Escape to the Movies: Halo Legends

[doomboy29]

I thought Halo Legends would be...............different.

 

[Kyouki1980]

I do believe that this is worth watching just for the lolz I'll get from watching japan tear Halo and new... um... halo ^_^ *Chuckle* I be so witty.
Halo truly does suck absolute and utter balls. But try telling that to a 13 year old fan boy who has been playing it for the past 3 years and nothing else.
Side note: Why do kids these days calling absolutely everything they dont like or disagree with "Gay" or "fag"? Is it a new genetic compulsion or something? Or are they just fucking retarded.
I'm going for the latter.

 

[Kyouki1980]

With all due respect movie bob you review movies keep reviewing movies. Im sorry to say that you do not know much about video games. While I think halo legends does not look good that does not give reason to go after US made games and stereotype them since the west has a large range and variety of games. Not to sound rude but stick to reviewing movies and leave video games alone

*sigh* Um excuse me, but do you even know that he DOESN'T play video games?

And we have a variety of games? Like what kinds? Because all I normally see out are either Guitar Hero/Rock Band, FPS, or God Of War-like action games. He has a strong point when it comes to gaming in the west. Japan has much better quality games than we do here. We used to have a lot of variety but ever since the PS3 and 360 came out, it hasn't been very interesting.

I have to agree with you on that Osaka_chaness. The wests hyper masculine gaming culture is obviously aimed at the early teen male market who all want to be big strong men and kill things when they grow up and their balls drop. Its where the money is cause they will lap that shit up even if its a pile of crap like Halo. A game company cannot fail with that kind of foamy fan-boy market.

Me I'm a big RPG fan. I like story, character interaction and dialogue. Yes thats right all you kids out there, I like all that gay stuff. Try reading a book, you may learn some words other than gay and fag. But name me a western rpg with good story, dialogue and characters. I'll give you almost any Bioware game cause that their bread and butter, deep engrossing story. Borderlands had almost no story to speak of pretty much just another fps. Fallout3 was fun but the story sucked balls, very shallow and insulted my intelligence.
I could go on but you get the point. Western gaming is aimed at the retard teens cause that is where the money is. Simple as.
And sadly thats not likely to change any time soon.

As for me I'll be sticking with Japanese games for teh foreseeable future until the west makes something that doesnt suck... I'll probably be either old or dead by then.

 

[Eipok Kruden]

Weirdly enough I detest Halo, and I'm not a big fan of Anime, but I've ordered Halo Legends... I'm looking forward to it.

Wow... You've got some seriously robust gonads, I'll give you that. I hope they survive your encounter with Halo Legends intact.

Personally, I really enjoyed Halo Legends, at least for the most part. I thought the Babysitter was total pish, but the rest were really good. 'The Duel' in particular was simply astounding. Classic Samurai story, but it's done so unbelievably well and the visuals are just breathtaking.

 

[DigitalSushi]

Weirdly enough I detest Halo, and I'm not a big fan of Anime, but I've ordered Halo Legends... I'm looking forward to it.

Wow... You've got some seriously robust gonads, I'll give you that. I hope they survive your encounter with Halo Legends intact.

Personally, I really enjoyed Halo Legends, at least for the most part. I thought the Babysitter was total pish, but the rest were really good. 'The Duel' in particular was simply astounding. Classic Samurai story, but it's done so unbelievably well and the visuals are just breathtaking.

Yeah I'm a sucker for punishment, and clearly insane, who the hell goes and buys something based on two source materials that they hate?.

I'll report back after I've watched it though.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

Also rememer: Anime is not a genre. It's a medium.

The medium is animation, anime is a subdivision. You could say it's a genre of animation, but then it gets confusing because there are genres within anime.

 

[carpathic]

A very curious juxtaposition between Anime and Western Culture.

I have to say, I don't like anime and fail to find it interesting or visually stunning. It is hard for me to be fair to this review as Movie Bob and I are cleary beginning with apples and oranges then trying to compare the two fairly.

