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Julius

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Posts posted by Julius

  1. Posted · Edited by Julius

    21 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

    Does it end or is it just setting up part three? I haven't watched part one yet as I heard it was more or less just half a movie and thus waited for part two to release... 

    It ends, Part One and Part Two are roughly adapting the first and second halves of the first Dune novel, respectively. It's worth noting that the original novel did end a bit abruptly and that these two films are about as faithful as a 500+ page book condensed down into two 2½ hour films can be, so where some people might call it a cliffhanger, the first part of the story is very much told across the two films and I think it's simply a case of trying to stay faithful to the original intent. 

    A "third part" would be adapting Dune Messiah, the second novel in the series which serves as a pretty direct response to the response for the first book (the author, Frank Herbert, wasn't happy that a lot of people seemed to *completely* miss the point, so he basically laid it out for them); I think they will adapt this in just one film, which is doable as it's noticeably shorter than it's predecessor, but essential for rounding off the story and the main character's arc. 

    Denis Villeneuve, the director of the two films, has already expressed his intent to adapt Messiah too, though he's interested in having the actors age up a bit (there's a bit of a gap between the first two books), and he also has a couple of other projects on his lap for now, so I wouldn't be surprised if we're waiting until 2030 or later to see Messiah adapted. Bit scary to type that out :p

    But yeah, to sum up, the two films out now are well worth the watch and tell a complete story, and though the "third part" is seemingly in the works, it's likely a while off, so I'd definitely suggest getting around to watching Parts One and Two in the meantime!

    Hope that helps :peace:

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  2. Posted

    Might as well start giving these Xbox events their own threads I reckon, seeing as they look like they're trying to get somewhat consistent with them. Plus, platform equality :p

    From the press release: 

    Quote

    Today, we're thrilled to announce the next Xbox Partner Preview, this time featuring a mix of new and upcoming games for you from publishers like Capcom, Nexon, EA, and others with more than a dozen new trailers over the course of a 30-minute broadcast.

    During Xbox Partner Preview, you can learn more about combat and traversal in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, with a video narrated by Abubakar Salim himself, see new gameplay from Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, get a closer look at The First Berserker: Khazan, and other great titles coming to Xbox, Windows, or Game Pass.

    Our Xbox Partner Preview format is all about sharing exciting games news from our talented studios from across the globe with no frills: just new game reveals, release date announcements, and fresh new gameplay from upcoming games, coupled with unique behind-the-scenes stories from developers on Xbox Wire.

    This event will be digitally broadcast on Wednesday, March 6, at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT across our Xbox channels on YouTube and Twitch and it will feature updates on a variety of Xbox and Windows games that are launching on our platforms.

    We hope to see you back here on Wednesday, March 6!

    I've actually been really curious about The First Berserker: Khazan since we first saw it at the TGAs a couple of months ago, so looking forward to getting a better idea of what's going on there. 

  3. Posted

    Bah, sorry to hear that @Hero-of-Time :sad: how many hours in are you at this point where you're nearing the end, and what's been your general approach to the game with it being open world vs the linear nature of Remake? 

    I'm curious because I'm only 5 hours in (haven't played since Friday, apparently I book time off and then my life gets infinitely busier :laughing:), but after seeing the trophy guides saying it'd potentially take a couple hundred of hours to Plat (only checked out of curiosity after XVI's), I bailed and stuck to my original plan of just doing the story and mini-games, which is what I did for most of Remake. The mini-games I love by the way, Queen's Blood rules! 

    I LOVED the first chapter, which was definitely more on the linear side (also: heroic Sephi theme ftw) and took the hardest knee I've ever taken in a game in Kalm (just let Cloud stand around for a couple of minutes while the music started to choke me up), but I got to the open world and...eh? I'll get into more once I'm further in the game but I'm a bit confused by it's design at times, in that I immediately ran into multiple instances where the terrain climbs up and I struggle to see over it, and it just seems a bit empty? I'll reserve judgement until I'm further on in but the linear sections so far have been the highlight for me, whereas I beelined story beats once out in the open world to pick up a Chocobo. There's weird lighting issue adjusting to the dark coming from the outside too in a lot of cases, I've found. 

    Oh well, I'll get back to it today, but I definitely didn't feel as compelled to return to it over the weekend, but maybe that's just down to where I left it off :peace:

  4. Posted · Edited by Julius

    Glad to hear you two enjoyed it! 

    @bob 

    Spoiler

    I'm going to correct myself here because I definitely didn't get my point across well, and don't agree with the part of my post you quoted reading it back. I was definitely tired when I typed that up and I feel like I exaggerated that point to the point I definitely don't recognise it, so sorry about that. 

    So, to just edit my thoughts on that particular exchange between Iroh and June: I don't think that the point is that he's a sleazy and pervy person (there's the scene with June and maybe one or two moments in S2 where he gets a bit flirty), though I do think that S1 does generally try to set him up as someone past his prime in many cases, but I guess my problem is how they handled the interaction between June and Iroh in the live-action.

