Random observations
3 Jun 2013 02:40![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swanchikaIt took me far too long to realize that the palace in Ylisstol was probably inspired by Neuschwanstein. Heavily inspired, even, if you watch the beginning of the pre-game cinematic.
Speaking of which, I found Visconti's Ludwig for the very acceptable price of 5€ in the Fnac near Montparnasse. Usually, Fnac is the least store you'd think of when looking for bargains, but... I guess I was lucky. Especially since my original intent wasn't to check DVDs at all... Although now that I discovered Engrenages (known as Spiral abroad), I might pay closer attention to the area dedicated to French series. Yes, the USA do not have a monopoly on good police procedural TV-series. I was the first one shocked by this discovery, but it is true ; and the icing on the cake is that Engrenages is almost guaranteed to disorient anyone who starts watching without having the slightest idea of how French justice works, and how different it is from the American system. The untranslatable "garde à vue" is only the first and most striking example on the police's side ; would you believe that it was only in 2011 than a court decision made the presence of a lawyer mandatory during what is basically the interrogatory of a person held without charges ? (And of course, the series - which started well before that - discusses how angry the cops are with respect to this decision) Let's not even talk about the judges and prosecutors, you can already imagine the gap if you keep in mind that in the mind of Napoleon and his army of jurists (aka those who make up the Pantheon of French law ; Napoleon not so much, but it sets the context), State law is everything and the judge is just an insignificant little man...
Sorry, that got out of hand, but... it's not often that I get so passionate about TV series either, even though it had nothing to do with my original point. Well, back to FE13.
I've had much more liberty playing the game for the past week, and it's indeed a lot of fun to play. However, Hard/Classic seems to be the limit of my tactical abilities. Maybe I'll hone my edge on Radiant Dawn's Hard Mode first, since my father found a way to salvage the disc. As for the scenario, to be perfectly honest, I didn't care for the most part. Of course, I did feel a bit irritated that most of the choices we were asked to make didn't even seem to influence anything, but I didn't expect anything else. And then came the ending, and boy, was it disappointing. The Avatar's "selfless" sacrifice and eventual resurrection or whatever had no emotional weight at all, because the game kept patting us on the back and assuring that the Avatar was going to survive. Okay, it was not quite so blatant, but Naga roughly said that strong bonds were the key to the Avatar's salvation, and what have we spent the whole game doing, if not creating bonds ? With almost everyone, I might add, at least for the most zealous players. (I'm not in this category ; the Avatar in general irritates me too much. I didn't call her Agarès for nothing in my second playthrough.)
So, about the Avatar. I think I managed to put a finger on what makes me dislike him/her so, because I had to explain it convincingly to two sisters who didn't see anything really wrong with him/her, although they said "Ok, whatever" and went off to feed the guinea pigs before I could reach the heart of the problem. Let's sum up what the Avatar is, shall we ? In no particular order, he/she's a very skilled tactician who everyone relies on for strategy, whose abilities always garner much praise and earn him/her the trust of a lot of important people ; he/she's the product of generations of eugenics and as such almost guaranteed to be overpowered ; he/she's the Evil Clown #2's offspring ; the vessel of Grima ; and last but not least, a character completely created by the player, right down to the voice and birthday date. I don't think any of those things are bad in themselves, but it's like with salad sauce, the more ingredients you want to put, the more chances it has to taste horrible (although now that I really think of it, the number of delicious combinations you can obtain by mixing different vinegars makes it a bad metaphor). But he/she's very obviously a proxy for the player, and I absolutely hate it when this very character is loved/admired/praised by everyone. And his/her link with Valldar and Grima don't seem to matter too much except when the Rule of Drama requires it ; otherwise, I didn't see many people having trust issues with someone that is destined to become the human incarnation of a world-destroying dragon. But then again, I didn't really pay hawk-like attention. Battles and supports were the main focus ; is it sad that I saw the supposed overarching plot as just a background tapestry ?
... Also, Adèle has had the brilliant idea to start a new playthrough of Final Fantasy X. That's what a sacrifice should be like. I know Tidus is, well, not the most popular among the FF heroes, but 1. he's cheerful most of the time, and funny all along ; and 2. he really sacrifices himself at the end, for God's sake ! (and his position is rather similar to the Avatar's, too ; he has a very close link to the world-destroying abomination the heroes want to put down, and he needs to disappear in order to kill it once and for all) Yes, he does not disappear forever and he can even reunite with his girlfriend and get a true Happy Ending, but the Fayths never mentioned this possibility (that it sounds like an Asspull in FFX-2 is another problem entirely) ! FE13 does not even pretend to try to fool us for one second, meaning that we never even get the slightest hope of being able to get rid of the Avatar.
Sorry for the ranting. One day, perhaps, I will be able to write deeper and more coherent things...
And in other news, the search for an appropriate metaphor of my recent lack of activity (combination of laziness, intense intellectual fatigue and realization that translating is just useless) led me to ask myself this : in a society where monks are warriors, who takes care of the beer ? (I refuse to believe there's something as simple as a corporation of brewers in Ylisse) And I don't want to make promises on things that aren't even started (and have a high chance of being in French anyway), but I really want to write something going from that. If only to prove that I can do it.