I doubt highly that I would enjoy this as I simply could not get over the Anime look, which I can not take seriously (and yes, I have watched a lot of Anime to try and combat this view)

 

[Sneaklemming]

Ok so I went to watch homecoming, and to be quite honest, it didn't make much sense (like most anime) and was very shallow. (Pretty apt for Halo then right?!) The Origins were also pretty rubbish, compared to the detail that went into the Animatrix version.

 

[Yelchor]

Yeah, regardless of medium, something based on an FPS will be rather hack and slash.

That aside, I was pretty surprised myself when I learned of a Halo anime, and it really seemed contradictory like Moviebob said. Of course, to see how well this went I'm gonna have to see it myself, and I have to note that the short where the anime thing would hurt the seriousness seems to be Odd One Out, and again that's a parody.

Most anime seem to be parodies with different amounts of silliness, which is why I dislike this combination with Halo. It doesn't do "justice" for the potentional the franchise could gain if the ones making it just tried to work a bit more on a compelling story.

I wouldn't see the hair as much of an issue, actually, since they're wearing helmets. Other than that, though, you bring up some accuracy issues with the Halo universe, though I have to say I'm still for the general idea of Homecoming.

It's annoying when developers can't stick to canon and changes it. They spawn confusion!

I'll say this about those four games: Tales of Symphonia is intentionally rather cliche, as is the Tales series for that matter (though I personally loved Symphonia). Soul Nomad is made by Nippon Ichi, that's all I need to say (if you don't know about them, look them up, they generally make rather silly games). Final Fantasy V, from what I've heard (I just started playing it), is kind of a self-parody and, yes, would have a lighthearted and cliche story as a result. That leaves Fire Emblem, which still has some rather young heroes and JRPG-fantasy conventions, but the cast is generally comprised of adults and it avoids the things you're probably annoyed by in JRPG's. It's not a philosophy-fest, but maybe you should try that one, at least for the strategy gameplay.

On the WRPG front, I really need to get around to Fallout 2. Maybe I'll also try Mirrowind, but Oblivion left a bad impression on me (ironically, I liked Fallout 3, which is quite similar gameplay-wise).

Edit: Oh, and KOTOR. I think my brother's hard copy is lying around somewhere.

Aha... So JRPGs are not unintentionally stuffed with strange, immature character concepts, stories and settings that fills me with akwardness, they intentionally do it? Well. If they want me as a consumer to their products, they are certainly taking the wrong approach.

Actually, there are things about Japanese culture which I am enthralled in. Fedual Japan, samurajs, and the overall real world history of theirs. That's what I would want to see, not these silly teenagers with strange swords twice their size behaving in ways that just makes me want to facepalm. I am not necessarily hostile to anime/manga style drawing, as long as they are able to picture the characters and enviroments in a natural, realistic way. No need to bombard the media with all sorts of colourful fantasy features if you can make an interesting setting based on traditional fedual Japan trapped in a civil-war, or trying to fend off the western world like in the Last Samuraj movie? (That movie became awesome to me by just simply adding samurajs in a real world setting.)

On Western RPGs, Fallout 3 was indeed alot more immersive then Oblivion. Perhaps beacuse that you could interact with the story in a more Bioware-sense.

KOTOR is a classic masterpiece to me. The character-combination, the refreshing Star Wars setting taking place millenias before the official movies' settings, I've replayed KOTOR 2 about four times by now probably. There are just so many parts that you can't explore during one playthrough. The first KOTOR is also great, but the sequel is unmatched in depth.

At the risk of being cliche, I have to wonder what JRPG's you have played. Part of me thinks they were earlier Final Fantasy games, which aren't exactly the most though-provoking experiences. Maybe we should discuss this with lordlee, since like last time he's more qualified than me.

Oh, and trust me, your dislike of JRPG's is not unshared here.