    It's a really weird and specific characteristic of Iroh which never really felt right to me, yet they decided to keep it in...but tweak it so that June is now the one showing Iroh attention? It's a weird one to me because it clearly shows that they acknowledge the original interaction in the animated show (which, again, just felt off when I've watched it as both a kid and as an adult) but then altered it...because..? It's not really clear.

    Maybe they felt like it would be received poorly here, but honestly I'd rather they just take it out of the equation altogether – swapping it so that June is instead the one interested in Iroh almost feels like a commentary by the people who worked on the show that it's wrong for an older man to be into a younger woman (and to be clear June isn't a kid, thankfully, because obviously that'd be a whole cavalcade of problems - I've always had her down as mid-20s to early 30s), but it's perfectly fine for a younger woman to be in an older man. I think both are fine (so long as they're both adults, goes without saying) but it's a change which is so small that it feels like it's trying to say something or take a stance, but it's not really clear what it is. 

    I don't know, maybe they tried it and it played off weirdly and just edited it on the fly to be the other way around? It's not a massive deal by any means, I'm just confused about and trying to figure out why you'd keep it in but then switch it around over just cutting it altogether. 

    It's funny because despite giving it the lowest score of us three, I also definitely want to see a second (and third) season of this. Just go all the way with it at this point! 

    @BowserBasher I'll be shocked if it doesn't get a continuation personally, the numbers it's pulled in have been pretty crazy; per Gizmodo, it had a debut of 21.2 million views (the One Piece adaptation had something like 18 million?) and got to the Top 10 in 92 countries, which is bonkers.

    What's more, while they continue to have the original ATLA in a number of countries on Netflix, there's a positive trickle down effect where there are people like me who have decided to watch the original again (more than anything because, well, why only stop watching at the end of S1, right? I think I even saw the original started trending in some countries off the back of the live-action release!); people who haven't watched the original, or just haven't got back to it in a while, might skip the adaptation after seeing the mixed-to-positive reaction and just go to the original (I have a number of friends who did this one); and I imagine there are a bunch of newcomers watching it for the first time who have checked out the animated series after being introduced to the series by the live-action adaptation. 

    There are too many reasons to not continue, so I'd be shocked if we don't get some type of confirmation in the next few weeks, especially with financial end-of-years coming up for a lot of places. 

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Edited by Julius

    14 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

    Yeah, kept it stuck at 57%, popped his disc in and away it went. Must be faulty discs.

    Man, that sucks.

    I was just reading earlier about copies in Japan I think it was where they'd mixed up some of the Play and Data disc printing, so you'd actually need to download data with the one labelled 'Play Disc' and play with the one labelled 'Data Disc'? Really weird that this game seems to be having multiple issues crop up on disc across different regions. (thanks @Ike for sharing the source :peace:)

    I'll need to check but I also think Persona 3 Reload had some issues in SEA a few weeks back with the physical English language release just straight up not being the physical English language release? Something's up with the disc printer in Asia, that's for sure. 

    Glad to hear it's been sorted at least :peace: 

    11 minutes ago, drahkon said:

    And @Julius get on with INTERmission. Screw responsibilities. IT'S GAMING TIME, BABY. I don't know why I wrote that.

    Just setting my out of office email and it's time to mosey :D

    • Like 1

  10. Posted · Edited by Julius

    I finished this the other night, and have been thinking about it a fair bit. 

    Spoiler

    • other than when he becomes Koizilla - which is way more 'zilla' than it is 'koi' this time around - Aang does zero waterbending this season. I know this is just called S1 and not Book 1: Water, but...yikes? I guess they're just going to have him learn it between seasons and train occasionally in S2? 

    • on the other end of this, Katara does very little waterbending, then turns into an absolute badass in the last two episodes. 

    • and on the other end of this, we have like 5 minutes of Azula all season and yet it feels like she's developed more evenly than Katara. Like...what? This is all original stuff, too, because Azula turns up waaaaaaaaaay earlier than before. 

    • urghhhhhhhh another "let's empower women!" scene when preparing for a battle? It just falls so flat at this point. 

    • Yue's wig just looks hilariously bad. Amber's Yue was actually really good, though! 

    • Iroh's "WHATEVER YOU DO TO THAT SPIRIT I WILL UNLEASH ON YOU TENFOLD" falls a bit flat here when he just watches Zhao give a monologue and telegraph his incredibly obvious intent to kill the thing before going crazy on him. 

    • more. slow-. -mo. WHY. 

    • they toned down Sokka's sexism but not Pakku's and...huh? 

    • Mai and Ty-Lee just...kind of...standing there? Why? What? Why?! Have them twirl knives and do handstands (respectively) or something! 

    • my headcanon is that Pakku shipped Gran Gran off to the South himself because he was sick and tired of her nonstop exposition. 

    • "so no plan?" was an S-tier Iroh line delivery. 

    • the Momo fake out lmao. 

    • Iroh straight up killing Zhao but having it be a bit removed from saving the spirit felt...odd. cool as heck, but odd. Especially seeing as they've made a point of him not attacking the Gaang this whole time like he does in the show early on. 

    • I swear no-one is being made wet by waterbending attacks and it irks me. 

    • Roku got done so dirty by this adaptation. 

    Overall, I think this adaptation of TLA is fine. If I were to score it /10, it's slap bang in the middle a 5/10.

