new Mrs. de Winter is focused on how she is being overpowered by the pressence of the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, and her housekeeper and confidant, Mrs. Danvers. But Rebecca's pressence and secrets overpower, and yet motivate her to find the secretive darkness of Manderlay.
Pacing and Setting: (Mild spoilers) The pacing is slowly built up primarily through a first-person steam of concsiousness with most of the setting taking place in Manderlay and around the surrounding areas like the Gardens, Beach, and Cliffs nearby. du Maurier focuses more on the aspects of the psychological and emotional aspects of Mrs. de Winter so the focus is primarily on her memories as well as her slow recollections of the events of her life in Manderlay. But there are some minor places, (like Monte Carlo earlier, and London periodically) that also add to both plot and experience in the story.
Characters: (Minor spoilers)
The Second Mrs. de Winter: A nameless protagonist where we are shown her story throug her eyes. She is constantly found in the shadow of Rebecca de Winter, her husbands late wife.
Maxim de Winter: The widower of Rebecca and newly made husband to the second Mrs. de Winter. A man of dual calm and rage. A man who seems distraught over his late wife and his love for Mrs. de Winter.
Rebecca: The Late Mrs. de Winter. A woman of an independant nature. All that's known of her is through the people in her life and their opinions and experiences with her.
Mrs. Danvers: The housekeeper and main servant of Manderlay household. She is a loyal lady to the late Rebecca de Winter. However, seeing a new threat to her household with the second Mrs. de Winter motivates Danvers to psychologically manipulate and abuse her.
Mrs. van Hopper: To Mrs. de Winter she was ... well it's hard to describe their relationship other than possibly she (Mrs. de Winter) was originally paid consort to van Hopper. Mrs. van Hopper is the foil to Mrs. de Winter. Mrs. van Hopper is vain, socialble and snooty compared to Mrs. de Winter's shy, meek, and calm demeanor.
Beatrice (de Winter) and Giles Lacey: Beatrice is Maxims sister and Giles is brother in law. The two are an odd couple but they do seem romantic and caring for one another. Beatrice is blunt and direct with other people though has a dual caring and sympathetic side. Giles is often portayed as a tired old dog but is a bit of a foil to Maxim.
Jack Favrell: The Cousin to Rebecca. Our protagonist doesn't trust him much due to his personality being brash, careless, and playboylike.
Frank Crawley: The assistant to Mr. de Winter. A loyal man and friend to Maxim and the Missus.
Pluses: The story has some great characters and characterizations leading up to the ending and I'm quite surprised to say I did not see plot twists coming until after reading and learning what happened and a story that can do that for me is a winner in my book. (No pun intended.)
Minues: The slow pacing of this story is a bit of a sleeper for those prefering action and more dynamic approaches to the story.
Overview: The Gothic tale of Rebecca is chilling and spledid in the weaving of the tale and makes me want to read other novels and stories that Daphne du Maurier has written. She writes with excellent point to details, characterization, and drama as she slowly unravels the story to the conclusion.
4/5
Also, I want to make a note for any other people who follow my blog that the article for Shin Megami Tensei Part 3 is still postponed due to referencing and more written analysis is needed to further explain the design techniques and important emphasis on the artwork of Kazuma Kaneko. Also, I'll be writing an article on one of my favorite programs to watch and the emphasis of uplifting media entertainment.
I FOUND JESUS. Yes, I couldn't belive it myself but I did.
And so I brought him to my house once again.
He did the floorboards.
He makes excellent tamales.
And who knew he was right behind the Home Depot.
Wait ... you thought I was returning to Christianity?
JOKES ON YOU! APRIL FOOLS!
Sorry I had to do this since it will be a while til we have an April Fool's Easter. So this worked perfectly but go out there and enjoy yourself with some pagan symbolism and secular fun!
Also, stay tuned tomorrow for my new announcement for the latest book I'll be reading starting tomorrow.