And yes, out of areas on the JRPG front I've explored the main bit has been Final Fantasy. I'm puzzled as to why it's still so popular while in my opinion games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect outmatch it by miles. Then a couple of others which I do not know the names of (Out-drawn Japanese names makes my head hurt). All of these instances have shown pretty much all the same features that makes me look away in embarrasment and awkwardness.

It seems I'm not alone in this disliking. You who probably have seen these things to a greater extent then myself. I am relieved over that someone who watch anime agrees with me on this.

 

[Njaard]

With all due respect movie bob you review movies keep reviewing movies. Im sorry to say that you do not know much about video games. While I think halo legends does not look good that does not give reason to go after US made games and stereotype them since the west has a large range and variety of games. Not to sound rude but stick to reviewing movies and leave video games alone

Have you ever watched his Game Overthinker movies@youtube? I guess you haven't, 'cause if you had you'd know that Moviebob has as deep an understanding for games as anyone else.

 

[Sovvolf]

Spoiler: snip

Snip

Spoiler: snip

Also your opinions come in the form of a funny movie that has cult status on the internet giving your opinion (on your given subject) more impact and credibility than just some internet avatar writing on a website. Not that I'm saying I disregard other peoples opinions because it's not in a video, I'm just saying that to most people your opinion will probably count more then my opinion.

 

[TheRealCJ]

If you think Gears of War and Halo are the only Western games out there Bob, then I think it's time you payed a visit to ANYWHERE THAT SELLS VIDEOGAMES. If you do, you'll see a wide range of titles with a wide range of characters in a wide range of genres that you appear to have missed.
Let me name a few that break your stereotype that are sitting on my shelf right now.
Brutal Legend
Mass Effect 1 and 2
Assassin's Creed II
Dragon Age
Uncharted 1 and 2
Bioshock
So...yeah.

Uuuh, yeah.

Brutal Ledgend: Jack black.
Mass Effect: Hardcore Space Marine
Assasin's Creed: Hardcore Ninja-archtype.
Dragon Age: Dwarf, Elf, or Human, "ORIGNAL!"
Uncharted: Sarcastic, Wisecracking adventurer-archtype.
Bioshock: first game: Guy with amnesia, second game: Giant armoured Marine... Marine.

 

[A random person]

Most anime seem to be parodies with different amounts of silliness, which is why I dislike this combination with Halo. It doesn't do "justice" for the potentional the franchise could gain if the ones making it just tried to work a bit more on a compelling story.

I still have my doubts about your anime experience since you said most animes seem like self-parodies (except in a sturgeon's law sense, in which case a lot do much like bad action movies do).

It's annoying when developers can't stick to canon and changes it. They spawn confusion!

Aye, that is a genuine issue with any medium (example: comic books switching writers and developing messy continuities).

Aha... So JRPGs are not unintentionally stuffed with strange, immature character concepts, stories and settings that fills me with akwardness, they intentionally do it? Well. If they want me as a consumer to their products, they are certainly taking the wrong approach.

Not all of them, no, but lordlee did pick more lighthearted examples.

Actually, there are things about Japanese culture which I am enthralled in. Fedual Japan, samurajs, and the overall real world history of theirs. That's what I would want to see, not these silly teenagers with strange swords twice their size behaving in ways that just makes me want to facepalm. I am not necessarily hostile to anime/manga style drawing, as long as they are able to picture the characters and enviroments in a natural, realistic way. No need to bombard the media with all sorts of colourful fantasy features if you can make an interesting setting based on traditional fedual Japan trapped in a civil-war, or trying to fend off the western world like in the Last Samuraj movie? (That movie became awesome to me by just simply adding samurajs in a real world setting.)