    There are some excellent original moments and scenes which are good enough to be added to the original, but there are large swathes of the show which just feels like the people working on this missed the point. There are so many times where we're just told and not shown what characters are feeling, and so it feels like a simplified take on an already pretty simple (at surface level) animated children's show. The exposition is pretty terribly handled, the writing is just straight up bad most of the time, the quality of the music shifts from EPIC ORCHESTRAL COVER to super generic incidental epic stuff, and it only hits at times because of the original underlying musical score from the animated series. 

    Zuko was the highlight for me, I think Dallas Liu nailed it; actually, I think most of the time, the Fire Nation side of things was infinitely more interesting and better delivered than what we saw going on with the Gaang. A lot of these main characters are child actors and I think they all did pretty well, there's room for improvements in places (one of the blessings, I guess, of not shooting it all at once is that they can go get more acting chops between now and a potential second season) but these characters improving going into the next season is ultimately reliant on better dialogue than what we ended up with in this first season. 

    Think it's time for an animated ATLA re-watch now, feels weird just leaving the story off at the end of S1. 

    • Like 1

  11. Posted · Edited by Julius

    My copy has just arrived :bouncy:

    GHgIr74XQAARbM-?format=jpg&name=large

    Can't believe today is the day!

    Got the install started but got a busy day ahead of me, and then I'll need to round off the end of INTERmission (had a weirdly busy few weeks and played way less lately, go figure :() before I get started on Rebirth.

    Thankfully I'm off tomorrow and next week, though, so I imagine I'll be putting a lot of time in over the next few days :D

    EDIT: the reversible cover is still *very* much off-centre, as it was with Remake. S-E, WHY?!?! :laughing:

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

    There are only so many 10-25 year old males to target who play video games; why are you not trying to target women, young children or older adults instead!?

    Agreed with much of the rest of your post, but my fingers are itching to type an answer to this one. 

    truth-trial.gif

    Because boys and young men from ages 10-25 are statistically the most vulnerable audience when it comes to what this industry preys on: free time, escapism, and disposable income. This isn't to say that women or younger children or older folk can't have addictions, or any other myriad of problems, at all, but there have been a LOT of growing trends over the last decade which more and more papers have been published about and has research has been completed on, and it's so scarily obvious why this industry targets this particular demographic.

    It's late so I'm not going to go for the most relevant or up-to-date findings, just what I can find relatively quickly:

    Here's an old graph from 2020 showing just how many more women are attending university than men.

    Here's an article on men's mental health which suggests a bunch of reasons why male:female ratios of depression and suicide are probably inaccurate, and it's largely down to men being more likely to avoid reporting or trying to find a solution to the problem, and being more likely to look for some form of escape.

    Here's a piece on men being nearly twice as likely to form an addiction than women, and being more likely to abuse that addiction. 

    Men are more likely to be competitive than women. 

    Again, to be clear, I'm not highlighting these articles to say that one side has it worse than the other or what have you, but to highlight that men - and young, developing men, for obvious reasons - are a prime audience to aim your products at if you're a game publisher. More likely to have free, unstructured time (relatively fewer men in and graduating from university)? More likely to become addicted? More likely to be competitive (and thus spend said aforementioned free, unstructured time getting better at something)? More likely to look for an escape than to tackle a problem?

    It all forms this horrible cycle which makes a certain male demographic a hotbed of potential whales for these companies. This is before we even get into the systems at play (mechanically) in and around (microtransactions) gaming which rewards the players (sweet monkey lizard brain dopamine) in ways which makes certain games so difficult to move on from. There's also now an additional element these days of compulsion and FOMO as games are very regularly updated with new and exciting challenges on an increasingly regular basis.

    League of Legends, Call of Duty, Fortnite, FIFA, and so on and so forth, there's a reason that they're all as big as they are, and large swathes of the rest of the industry (AAA obviously in particular) is at best guilty of following suit by following their lead and going for the same demographic with the same tactics, or at worst, recognising the vulnerabilities of this demographic and launching at them full force. In most AAA cases, it's probably a bit of both. 

    I simply don't think there's as much money to be made from targeting a female or older audience in particular, and so much of what a younger audience can access is determined by their parents or guardians. I think of it as being similar to how Nintendo marketed the Switch completely right: their ads include older teens and young adults, not children or older adults, because there's that "they're cool, I want to be like them" factor to it (obviously it's an ad and it's effect differs from person to person, but that's absolutely their strategy with their marketing). For the female demo? It's often either a case that girls are included in the ads or there's an air of "I can do that, too. And maybe even better" if they're not, which can persist because of the way in which young women have been raised over the last decade or two in a world with a huge increase in feminist movements, causes and efforts – you don't even really need to target a female audience in some ways (and I don't think you'll win a new-to-gaming female demo over for countless reasons, the first of which being your ad probably won't even get on their radar to begin with). Unless the game is targeted directly at a female demo (which often, unfortunately, falls into some sort of stereotyping), I don't think women care nearly as much about a game not being aimed at them as men might (this is anecdotal, obviously). 