Speaking of which, I found Visconti's Ludwig for the very acceptable price of 5€ in the Fnac near Montparnasse. Usually, Fnac is the least store you'd think of when looking for bargains, but... I guess I was lucky. Especially since my original intent wasn't to check DVDs at all... Although now that I discovered Engrenages (known as Spiral abroad), I might pay closer attention to the area dedicated to French series. Yes, the USA do not have a monopoly on good police procedural TV-series. I was the first one shocked by this discovery, but it is true ; and the icing on the cake is that Engrenages is almost guaranteed to disorient anyone who starts watching without having the slightest idea of how French justice works, and how different it is from the American system. The untranslatable "garde à vue" is only the first and most striking example on the police's side ; would you believe that it was only in 2011 than a court decision made the presence of a lawyer mandatory during what is basically the interrogatory of a person held without charges ? (And of course, the series - which started well before that - discusses how angry the cops are with respect to this decision) Let's not even talk about the judges and prosecutors, you can already imagine the gap if you keep in mind that in the mind of Napoleon and his army of jurists (aka those who make up the Pantheon of French law ; Napoleon not so much, but it sets the context), State law is everything and the judge is just an insignificant little man...
Sorry, that got out of hand, but... it's not often that I get so passionate about TV series either, even though it had nothing to do with my original point. Well, back to FE13.
I've had much more liberty playing the game for the past week, and it's indeed a lot of fun to play. However, Hard/Classic seems to be the limit of my tactical abilities. Maybe I'll hone my edge on Radiant Dawn's Hard Mode first, since my father found a way to salvage the disc. As for the scenario, to be perfectly honest, I didn't care for the most part. Of course, I did feel a bit irritated that most of the choices we were asked to make didn't even seem to influence anything, but I didn't expect anything else. And then came the ending, and boy, was it disappointing. The Avatar's "selfless" sacrifice and eventual resurrection or whatever had no emotional weight at all, because the game kept patting us on the back and assuring that the Avatar was going to survive. Okay, it was not quite so blatant, but Naga roughly said that strong bonds were the key to the Avatar's salvation, and what have we spent the whole game doing, if not creating bonds ? With almost everyone, I might add, at least for the most zealous players. (I'm not in this category ; the Avatar in general irritates me too much. I didn't call her Agarès for nothing in my second playthrough.)
So, about the Avatar. I think I managed to put a finger on what makes me dislike him/her so, because I had to explain it convincingly to two sisters who didn't see anything really wrong with him/her, although they said "Ok, whatever" and went off to feed the guinea pigs before I could reach the heart of the problem. Let's sum up what the Avatar is, shall we ? In no particular order, he/she's a very skilled tactician who everyone relies on for strategy, whose abilities always garner much praise and earn him/her the trust of a lot of important people ; he/she's the product of generations of eugenics and as such almost guaranteed to be overpowered ; he/she's the Evil Clown #2's offspring ; the vessel of Grima ; and last but not least, a character completely created by the player, right down to the voice and birthday date. I don't think any of those things are bad in themselves, but it's like with salad sauce, the more ingredients you want to put, the more chances it has to taste horrible (although now that I really think of it, the number of delicious combinations you can obtain by mixing different vinegars makes it a bad metaphor). But he/she's very obviously a proxy for the player, and I absolutely hate it when this very character is loved/admired/praised by everyone. And his/her link with Valldar and Grima don't seem to matter too much except when the Rule of Drama requires it ; otherwise, I didn't see many people having trust issues with someone that is destined to become the human incarnation of a world-destroying dragon. But then again, I didn't really pay hawk-like attention. Battles and supports were the main focus ; is it sad that I saw the supposed overarching plot as just a background tapestry ?
... Also, Adèle has had the brilliant idea to start a new playthrough of Final Fantasy X. That's what a sacrifice should be like. I know Tidus is, well, not the most popular among the FF heroes, but 1. he's cheerful most of the time, and funny all along ; and 2. he really sacrifices himself at the end, for God's sake ! (and his position is rather similar to the Avatar's, too ; he has a very close link to the world-destroying abomination the heroes want to put down, and he needs to disappear in order to kill it once and for all) Yes, he does not disappear forever and he can even reunite with his girlfriend and get a true Happy Ending, but the Fayths never mentioned this possibility (that it sounds like an Asspull in FFX-2 is another problem entirely) ! FE13 does not even pretend to try to fool us for one second, meaning that we never even get the slightest hope of being able to get rid of the Avatar.
Sorry for the ranting. One day, perhaps, I will be able to write deeper and more coherent things...
And in other news, the search for an appropriate metaphor of my recent lack of activity (combination of laziness, intense intellectual fatigue and realization that translating is just useless) led me to ask myself this : in a society where monks are warriors, who takes care of the beer ? (I refuse to believe there's something as simple as a corporation of brewers in Ylisse) And I don't want to make promises on things that aren't even started (and have a high chance of being in French anyway), but I really want to write something going from that. If only to prove that I can do it.
no subject
Date: 03/06/2013 01:41 (UTC)HAHAHAH.
Given I spent the afternoon indulging in genuine Trappist Ale, this was particularly relevant.