Escape to the Movies: Halo Legends
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It was pretty good, I watched it while I was a lil inebriated and it was the tripiest thing Ive seen in a while!
Well yeah, but moral choice systems etc etc is what you should do to make your own story, not just exchange body parts like frankenstien. It's not hard to make your own story AND have a good character design.mchoueiri said:
This is the first Halo related thing I'd consider purchasing. To be fair, since I don't have an XBox of any kind, it would also be one of the few Halo-related things that I could actually put to its intended use.
Also, I freely admit that I suck at first-person shooters. The only ones I haven't done miserably in are the Metroid Prime series, and that's only because of auto-lockon.
Also, I freely admit that I suck at first-person shooters. The only ones I haven't done miserably in are the Metroid Prime series, and that's only because of auto-lockon.
I'm intrigued by it, also I'm a huge fan of Studio Bones, so I'll take a quick peak at it...it'll most likely be better than the Dante's Inferno anime...that sucked, except for the second part...that wasn't bad.
Oh vey. Eastern storytelling vs western storytelling? Do we really want to go down that road? I'm sorry dude, but your only exposure to western storytelling in gaming is Halo and Gears then you kind of fail at appreciating western interactive art. I'm with Yahtzee when he says that most JRPG characters are crosses between David Bowie and Meg Ryan and the writing is crap. Another turd like this and *cue intimidating music* I'm removing you from my RSS.
I'm not picking on Mass Effect, I'm just talking about character designs. And when a developer forces you to create a main character instead of designing one Himself (what they clearly could have done) and still give you the opportunity to change things on them, then it's basically like a Big FU to the player like: "Here you have your body parts design it yourself I don't care!" It's not important how you design your character, the story of Dragon Age or Mass Effect is not going to change because of that. I didn't mention Fallout or Elder Scrolls simply because I never played these games, I can't talk about games I have never seen. But Let's face it our western games have mostly (not all, see exceptions in my first post) This character design: An average muscular guy with something attached to him, while occasionally wearing armor, that's it! Sometimes it's a big breasted woman though.mchoueiri said:
When you look over to Japan you'll see all Kinds of memorable and iconic characters from Sega(Sonic,Alex Kidd, Space Channel 5), Nintendo(Mario, Zelda,Pikmin, Donkey Kong etc.), Namco(Pacman, Tekken, Soul Calibur), Hudson soft(Bomberman), Treasure(Gunstar Heroes, Sin & Punishment etc.), Square-Enix(Kingdom Hearts and FFIX) Konami (Cyborg Raiden, Pyramid Head, Contra Hard Cops, Castlevania) and these are just a small selection, alongside with unimaginative anime stock characters *cough* f.e. DOA *cough*. So the creativity is clearly on their side. Western developers go clearly in the direction of "average guy" as character design for pretty much every game, or like moviebob in the first GO episode said: "Self Employed Landscape Contractors".
I suppose the game being a RPG has nothing to do with their choice in putting the characters up for the players molding. You're just being absurd. I'm sure you're choosing to ignore the colorful cast of main and supporting characters disregarding the main protagonist too; I mean, it's not like they count for anything, right?
Depth in character creation isn't indicated by how iconic a character is. You said Pac-Man was rememberable... Yeah he is, but only because he was in one of the earliest highly popular game creations beginning in gaming's conception. The west tends to take a more realistic and adult approach to characterization but the character's are stylized in emotional backdrops, personal history and thought systems instead of weird anthropomorphic creatures or angsty teenage dramaqueens.
Depth in character creation isn't indicated by how iconic a character is. You said Pac-Man was rememberable... Yeah he is, but only because he was in one of the earliest highly popular game creations beginning in gaming's conception. The west tends to take a more realistic and adult approach to characterization but the character's are stylized in emotional backdrops, personal history and thought systems instead of weird anthropomorphic creatures or angsty teenage dramaqueens.
Right, because Commander Shepard and Marcus Fenix are TOTALLY the same guy(woman?), and Nathan Drake reacts in the EXACT same way as Master Chief. And Ezio and the Big Daddy are practically IDENTICAL! Gee, don't know what I was thinking.TheRealCJ said:
Don't forget, the best Japanese made RPG in a long time was Demon's Souls and that was more western in terms of style and gameplay.mchoueiri said:
I mean it really annoys me when Japanophiles (I mean they such cliche fake Japnese usernames) attempt to undermine Western style by simply going "some marine in an FPS". I mean some people here have said that while listing plenty of exceptions but making it look like the same thing. For example how in the HELL is Ezio lumped in with Marcus Phoenix but Prince of Persia is a better unique Western example?
I could easily call fowl on many Japanese games, for example Nintendo remaking the same old Zelda and Mario game. JRPGs are getting so generic to the point of the developers acknowledging this, every Dynasty Warriors game is accompanied by a wave of "why"s. And for all those who listed western characters calling most of them some guy, I could call most of yours mentioned some anthropomorphic animal. I don't have a real problem with the Japanese market but people have to realize it works both ways.
holy crap, what gives Halo the right to be interesting now. -.-
from that you can guess i'm not into Halo, at all, but i found these rather good, enough to keep me interested all the way through, Homecoming was good, as was Prototype and The Dual, i also liked the Babysitter, i even enjoyed the " Master Chief beats every ones ass" short The Package, all in all good review and a surprisingly good set of shorts.
from that you can guess i'm not into Halo, at all, but i found these rather good, enough to keep me interested all the way through, Homecoming was good, as was Prototype and The Dual, i also liked the Babysitter, i even enjoyed the " Master Chief beats every ones ass" short The Package, all in all good review and a surprisingly good set of shorts.