    I've gone on long enough, but basically, well, they're just preying on the statistically more vulnerable demographic. It's disgusting but, well, shareholders mean this kind of has to be the aim for most these days ::shrug:

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  13. Posted · Edited by Julius

    Thanks for the thread @Dcubed, definitely think it's warranted at this point. 

    To comment on probably the smallest aspect of this first (and the least to do with the layoffs), the Star Wars FPS by Respawn cancellation kind of sucks considering, well, it's Respawn and they haven't made a new console-based FPS in...forever, at this point? Despite clearly having the talent to do so. There were also some expecting/hoping for it to be a Republic Commando spiritual (or actual) successor, so yeah, bummer as a Star Wars fan. More importantly it reads like a lot more layoffs are going to be heading their way. 

    As for the layoffs overall, I don't really have much to add in terms of the current conversation around current development cycles and goals being unsustainable and unnecessarily costly, but this is just the point we've got to. Gaming appears to have ended up in a similar place to where films were about a decade ago where, despite a healthy-ish indie scene by comparison, sequels/remakes/reboots completely rule the roost simply because it is the safest and most cost effective ROI for these big companies. I've got to hand it to Shawn Layden here, he was very transparent about where this was clearly all going and saw the writing on the wall; it's not hard to see why PlayStation no longer wanted him around. 

    Obviously I wish the best for everyone being laid off, but, selfishly, following the industry and these rounds of layoffs these past few years makes me feel like I dodged a massive bullet by not following my evident passion for the medium and trying to find a way in, which is something I'd personally been toying with as an idea for a while – and I can't help but wonder how much this news being so front and centre might impact future waves of potential developers, and just how many others it might've put off already. It sounds like a horrible industry to be in, whether it be the crunch, the lack of job security, the constant acquisitions (furthering the lack of job security), the rampant power struggles and corporate schlock as well as some fairly heinous things being done and said in certain corners...you have thousands of some of the smartest and most talented creative minds in the world, in the most lucrative entertainment industry, being laid off year after year. Bloated budgets and investments from COVID are definitely partly to blame for all of this, but I also think it is clearly a cultural issue, too: loyalty and hard work are rarely rewarded, and, if anything, actually seem pretty foolish traits in terms of furthering a career in the space as things stand. Especially early on. 

    And I touched on the indie scene before, but well, this is exactly why it's oversaturated. There is too much talent and not enough jobs going around with the stability needed to support it all. Someone needs to compare the 70s push of indie films to what we've seen in the games industry over the last decade, because while in film it seemingly came from wanting more creative freedom in order to break the mold and pattern of the big studios of the time, in gaming lately going independent genuinely seems like a move being made out of a search for some solid ground under people's feet, and for the more experienced folk around it seems the wiser move, even if it is an incredibly risky one. 

    It honestly saddens me to see what the industry has morphed into even in just the short time I've been around actively following it. Games are better than ever, the industry is making more money than ever (obviously with a huge COVID bump it might be down relatively in some spots), and yet thousands of jobs are being lost because..? Oh, because it's not those same creative minds - or the minds of people who respect creativity - at the top anymore, like it might have been a decade ago. It's Business Grad Joe remorselessly maximising profits and reducing costs in the name of his shepherds, the shareholders. 

    ::shrug:

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  14. Posted

    That is an absolutely terrible trailer.

    And Z-A is a terrible title (but brings us back around very nicely to Gen VI's focus on endings and beginnings). 

    But! Hype? Kind of. 

    Of all the games I've played X and Y felt the most barren, and Kalos genuinely deserved a third version rather than just hamfisting Zygarde into Sun & Moon. Lumiose is such a great city in Pokémon and it felt like there should have been so much more to do there, so I'm very intrigued by the idea of a Legends game set entirely in one spot. Shady alleyways? Rooftops? Could see this being the first Pokémon game in a minute with *actual *exploration** based purely on the setting. I also just can't wait to have another Legends game to play around in, seeing as I really enjoyed Arceus. 

    On the other hand, though, what is up with Unova being shafted and skipped? Have they just accepted that another trip to Kalos was needed way more than some poor and misguided attempt to return to Unova? In which case: release the games on Switch already you [Pilo]swines!!! 

  15. Posted · Edited by Julius

    Six episodes in now and I'm very, very torn. 

    Spoiler

    • they butchered Bumi. Yet another guy voicing the "you ran away!" line when it's just factually wrong in this telling of the story. 

    • Lu Ten's funeral was excellent and is a scene good enough to be in the animated series. 

    • if we don't get a second season at least we got some of Leaves from the Vine :cry:

    • the change to having the division Zuko saves be the very division ending up under his command during his banishment is *genius*. 

    • Ozai seems way more sociopathic than he is psychopathic, which he certainly was in the animated show – you can see it in how he's manipulating Zuko and Azula. Jury's still out on whether that was the right move. 

    • needed to tone down the reflection in Ozai's eyes just a little bit at the end of the Agni Kai because it looks like he's tearing up (he's not, though)

    • wasn't a huge fan of how Zuko got his scar. Probably my favourite part in the first season of the animated series was the sheer cruelty of Ozai burning his son's face in front of hundreds of onlookers. Here? It's a FIGHT in the private palace gardens. There was something about Zuko's grovelling and unwillingness to fight in the animated show which is lost here almost completely when you have them fight AND make it so that (it at least looks like) Zuko ends up with the upper hand...and decides against using it. That's actually *earned* much later on in the animated show, by comparison. 

