Like many people during the pandemic, I eventually got round to watching Avatar: The Last Airbender and later The Legend of Korra on Netflix. Needless to say they quickly become some of my favourites, probably my favourite animated shows of all time. After feeling a somewhat bittersweet feeling upon ending them I felt I should delve a bit more into some of the expanded material, including the large library of games that Nickelodeon released over the years. I was pretty saddened to find that most of the Avatar games were stuck on the PS2, and physical copies are pretty hard to come by. The only game version of this world to be released one the last generation of consoles was a Legend of Korra game by Platinum Games of all people. This sounded like a great experience, it would be a great-end cap to my Avatar/Korra experience. A fun character action game made by a fantastic developer, even if it looked particularly underdeveloped and budget compared to their best work.
Only playing the game was for more difficult than anticipated. Despite being released on both old and next-gen platforms in 2014, the game is virtually non-existent on all of them. After some digging it became apparent that the game had been delisted by its publisher Activision in late 2017, likely after their license to use the Korra IP expired. This is a common problem, but the issue was particularly aggravated in this case as the game was digital-only, with no retail release. The game could only be played ever again by people who had purchased it prior to this 2017 delisting date, to everyone else it may as well not exist. But I was adamant there must be some way around this – I wasn’t going to let the game’s apparent erasure stop me from finding it. So I began reading various Reddit and forum posts about the game. The vast majority of these were populated by people in the same boat as me –lamenting the loss of a game they could never play. Thankfully this search bore fruit. Various retailers were still selling digital downloads for the game. Despite the game’s delisting these codes do provide you with the right/license to own the game and therefore it will download despite not appearing on the store itself. This particular loophole has been used by many as their last resort to access delisted games. So I went ahead and tried to acquire one of these Korra codes for myself. However these codes are as impermanent as digital games themselves. Only a limited number of them exist, they are not a viable long-term option to access these games as there will one day be none left to activate. Not to mention that Sony has began to crack down on this workaround by officially pulling download codes from retail stores, meaning only a few remain scattered across the Internet. By the time I started my search all the Xbox codes for Korra were sold out and so was the PS4. My only option was to purchase a code for the PS3 which Amazon still, somewhat surprisingly, had in stock. So I dusted off my PS3, entered in the code and began to download this ‘lost’ game. There was something strangely exciting about it. Finding a way around PlayStation’s systems and being one of the last people to download something that was no longer meant to be. It felt like I was preserving the game in a way, doing my part to protect this insignificant little piece of video game history. The game itself is a short, fun, character-action romp. It was a large critical dud upon release with mainly mediocre reviews, and some particularly harsh ones from the bigger outlooks like IGN and GameSpot. Although I enjoyed it more than these critics, it certainly has many of the flaws of a below-average licensed game. The story is non-existent with virtually none of the characters from the show’s large ensemble besides Korra. In fact, apart from its faithful implementation of the bending systems and some of the music, the game feels almost nothing like the show it’s based on. The game clearly had a limited budget - with repeated use of enemies/assets - and feels undercooked compared to Platinum’s usual high quality fare. The game was derided for being exceptionally short, only clocking in at about 4 hours. Despite it’s small price tag and repayable nature, this length struck a nerve with many critics particularly with the large volume of content reuse within this short span. It’s only real saving grace is the combat system. Throughout the game you unlock Korra’s bending powers, each of which feels distinct and faithfully recreates the original bending and martial arts styles from the show. There is also a heavy focus on countering/parrying enemy attacks to deal large amounts of damage, similar to Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. The game can be quite challenging on its higher difficulties, meaning you need to utilize each of the bending powers and the counter system to full effect in order to survive. This creates a very satisfying combat loop of countering and switching between elements based on the situation at hand. I’m almost tempted to say its like the modern God Hand, which was similarly lambasted by critics upon release. Seriously the IGN review for that game is wild. Although this may be giving it too much credit – God Hand feels similarly underdeveloped in many ways but it has a level of quirky charm and combat depth that Korra doesn’t even scratch the surface of. Despite it’s major flaws, Korra’s combat loop kept me compelled to hop back in for many subsequent runs to go for higher ranks and get all of the collectibles from improved play. I even decided to Platinum the game. Platinuming a game is something that is usually reserved for only games I’m having a huge amount of fun with, but Korra kept me coming back, excited to unlock trophy after trophy. This may have been more so motivated by my ATLA obsession than the gameplay itself, but it still kept me engaged enough to dedicate this time to it. Yet above all, I think there was something else driving me. The