Free to Play Games and Getting What You Pay For: Gaming Log 7/10/2018

I was recently checking out the Switch store and noticed a few free to play games.

Now, I generally don't have a high opinion of free to play games bit it’s not like there is much on my Switch’s hard drive so I checked some out.

Grinding and Why I Keep Doing It: Gaming Log 7/3/2018

You might get sick of this after a while, but you'll keep coming back.

Ah, the grind. How I’ve missed you.

My journey though Unova in Pokémon White 2 continues. The nuzlocke is fun but unforgiving, and mistakes have been made. The fields are littered with the bodies of the dead; Pokémon, Pokémon never changes . . . though it does get slightly easier with each new iteration.

The Primary Source: Why Video Games Need Language Options

It’s fair to say that many works of art or literature can only be fully understood in their original language.  Translations are important--vital--for reaching a wider audience, and can in rare cases reach levels equal or surpassing the original work, but if you are writing say, a scholarly paper, as much as possible you would want to reference the original language with all its untranslatable nuances and obscure cultural idioms. Even for more causal audiences some of the most useful-and desirable-books have a translation on one side followed by the passage in the original language.

Zelda, Pokémon and Easy Games: Gaming Log 6/23/18

I think I have played Ocarina of Time too much. It just isn’t as magic as it used to be. Granted it’s still a great game but I am thinking I need to put it up for a few years. If you play a narrative driven game too much it starts to become stale. 

Some things never get old. Other's were old from day one. No, Navi I don't want to talk to you!

The Legend of Nostalgia: Ocarina of Time 3D Master Quest

What makes a game a masterpiece? Initial reaction or staying power?

There are very few games that have had the kind of impact and cultural legacy of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. When it first came out it blew my mind and I honestly considered it the best game ever made, an opinion I held for the better part of twenty years. This is a game I have replayed almost every year for the past ten years in some form or another, If I was shipwrecked and I could choose one game to bring with me, this would probably be it.

It's like Nintendo put my childhood in a bottle and sold it back to me.

Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee: Trailer Reaction and Speculation.

See the trailer

There has long been a complaint - or at least I’ve long complained - that Pokémon GO has no connectivity with the rest of the franchise. It’s just a standalone mobile game with little to connect it to the series but character sprites.

How To Improve Ep. 123: A Dragon Ball Discussion

Dragon Ball Super Ep. 123 suffered from a number of problems in what could have otherwise been a strong episode. The most glaring problem was the animation. Episode 122 had some of the best animation of the series while episode 123 goes back to some of Super’s most generic. But beyond the superficial there were more serious problems with the writing. I understand that not everyone shares my feelings on this episode, but I think it’s worth exploring how it could have been vastly improved.

Fixing the animation would be a simple manner of putting one of their better animators in charge or giving the team more time to get everything right. Budget is often not as big a concern as the skill level and the time given to the animators involved. Toei should reserve that level of animation for nonaction scenes and comedic episodes. Really it shouldn’t be there at all but there are practical reasons why Toei probably will not improve much.

While fixing the animation is simply a matter of skill and effort, the writing was a bigger problem. The draw of this episode was supposed to be Vegeta’s new transformation, a new power unique to him. Unfortunately this is far from the focus of the episode.  Goku actually dominates most of the episode and it doesn’t foreshadow Vegeta’s transformation all. Once he transforms we are told how much stronger he is, and both he and Goku team up against Jiren, which slightly puts him on the defensive.

A better solution would be to have Vegeta, who Jiren took down in the last episode, watching Goku, from the ground, and reflecting on how he has once again fallen behind. As Jiren beats Goku back he should start to lose hope while remembering his promise to Cabba. It’s only then that his stubbornness should kick back in and he starts his transformation.  The episode should end on his making a decisive blow on Jiren, demonstrating his new power.

This would have been much more satisfying. New transformations in Dragon Ball have often been accompanied by emotional breakdowns. By having Vegeta confront the pending end to his universe and the blow to his honor and pride we would have some foreshadowing for the transformation to follow based on established series tropes. They should have stretched out the transformation scene to put on a show of light and yelling, which doesn’t sound like much but would connect it once again to past transformations. Having Vegeta then strike a powerful blow against Jiren would allow no doubt that he is now is a higher league and would end the episode on a strong note. You could do whatever you wanted next week. Have Goku and Vegeta fight together, have Jiren curb stomp him again but this time actually trying, but Vegeta’s new transformation would still be established as an important spike in his power.

At least in terms of the writing, I don’t think these changes would have been that difficult. There are of course time and budget concerns that can hold back improvements in animation, but given the series popularity I think they are also reasonable.

Review of Ep. 123

-Gedaemon