    • Gyatso giving Aang the Good Will Hunting treatment :cry: it's not your fault...

    • The Great Divide being mentioned I'm background chatter was hilarious. 

    • Azula, Ty Lee and Mai were completely miscast. Yes, it is partially down to looks, they look like they're in Halloween costumes more than most of the other characters – not in a way which is meant to bully them, but the look of a character is absolutely a huge part of their onscreen presence. For example, with Azula, the *only* scene her soft features work well in are when she's managed to work her way into a rebel group. There's a reason they were drawn the way they were in the animated series. Mai's whole design is based around how sharp and blunt she can be! And you can't tell me they don't care about this stuff, because look at the castings for Zuko, Iroh, Aang, Ozai, Katara, Sokka, Suki...and so on. It would be mean to re-cast them but their presence only gets larger as the show goes on, so I wouldn't be shocked if Netflix go that route (if the show continues). 

    • that a lil bit of blue flame from Azula I spy? 

    • butchered the spirit world. 

    • the slow-mo was way out of hand two episodes in, and it's only got used more and more. Seriously? 

    • Katara feels completely flat at this point, and I don't think it's the actress. There's nothing for her to act out! It's crazy how much emotion they've drained out of some of these characters. 

    • did...did they just do secret tunnel with two siblings? What? 

    • Aang has done ZERO waterbending so far. Considering I expect the finale to be a bit of a two-parter...is the only waterbending he's going to do be as Avatar mode giant water fish god thing? 

    • June being into Iroh (rather than the other way around) kind of kills the entire point of S1 setting him up as a sleazy and pervy old man well past his prime but alright

    • Wan Shi Tong (the spirit owl) turning up midway through S1 along with Koh makes me wonder if they've just stitched together a lot of the spirit content into one episode? Curious to see what they do with the library now (not that there's a timer like there was in the animated show at this point, mind)

    • while Zuko is getting fleshed out a good bit more here...it all seems very clearly with his redemption in mind. Except...he hasn't done anything bad yet? It's very strange. On the other hand, his "BUT THE AVATAR!" and "AAAAAAHHHHGGG!" could win an award at a Dante Basco meet. Favourite actor of the young bunch followed by Sokka. 

    • more Ozai is pretty cool. Definitely need to do it a bit differently without Mark Hamill voicing, I feel. DDK has kinda been nailing it to be fair to him. 

    • Roku is still getting left to waste at this point in the story. It's crazy. 

    Very easy to make sense of which additions and changes were from the minds of Bryke and which were from Netflix's side, I feel. One or two times the trio of episodes condensed down into one kind of works, or is tweaked to work pretty well, but other times it misses entirely. 

    Curious to see how the last two episodes were handled...

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    Have to agree with many others here, in that I think it's an essential feature of the Switch's successor. I genuinely don't think anything outside of very early Switch sales records get broken otherwise, and I honestly think it would struggle to get to 100 million units sold without backwards compatibility.

    Oh, and I think it needs to be backwards compatible in every sense of the word when it comes to Switch titles – both physical and digital. Man, imagine the uproar if it were just the one :laughing:

    For me personally? I think it's the deciding factor on whether or not I decide to pick one up on Day 1, outside of a Switch 2 launch exclusive killer app – and I'm talking Game of the Generation/Decade buzz akin to what we had for BOTW at the Switch's launch here, more so than "just" a Game of the Year contender. 

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    Watched the first two episodes, so really not far enough in, but some things have stood out already (both good and bad). It's a weird one where this is an adaptation of a very accessible cartoon, but I'll try to keep things in spoiler tags when comparing the two as well as for major beats in case there is anyone here who has yet to watch the original and is checking this out first. 

    Some non-spoiler thoughts first though: 

    • Ian Ousley as Sokka is kind of nailing it to a degree which is seriously surprising me, at least so far. Some of his new lines have given me genuine chuckles and laughs. 
    • Dallas Liu as Zuko and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh were great castings, and so far very good performances from the latter. It makes going between the two sides feel interesting and evenly balanced in terms of keeping my attention. There was one shot of Zuko which is going to become an overused and hilarious GIF, though :laughing:
    • All of the cast looks the part. We knew this already from casting announcements and trailers beforehand, but seriously, they've nailed the look. 
    • Not really a fan of the score so far. The reorchestrations of Jeremy Zuckerman's original score only hit because of their sheer underlying melodic quality and nostalgia, but they sound incredibly generic when compared. The new, original score so far has been flat and boring. 
    • Set design has been great. 
    • I think the pacing is a bit messy, and I do think it's down to blending and distilling three 20+ minute episodes into roughly an hour each. Some of these aren't necessarily three-episode arcs, and the gap between ending one episode in the animated series, getting the credits, then moving onto the start of the next, getting opening credits, felt like it broke it up better. Here, you're getting Appa swoop out of a shot where he'd normally be capping off an episode...but then swinging back in almost immediately after in what would introduce the next. It's the nature of the adaptation, but I'm not a fan so far – and I think this particular move to have episodes serve as condensed examples of multiple episodes is actually going to fly in the face a bit of not having filmed everything already (which is a fine decision to make in terms of finances and production, but as a story, it's going to be odd). It just already feels like it's moved on too fast once or twice already. 
    • The bending feels like it's at 0.75x speed and there has already been way too much slow-mo. 
    • Gordon's smile and goofiness as Aang shines through a lot. Perfect casting. 