Your ability to be (somewhat, you still show skewed understanding of anime and JRPG's) fair and not hate Japanese things for being Japanese already makes you far more respectable than a lot of people I've met online. That aside, not all anime is about "silly teenagers with strange swords" by any means, those just tend to be the popular shonen series (and even then they're not necessarily bad, just not what you seem to want). May I recommend Monster, which has adult protagonists, no supernatural powers, a real-world setting, and a psychological plot? Or Baccano, which does have supernatural powers but doesn't center around fights with them, and also has mostly-adult protagonists (lordlee extremely recommends this series)? Hell, just a throwaway suggestion that I doubt you'll like, but Fullmetal Alchemist, while still having young protagonists and (in our world, this disclaimer makes sense in context) supernatural powers, is more plot-heavy than the stereotypical fighting series you seem to be wary of.

To make this short, anime=/=Shonen Jump, much like films=/=Michael Bay or books=/=Twilight. You might want help finding good series, though, so maybe you could join the anime fans group and ask around? I'll even send you an invite if you wish.

Oh, and interesting stories and fantasy settings aren't mutually exclusive by any means, plenty of works in all mediums have interesting stories in fantasy settings.

On Western RPGs, Fallout 3 was indeed alot more immersive then Oblivion. Perhaps beacuse that you could interact with the story in a more Bioware-sense.

KOTOR is a classic masterpiece to me. The character-combination, the refreshing Star Wars setting taking place millenias before the official movies' settings, I've replayed KOTOR 2 about four times by now probably. There are just so many parts that you can't explore during one playthrough. The first KOTOR is also great, but the sequel is unmatched in depth.

I liked Fallout 3 for a mixture of gameplay (i.e better weapons and combat, and far more interesting level-up system) and setting (I just love the post-apocalyptic subversively-50's motif) improvements over the comparatively dull Oblivion. Can't comment of KOTOR, though, since I need to get around to it (running Ubuntu won't make that much easier).

And yes, out of areas on the JRPG front I've explored the main bit has been Final Fantasy. I'm puzzled as to why it's still so popular while in my opinion games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect outmatch it by miles. Then a couple of others which I do not know the names of (Out-drawn Japanese names makes my head hurt). All of these instances have shown pretty much all the same features that makes me look away in embarrasment and awkwardness.

Specify the Final Fantasy's you played, they're actually rather different. To elaborate as far as I know (note that I've only played a few, lordlee will probably angrily correct me):
1-3: Pretty basic plot as you'd expect from the 8-bit era. Also, apparently 2 is terrible.
4-5: Beefed-up from 1-3, and 5 is, as mentioned, intentionally rather silly.
6: Now things are getting good. A darker steampunk setting, rather interesting characters, surprisingly emotive sprites, and a story that while not terribly original is still quite sweeping. Kinda collapses with the World of Ruin, though.
7: Other than the overratedness cliche (it's gotten so much hate over it that ironically, it's underrated now), also comparatively dark. You might have played this, though, and I'm not too knowledgeable about it.
8: Hoo boy this is hated, both for gameplay (Junctioning) and story (Time Compression) reasons. See Spoony's review [http://spoonyexperiment.com/category/final-fantasy-viii/] for details.
9: Resembles an older Final Fantasy game with newer graphics and story conventions (to my knowledge). Doesn't seem to be for you.
10: You know what, I'm not really sure despite having played this a good bit.

Hm, the Final Fantasy series generally seems to not be to your tastes. Maybe you should try Persona 3 & 4 (seriously, even Something Awful loves them)?
Also, since lordlee's quoting you didn't work out, I'll show you his post:

Go play a Fire Emblem game (NOT Shadow Dragon) or a Tales game (NOT Tales of Legendia or the GBA or SNES versions of Phantasia).

I strongly second both, by the way.

It seems I'm not alone in this disliking. You who probably have seen these things to a greater extent then myself. I am relieved over that someone who watch anime agrees with me on this.

I've been lurking here since late 2007, you really are not alone, though we're not a place that tears anime fans apart either as shown by me and several others.

Edit: Oh crap, massive misunderstanding. You see, I actually like JRPG's, by "here" I didn't mean me, I meant the forums.