game’s unavailable status gave it a certain aura that compelled me to complete it. That I’d be one of the last few people to ever download it, that when the final digital code is sold it will be gone, that one day when my PS3 powers off for the last time I would never be able to play it again. There is a bitter sweetness to how impermanent a digital game like this can be. Although the loss of this game may seem trivial to many, this issue of ‘lost games’ is one that has become increasingly prevalent in this digital age. Activision is a common culprit for delisting their games when the licenses run out – from Platinum’s TMNT game to scrubbing years of Transformers games off all digital platforms (e.g. Devastation and the critically acclaimed Cybertron series). Delisting was not as severe for these examples as the majority of them received retail releases and can still be acquired physically for varying prices – but Activision has set a clear precedent of doing this and I can see many ‘lost games’ in their future, particularly as the industry as a whole moves away from physical releases altogether. This is becoming a problem as we approach the digital only age. Although most of the examples I have cited are lesser-known licensed fair, there can be serious damage done to game history and preservation. Take P.T. for example. This is one of the best horror experiences ever released, so much so that I feel it is wrong to classify it even as a demo. Yet when Konami and Kojima had their big fall out, it was scrubbed from the PSN store. P.T. will only exist in its official state for as long as the last PS4 with it downloaded continues existing. Sure, hackers have mined the games files and took it away to cyber-heaven on the PC front, but it sets a horrible precedent that such an important piece of gaming history can be wiped out of existence. And I think a similar point applies to Platinum’s Korra game as well. Regardless of it’s quality, I think its sad that the old licensed Avatar games are still somewhat available in their physical form more than 10 years later on platforms like eBay (even though they’re from the PS2 generation), when a game like Korra has been lost forever simply due to it’s digital-only status. I feel its important to highlight and preserve a game like Korra, because it’s likely that no one else will. A game like P.T. will be remembered years from now, but what about all the games that don’t leave such a monumental impact before being delisted?
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With all the news of RE8 recently I found myself itching to find a similar experience. Although I have previously worked my way back through certain Capcom properties – Resident Evil was series I never did this for. Maybe it was because the earlier entries were these slow-paced, over the shoulder survival horror games, and the later ones seemed to delve to far into action. Nevertheless, I feel there is a large blind spot in my gaming literacy, and that is Resident Evil 4.
Now I haven’t had much experience with the Resident Evil series, apart from playing Resident Evil 7 upon release and recently playing the remastered version of the Resident Evil 1 remake, but I know the franchise has a penchant for reinventing itself with each new instalment, such as the new perspectives introduced in both RE 4 and RE 7. The original three Resident Evil games on the PlayStation were fixed perspective survival horror games with tank controls. My only real experience with them is from the RE 1 remake, but I feel that pretty accurately represents them all. Although the controls are clunky, this kind of adds to the suspense. It reminds me of something like the original Metal Gear Solid, where if the controls were too responsive it could actually make the game to easy (much like it became in the GameCube port, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, where the newly added controls basically broke the game) so I can understand why the tank controls where implemented. As a staple of survival horror, it also introduced resource management to the series, which somehow always seems to be satisfying no matter how many times you do it. The final key piece of gameplay in these games were the use of key items such as keys (well duh), key cards and other very odd items in order to proceed in the game, it turns the games into a bit of a Metroidvania at points with you seeing doors and passages early in the game which are inaccessible, but you come back to them later on with the ability to open them. But by the time we moved on to the sixth generation of video game consoles, Resident Evil had to change too, in order to accommodate for the increased graphical capabilities and more intuitive controls. No more pre-rendered backgrounds (although they were beautiful). No more clunky tank controls. They had to make a Resident Evil for not only a new generation of consoles but a new generation of gamers. Now this wasn’t immediately successful, as we already know there were multiple different versions of Resident Evil 4. The first version began with director Hideki Kamiya who at the time was known for directing Resident Evil 2, he was aiming to create a more ‘stylish’ and ‘cool’ game that was focused more on action rather than slow and atmospheric like the previous titles. However after well-known Franchise director, Shinji Mikami, saw this version he decided it had strayed too far from the franchises survival horror roots and asked them to make it into a new IP, as you can probably already guess this turned into Devil May Cry, now a mainstay Capcom franchise. This story is pretty well known, but there was actually another version of RE 4 before they settled on the final version. This version birthed many ideas that eventually made there way into the final version, such as the over-the-shoulder perspective and the red dotted sight on the end of Leon’s weapons. Eventually after this version ran into some troubles as