    And then to get onto some of the spoiler stuff/changes...

    Spoiler
    • Not a fan at all about Aang's reason for ending up in the iceberg ultimately being "I'm going to clear my head and get some fresh air" vs the animated "I DIDN'T ASK TO BE THE AVATAR!" It completely undermines a HUGE point of the first season, which is Aang accepting his role (even if not fully embracing it), and rids him of the guilt he understandably had in the animated series over running from his responsibility and destiny. Then makes it even more confusing when he speaks to Kyoshi who calls him out on running away...when he wasn't? He went for a fly to clear his head? It's like they forgot they'd changed that bit. 
    • Gran Gran was pretty terrible here - the writing and direction. She reveals he's the Avatar after deducing it in a few seconds? And then goes off at Aang about everyone he loves being gone? And really boringly does the intro of the animated show? Urgh. 
    • No lip service for Katara's and Sokka's mother early on is a decision. But sure, let's get the flashback with virtually no context to show more than was shown in the actual animated series? 
    • They SERIOUSLY want to make a Kyoshi show, huh? We've had infinitely more Kyoshi so far than we have Roku, which makes sense in the Kyoshi Island episode...but not so much in the first. It has me really curious - and a little apprehensive - about how much Roku we're going to see here. 
    • I don't think it's straight up flying (you see some air movement), but they do certainly make it LOOK like Aang is flying. Hmm. Not too sure how I or anyone else who's watched LoK will feel about that. 
    • Man, Katara is kind of getting shafted a little bit here. Her anger being what splits open the iceberg says so much about the world in the original - the way she flaps her arms in anger and the tide starting to change, then becomes more aggressive - before she then takes to the iceberg with Sokka's boomerang to try to free Aang. Here she's looking the complete other way trying to pull their boat back towards them and it just...breaks open, because? 
    • I know a lot was made about reducing the sexism on Sokka's end before release, but they've kind of gone the other way? Sokka was totally smitten with Suki and here the first bare chested dude Suki sees she's immediately head over heels with. It's weird because they keep the idea of Sokka feeling undermined here - his annoyance at Suki taking him out so easily - but it falls a bit flat because it's not clear why he's annoyed. They had a chance to work it in but because they don't you end up with both Katara and Suki feeling a little flat, as they're not fighting against Sokka's early prejudices and stereotyping in the animated show. Suki is now just a cool warrior who Sokka didn't really win over or grow as a result of, she's just some hot chick in cool cosplay that he has stuff in common with and got to kiss. Which is totally fine, it just doesn't feel as compelling as the original when it comes to showcasing great female characters, and that's down to writing decisions, not performances. 

    It's solid so far.

    It's a weird one: my expectations are pretty low (like I said before, just want to see a few scenes realised in live-action), but some of the changes they've made so far have been drastic in terms of how they approach the underlying themes, mini-arcs and very nature of the first season. Some of the writing changes more than performances are probably my main hang-ups so far – I'm only two episodes in like I said before, though, so perhaps they're approaching certain topics at other times/in other ways. Some of the performances are a little stilted, nothing worth seriously flagging so far, but I think it's just the nature of having child actors. 

    Looking forward to seeing how the rest pans out. 

    • Like 1

  19. Posted · Edited by Julius

    4 hours ago, drahkon said:

    Lover, Please Stay - did not expect that, but it's such a beautiful song

    My favourite of theirs, gets me every time. It just hits like a ton of bricks. Good thing I'm careful to not listen to it too much...

    *is my most played song on Spotify over the last 6 months*

    Whoops :p

     

    Glad to hear you had a great time! :peace:

    Quote

    go see them if you ever get the chance. :peace:

    Will definitely need to. I've actually never been to a concert before, probably doesn't help that my friends don't really share my taste in music all that much :laughing: so I'll find some NBT-listening strangers and drag them along instead I guess! 

    • Haha 1

  20. Posted · Edited by Julius

    6 hours ago, Glen-i said:

    And that wraps up Generation 3. What's your favourite?

    Honestly, I think Gen III might be my favourite overall when it comes to starter designs? Not counting Mega Evolutions (to make it a fair comparison) I really like/love 6 of the 9 starter line designs this time around. 

    As a quick aside - because I hadn't thought of tracking it that way before - for Kanto it would be 4 of the 9 (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Wartortle and Charizard), and for Johto it would be 4 of the 9 again (Bayleef, Totodile, Feraligatr and Typhlosion). I'll try to keep on top of this list to create a mini-rankings for myself as these go on! 