 

[Badassassin]

If you think Gears of War and Halo are the only Western games out there Bob, then I think it's time you payed a visit to ANYWHERE THAT SELLS VIDEOGAMES. If you do, you'll see a wide range of titles with a wide range of characters in a wide range of genres that you appear to have missed.
Let me name a few that break your stereotype that are sitting on my shelf right now.
Brutal Legend
Mass Effect 1 and 2
Assassin's Creed II
Dragon Age
Uncharted 1 and 2
Bioshock
So...yeah.

Let's see:
Brutal Legend - Yeah That's a unique Character
Assasin's Creed II - that one too
Mass Effect 1 & 2 - I man or a woman created from stock parts, because the creator's were too lazy to do it themselves
Dragon Age - Same as Mass Effect
Uncharted - A guy
Bioshock - A guy

Even if you look further, you'll find many similarities between the characters in terms of design:

Half Life - A guy in a Suit
Gears of War - A guy in Armor
Modern Warfare - A Soldier
Call of Duty - A Soldier
Medal of Honor - A Soldier
Wolfenstein - A Soldier
Halo - A guy in Armor
Duke Nukem - A guy (pretty bad ass one though)
inFamous - A guy
Prototype - A guy
God of War - a Guy with chain weapons

The Only exceptions I can think of are:
Prince of Persia
Rayman
Beyond Good and Evil
Western Point & Click Adventures
Battletoads
Mortal Kombat
XIII
Comic Book and Movie Characters don't count since they originated in a different medium.

Let's look to the popular japanese games:
Super Mario - Main Franchise(that game series alone almost as much distinguishable Characters as are listed Above)

Sonic The Hedgehog - a blue stylized hedgehog
Bomberman - a ... thing
Alex Kidd - what ever the hell he is supposed to be
Bionic Commando - a guy with a Bionic Arm
Kirby
Pikmin - a very stylized space explorer
Donkey Kong - a Monkey
Bubble Bobble - a dragon that shoots bubbles
Megaman - a Robot
Devil May Cry - A Guy who is a demon with a big ass sword and two Pistols
Bayonetta - a witch with guns attached to her feet, that uses her hair to create giant monsters
Final Fantasy IX (the only one not using stock character designs)
Dig Dug
No More Heroes
many japanese nes/snes/mega drive/saturn/pc-engine/dreamcast etc.

There a plenty of other memorable and distinguishable characters on Japanese side, I just don't have the time to write all of them down, BUT their game industry is much bigger than western game industry, and opposed to all great designed characters, they have many games featuring anime style stock character's too.
so i would say japan wins at the moment. But I see what moviebob was trying to say when he said that the western games are represented by guys with gun's. Because the western game industry is aiming that way, most of the recent games are FPS games featuring stock character designs of a guy with some gimmick attached to him, so it's not that far away from the truth.

I'm gonna make a couple corrections
Prototype- Calling him just "a guy" is like calling the hulk just "a guy." He can shoot blood out of his wrists, eat people to steal their identity and make his blood tentacles into... well pretty much anything.
Bioshock- Ok I guess you got me with Bioshock 1, but in Bioshock 2 your a giant hulking monster in an underwater armor suit... pretty original.
God of War- Ok maybe, but it's not like he's just a guy, I mean I would figure the whole tattoo thing would make him different than the average soldier.

 

[droppingpenny]

I'm gonna make a couple corrections
Prototype- Calling him just "a guy" is like calling the hulk just "a guy." He can shoot blood out of his wrists, eat people to steal their identity and make his blood tentacles into... well pretty much anything.
Bioshock- Ok I guess you got me with Bioshock 1, but in Bioshock 2 your a giant hulking monster in an underwater armor suit... pretty original.
God of War- Ok maybe, but it's not like he's just a guy, I mean I would figure the whole tattoo thing would make him different than the average soldier.