Making a character look like an average guy I have seen at the grocery store, doesn't mean having an adult approach to character design or characterisation, it's just much easier to create than an instantly rememerable character like pac-man, the characters from Mass Effect and Dragon Age are exchangable, they look all like average people (except the Aliens) or fantasy stock Characters. Pac-Man on the other Hand is Iconic in terms of design not because he is one of the first, but because he looks different than any game character to date.TheArsoni5t said:
It's nothing wrong with mature characterisation as long as, at least the main character looks memorable and instantly recognizable. f.e. Dante from Devil May Cry he looks human, but at the same time you can instantly tell him apart from any other game character. Kratos, Bayonetta, Ezio to name other exceptions. But when you look at all western character designs it's just a sea of blandness right there with some exceptions here and there.
You've mentioned character creation in western games as being bland but in JRPGs, while looking more OTT and still very samey. And a recent excellent Japanese game was Demon's Souls that had an terrible character creation system next to the likes of Bioware.droppingpenny said:
Another thing is some people complain about the characters in Gears of War but I'm stuck here thinking that the enemy design is COMPLETELY more original than the human side.
I know, I said it in earlier posts: There are plenty of iconic and memorable characters from japan (more then I could ever count), because their game industry is much bigger, the downside however is, that there are also many games featuring anime style stock characters. Though, there are some JRPG games where it does not apply, like Kingdom Hearts(at least the main character), Final Fantasy IX (expecially Vivi), and Dragon Quest IX and X and Chrono Trigger. Oddly enough Demon Souls features western stock character designs. The point is, japanese game designer win on the creative side of the design. We have creative character designes like Rayman of Prince of Persia, Big Daddy, Jade, Ezio, Earthworm Jim, but they come mostly from one developer (Ubisoft), and there are just not enough creative looking characters created by western designers to really oppose the huge mass of the japanese game designer that are there. However if the people would start to critisize the "self employed landscape contractors" look, the designers would start to make more creative looking characters instead of average looking grocery store salesmen.Stabby Joe said:
I wish they'd go back to the likes of Chrono Trigger... I mean it's got a robot, frog man, cave girl etc. Much better than FF cliches.droppingpenny said:
Slight issue with your main point, while it's not wrong it's your opinion since you don't think other western characters are as memorable but I've heard otherwise from other people. I on the other hand feel that the Japanese market is slipping with western designs being more preferable. And by that I don't mean the generic space marine as I'm getting bored with that to. Now of course I'm not right either, I'm going to have to wait a few more years to see hw this goes.
The thing that's annoying me the most is when people criticize Western characters, they neglect the others characters, game world, enemies and plot. It's fair enough to complain about some main characters... but that's about it despite it applying more universally.
What I'd like to see East side is more stuff based off their own mythology like Okami, it's a rich one after. Or more genuinely unique like something Hayao Miyazaki would do.
I stuck with the protagonists because, these Characters are supposed to be the heroes, that we will see in more than one game, but you are right there are more to game characters than only the protagonist. But it's kind of odd to face a horde of cool looking aliens with lazers and chainsaws a big ass guns, while your protagonist looks like the guy from a store where you buy your food. Sometimes it works, like in Half Life (Gordon really looks like a guy from a supermarket nearby, I'm not kidding), but most times it doesn't. I'm not saying the characterization is mostly bad in western games, because it isn't, but the design itself is mostly somewhere between bland and "look I have seen this guy at the Bus stop". Just imagine you would have a Giant Antropomorphic Cyborg Hare shooting lazers from it's Eyes equipped with a Bazooka and having two Chainsaws for ears, as a protagonist in Gears of War instead of Marcus "I look just like everyone" Phoenix.
There are however many japanese games that we don't see published in the West maybe there are some based of their mythology and they just think it wouldn't appeal to western gamers. I wish there would be more of that stuff too. A Hayao Miazaki game sounds btw. really awesome ;-).
There are however many japanese games that we don't see published in the West maybe there are some based of their mythology and they just think it wouldn't appeal to western gamers. I wish there would be more of that stuff too. A Hayao Miazaki game sounds btw. really awesome ;-).
I have to see someone in real life who looks like Marcus but I know what you're saying... of course I'm still not sold on Gears of War's style being genric considering I can't think of how else the protangonist could be done it that sort of game. The thing about shooters is that the aliens usually look more original and interesting since they're trying to put you the audience in their shoes as much as possible against a giant onslaught of new and menacing foes.droppingpenny said:
Another example of "bland" working well is Agent 47 from Hitman. He's just a bald guy in a suit but he's noticeable. In Demon's Souls, simple characters worked to since the game was really trying to emphasize the bleakness bu making you less of a hero, kudos for a Japanese developer to achieve this. Worked in Dead Space.
Would it really not sell well? It would depend on how it's done. God of War for example is really epic and violent. Okami was odd since I have no clue at all why it didn't sell in the bucket loads.
ya know, most people don't like the single player of halo because A: the story might hurt the brains of the halo fans, or B: it's just like any other FPS today, but when halo came out at first, it set the bar for gameplay, while seriously needing some character depth, was good. Before halo, no ones health regenerated at all with out first aid kits, no one even thought about what guns they should keep and lose, and no one played an FPS with levels to help relax you for even a second. Halo, while being so generic today, is original if you went back to the premative year 2001. I do agree that XBox live people are annoying as hell and can go there because of how much of dicks they are, but halo single player is great, especially 3, and as long as it sticks to just master chief, there should be more.