    Anyways favourite line of Gen III is the Treecko line. PMD aside - which is a pretty big thing to put aside, all things considered - I just have a pretty unique history with the line in the games. I've mentioned it on here before, many years ago (holy cow, six years ago?!), so I'll just quote myself from that other awesome Glen-generated thread :p

    On 3/4/2018 at 11:18 AM, Julius said:

    Sceptile

    Whilst Bulbasaur was my first starter Pokémon, I think it’s important to mention that the first Pokémon game that I owned was actually Pokémon Ruby — a game that I originally started with a Mudkip. 

    I still remember my time with Mudkip. I played up to Mauville City and getting pretty stuck against Wattson; if I recall, I must have accidentally decided to not teach it to my now Marshtomp, and it not being tooled with a particularly great moveset. After some grinding and running around everywhere in the early parts of the game, I ventured back to Slateport with Mr. Briney and Peeko. I went up to the Trick House not too far north of Slateport, just past the entrance to Cycling Road, and continued my grind. One of my Pokémon must have been poisoned, because I ended up hobbling back to Slateport’s Pokémon Centre with a wobbling screen. Dashing to Nurse Joy, she healed my Pokémon, and revealed that Marshtomp had Pokérus. I was already confused and frustrated about what I should do at this point in the game, and so I exited the Pokémon Centre and saved my game. This was the tipping point.

    So, I decided to start the game again, but planned to not save it. I’d made loads of progress with Marshtomp, so maybe I just needed a new perspective, and so I thought I’d try out a different starter Pokémon.

    Not being a fan of Torchic’s design, I decided to go with Treecko, and yep, you probably guessed it: I accidentally saved over my old save file. What ensued was my most difficult but rewarding time with a Pokémon game.

    I say that because I remember battling May’s Blaziken and Flannery’s Slugma to be particularly hard. Sure, I understood type weaknesses, but my other Pokémon were all so weak when compared to the might of my starter Pokémon that I just stuck with Treecko, then Grovyle, and then Sceptile.

    Going to the Pokémon League, Sceptile must have been somewhere around Lv. 70, compared to a real pick-and-mix team of Lv. 40 - Lv. 47 Pokémon (I recall having Groudon, Pelipper, Gyarados, and a Castform). I would use the other Pokémon only on occasion, such as an obvious type mismatch or when I needed to revive or heal Sceptile. 

    I must have tried tens of times, but I just could not beat Drake with Sceptile for the life of me, and so I went around the region training as hard as I could, battling every single trainer that I could find, and grinding a whole lot at the aforementioned Trick House. During my travels, I stumbled upon TM02 Dragon Claw at the top of a waterfall in Meteor Falls, and decided a while later to see if any of my Pokémon could learn the move.

    Oh, Sceptile can learn it? 

    And with that, Drake’s Salamence, unbeknownst to me at the time, was now all but doomed. And Steven, in comparison, was an absolute cake walk.

    My Sceptile was Lv. 93 when I beat Drake, but might have been Lv. 94 when I beat the League. Regardless, I’d done it, but my completely underlevelled and unbalanced team would later go on to be annihilated at the Battle Tower, and accidentally deleted by a friend a short while later.

    I think that I have such affectionate memories of my journey in Hoenn because I made that journey during my six months living in Australia, on my first Nintendo console (only my second console and my first handheld: a Nintendo DS) with no friends interested in Pokémon at my school, and having to write back home (here, in England) for some advice from a friend (I’d always get around whatever obstacle was in my way by the time that I received his response).

    This was my way of maturing, and I feel like I owe it to this game that I adjusted so quickly to life on the other side of the world. I was just experiencing change, wonder, and unexpected challenges, just like my in-game counterpart.

    And that’s why I love Sceptile. 

    So Treecko is definitely the coolest one to choose off the bat of the bunch for me, and I'm sure that Ash's always having a twig in its mouth in the anime only upped the coolness. Grovyle is again the coolest of the first evolutions, and in terms of final evolutions, I think Sceptile is on par with Blaziken for being the coolest (and as a Mega Evolution, too). 

    After that, for me, it's the Mudkip line. Mudkip and Marshtomp are adorable. I mean just look at lil barista Marshtomp here. 

    FMpqk0CXIAM33jh?format=jpg&name=large

    Idk what happened with Swampert - definitely the line to suffer from ugly final evo syndrome this time around, yet it's not even cool! - but Mega Swampert looks hilariously jacked and I love it. 

    Torchic looks dumb. Combusken looks even more dumb. Blaziken and Mega Blaziken look awesome. Real ugly duckling thing going on here for a Pokémon based on a chicken...

    1 hour ago, Cube said:

    I do remember Treecko and Torchic being big parts of the show, from what I remember, Treecko leaves when it evolves, while Torchic's penis-shaped evolution stays around a while. Mudkip was just comic relief (I think Brock had one, but out of his water Pokémon, I remember a lilypad one more). 