Badassassin, I'm just talking about character designs, since moviebob was just comparing the designs themselves, and not the characters or their abilities. And the direction of the Western developers in terms of design is a guy with [insert a gimmick or superpower here]. So most of the designs are just variations of stock designs of a normal average guy.
I didn't mention big daddy because first of all he is a human being in an ancient diving suit with a drill (which is kind of original) but he is also featured in the first game as an antagonist, so Bioshock 2 just provides a change of perspective and not an original protagonist, anyway it's still pretty original.

 

[mchoueiri]

With all due respect movie bob you review movies keep reviewing movies. Im sorry to say that you do not know much about video games. While I think halo legends does not look good that does not give reason to go after US made games and stereotype them since the west has a large range and variety of games. Not to sound rude but stick to reviewing movies and leave video games alone

*sigh* Um excuse me, but do you even know that he DOESN'T play video games?

And we have a variety of games? Like what kinds? Because all I normally see out are either Guitar Hero/Rock Band, FPS, or God Of War-like action games. He has a strong point when it comes to gaming in the west. Japan has much better quality games than we do here. We used to have a lot of variety but ever since the PS3 and 360 came out, it hasn't been very interesting.

with japan pumping out very similar rpgs like whit knight and koei making another dynasty warrior which does nothing new a few years ago I would have agreed with you but now I am seeing more new and exciting games coming from the west like Heavy rain bioshock 2 assassin creed 2 Dragon age origins and Mass effect 2 while I feel japan is sort of pumping out the same rpg with a few exceptions like FF 13 and you can see even some companies from japan are trying to sway western markets by making games that appeal to the west you can see that with RE 5 and Bionic Commando. And while I do agree that the west can pump out the same kind of action game or rock band clone the originals are very good for example halo witch redifned shooters on a console or call of duty modern warfare 2 which was a amazing shooter or even God of war which set the bar so high thats what people compare most hack and slash games too. so My final point is that Japan used to be on top but now they are slipping and the west seems to be there.

 

[mchoueiri]

With all due respect movie bob you review movies keep reviewing movies. Im sorry to say that you do not know much about video games. While I think halo legends does not look good that does not give reason to go after US made games and stereotype them since the west has a large range and variety of games. Not to sound rude but stick to reviewing movies and leave video games alone

*sigh* Um excuse me, but do you even know that he DOESN'T play video games?

And we have a variety of games? Like what kinds? Because all I normally see out are either Guitar Hero/Rock Band, FPS, or God Of War-like action games. He has a strong point when it comes to gaming in the west. Japan has much better quality games than we do here. We used to have a lot of variety but ever since the PS3 and 360 came out, it hasn't been very interesting.

I have to agree with you on that Osaka_chaness. The wests hyper masculine gaming culture is obviously aimed at the early teen male market who all want to be big strong men and kill things when they grow up and their balls drop. Its where the money is cause they will lap that shit up even if its a pile of crap like Halo. A game company cannot fail with that kind of foamy fan-boy market.

Me I'm a big RPG fan. I like story, character interaction and dialogue. Yes thats right all you kids out there, I like all that gay stuff. Try reading a book, you may learn some words other than gay and fag. But name me a western rpg with good story, dialogue and characters. I'll give you almost any Bioware game cause that their bread and butter, deep engrossing story. Borderlands had almost no story to speak of pretty much just another fps. Fallout3 was fun but the story sucked balls, very shallow and insulted my intelligence.
I could go on but you get the point. Western gaming is aimed at the retard teens cause that is where the money is. Simple as.
And sadly thats not likely to change any time soon.

As for me I'll be sticking with Japanese games for teh foreseeable future until the west makes something that doesnt suck... I'll probably be either old or dead by then.

and dud thats totally fine but I just would like to point out gaming is not like reading a book while story is an important element I think that things like gameplay atmosphere really helps for example Dead space had a great story kept me on the edge of my seat and had very good action in it you could even say the same for bioshock or oblivion so I end with saying I respectfully disagree.