    I'm not too sure about Treecko leaving - if he did, it certainly wasn't for very long, as it felt like Ash had it in his team a good amount of the time, and as a Grovyle even longer! He also ends up becoming a trusty Sceptile, too, but yeah, he certainly could've left at some point...a lot of Ash's Pokémon do choose to take a sabbatical or go AWOL at some point :laughing:

    May getting Torchic was so...strange, in hindsight. Just doesn't suit the idea of a contest Pokémon at all (at least in the way that May approached contests) after being a cute little Torchic and going into an ugly and streaky Combusken, and then into the cool as hell Blaziken. Beautifly always felt like it was more appropriate as a contest Pokémon for May, and so it felt like her starter got shoved off to the sides a lot of the time ::shrug:

    The coolest use of the line in the anime was actually Harrison turning up with a Blaziken towards the end of Ash's journey in Johto, felt like a great tease for what was to come next I'm Hoenn. Really loved whenever the anime would do that sort of thing. 

    And then yeah, you're right, Mudkip - and then later Marshtomp - was just kind of...there, and Lotad/Lombre/Ludicolo certainly got centre stage as his main Pokémon in Hoenn. Again, just another really strange choice for that one. 

    • Like 2
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  21. Posted

    23 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

    And yet, that didn't happen for SMT IV, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, or Radiant Historia. I don't think I'm to blame for thinking it would be more of a Persona thing.

    To be clear, I wasn't trying to call you or anyone else out as not thinking ahead by saying that, so I'm sorry if it did come off that way – more highlighting how utterly bonkers it is that Atlus and SEGA are getting away with some increasingly anti-consumer moves, like Atlus with this and Persona 5, or what SEGA recently did with NG+ and some other content being locked behind a certain (more costly) edition of Infinite Wealth. 

    33 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

    Anyway, I'm not paying for the "privilege" of starting a fresh file of a game I already have on my Switch. Atlus can get stuffed with that nonsense.

    Totally get that, and totally agree that Atlus can get stuffed when it comes to this sort of thing :peace:

    • Thanks 1

  22. Posted

    2 hours ago, Sheikah said:

    The price for the DLC is very interesting - suggests this really could be almost a full game again?

    It's a really interesting price for DLC honestly (£34.99 who hasn't seen the UK pricing for it yet), and yeah, I do think everything we know about it - and it being in development for nearly two years now - certainly points to it being incredibly substantial. 

    The Eurogamer interview with Miyazaki revealed that, based purely on surface area, the location it takes place in will be larger than Limgrave; there will be more than 10 new bosses; and 8 new weapon types, which is certainly a lot. 

    Miyazaki also talks in this IGN Japan interview about there currently not being plans for a sequel or any further DLC - makes sense, we've waited nearly 2 years for this as it is - so I think it's reasonable to expect it to be pretty sizeable considering they're taking a one-and-done approach to DLC this time around. 

    I've seen some say they think this will weigh in at 50 - 70 hours...which seems pretty preposterous, to me. I think realistically we're looking at something more akin to the length of their more linear titles with this all - seemingly? - taking place in the size of a larger region, so it all being condensed and focused in one area, with a bunch of legacy dungeons, etc., so I think it'll be something like 20 - 35 hours, obviously depending on skill level, how much you explore, etc. 

    Anyways, still waiting for Vaati to turn up with a breakdown, but Quelaag had an awesome breakdown on the new trailer that's worth checking out if anyone else likes to speculate:

    And, additionally, I found Ratatoskr's (and the more widespread) idea on the origins of Messmer's title as "the Impaler" (the boss front and centre of Shadow's marketing) pretty damning: this dude totally impaled Marika. 

    Seriously weighing up whether I want to replay this game before the DLC drops, because otherwise I think I've got an incredibly hefty re-spec on my hands, as playing Bloodborne and Armored Core VI last year sold me on a completely different approach to the combat in these games that I hadn't tried out in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, or Elden Ring before (speed and dodging vs traditional sword and board). 

    Hmm. 

  23. Posted

    Pretty big news via the PS Blog for PS VR2, which says PlayStation are currently testing the ability for owners to have access to additional games on PC. 

    Quote

    Also, we're pleased to share that we are currently testing the ability for PS VR2 players to access additional games on PC to offer even more game variety in addition to the PS VR2 titles available through PS5. We hope to make this support available in 2024, so stay tuned for more updates.

    Could be huge for the platform, considering that it launched without backwards compatibility for original PS VR titles and the funding just hasn't been there to really draw newcomers in when it comes to new titles. Good stuff, looking forward to any updates on this. 

  24. Posted

    More details on Vengeance:

    These details are a summary of yesterday's Vengeance Spotlight stream:

    Essentially - and it's not exactly a new perspective to have if you've followed their releases over the last couple of years - if you don't want the least definitive version of an Atlus game, don't pick it up at launch and be willing to wait 2-3 years for a definitive version. 

    Which absolutely sucks. At least for Persona 3 Reload they had the decency to add that stuff as DLC (that's not confirmed but leaked, mind you, so that's not been communicated yet), but SMT V and Persona 5 have both now had definitive editions with content not made available through other means. 

  25. Posted

    Reviews are starting to drop, and while it's very early on and these numbers will probably come down a little in the coming days as more reviews release, currently sitting at 93 on OpenCritic and 94 on Metacritic! :bouncy:

    Obligatory Digital Foundry tech breakdown:

    Seven Days till the End [of this nearly four-year wait!] :p

    • Like 1
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