well, Shinji Mikami was brought on to direct the project. As you may know he was the director of the original Resident Evil as well as the later GameCube remake. Due to this you would think he would have brought the game back to its more survival horror roots, but instead he seemed to double down more on the action that was already present in previous versions of RE 4. Now this isn’t my first time trying to play through Resident Evil 4. I originally attempted it when I was much younger, back when my PS2 was actually relatively new. As a young lad it was essentially like smashing my head against a wall over and over again, especially during those damn button-mashing sections that most definitely gave me carpal tunnel. Although the difficulty is pretty tame now, at the time I wasn’t as experienced or as determined so I eventually gave up. So Resident Evil 4 sat on my shelf for several years, gathering dust along with my PS2 and Scissor Sisters’ CDs. I’d always meant to jump back into it at some point, with the constant reference and praise towards it over the last 14 years since its release, but setting up the PS2 was always a bit of a pain and besides I never really had a reason to jump back into it. Until the last few years where the RE franchise has seen a bit of a renaissance. Both the RE 2 and 3 remakes brought a new look and gameplay that was clearly inspired by RE 4. Not to mention the upcoming RE8 seems to refer back to it in almost everything but name – space-based inventory managed, a gothic Eastern European setting, a quirky vendor. The similarities just seemed so blatant and obvious, that I felt I would be doing myself a disservice to go into RE8 without experiencing the game that very much seems to be its progenitor. Plot-wise this RE4 is a pretty good jumping on point as it is only very loosely related to the other games in the series. Leon is also the main character in RE 2, and there are small references to Umbrella and other characters throughout but apart from these it is essentially a standalone game. The story follows Leon, who is no longer a Raccoon City police officer but has now evolved into a US government agent. He has been sent into an unidentified Eastern European country in order to rescue the President’s daughter, Ashley, from a sort of evil cult. He quickly becomes wrapped up in a large conspiracy which brings him from small villages to gothic castles and eventually secret laboratories. Overall the story isn’t one of the games strongest aspects, there's an interesting cast of recurring characters such as Ada (also from RE 2) and Luis, as well as a bunch of cheesy villains such as Salazar, a little dwarf who looks like Napoleon. Instead the gameplay is the main backbone of RE 4 which makes it so special. In retrospect, the gameplay that was popularised in RE 4 was rather revolutionary. The over-the-shoulder perspective that originated in RE 4 became a staple in many third person shooter games to come like Gears of War and the many clones of it which followed in the subsequent years. It’s easy to see why, as much like DMC, the gameplay loop is incredibly satisfying. At first I thought the close-up camera could make the game feel clunky or cumbersome to play, but the aiming and movement was responsive enough that it made it easy to navigate around the hoards of enemies. If anything it adds to the feeling of being overwhelmed and outnumbered as all the enemies usually cannot all fit on the one screen. Although the game is far more action-focused than its predecessors, it still has an underlying sense of dread throughout with the large hoards of enemies and limited supplies to deal with them. My only real complaint with the game is that I did feel that it dragged on a little too long, which I guess could be seen as a positive for some players. The environments and gameplay are constantly changing in different sections but I did feel that certain sections lasted far longer than they needed to. However this isn’t necessarily a large problem for the game, as there are games like Alien: Isolation which I love despite them being overly long and drawn out. The gameplay is still excellent, even during these less than stellar sections, which really pulls them up in quality. Near the start of the game I also thought I was going to have a big problem with Ashley, as when she showed up the game essentially turned into an escort mission for a few chapters or so, but the game knows when to get rid of her in order to let Leon’s standalone gameplay shine more. Her sections are still a bit of a pain though as she has very low health and can be easily damaged/kidnapped by enemies, which keep the game from being perfect. Graphically the game still looks excellent for a late PS2 game which really surprised me playing through it. Even though it has a relatively grey and muted colour pallet the game is still vibrant and full of character due to the design of the environments and its enemies. Replaying RE 4 has got me very excited for the upcoming RE8 and it’s new approach. Although I did enjoy the gameplay in the original three Resident Evils (or just the first one, as I haven’t actually played 2 or 3), the control scheme introduced in RE 4 is much more fun and engaging too play. While I’m waiting for RE8 to release, I feel I’m finally readd to jump into he recent RE2 and 3 remakes. I’m so excited to see the original RE4 combat style being implemented into these more modern, horror-focused games. The only drawback I could possibly see from this is that it could diminish the feelings of horror and helplessness that existed in the original RE 2, but from the gameplay I’ve seen so far I believe that their use of darkness and a much closer camera has managed to replicate (and in many ways enhance) these feelings in RE 2 & 3. I like the idea that these remakes retain the horror and atmosphere from the original RE trilogy but are still greatly enhanced by the tighter, more responsive, RE 4 style controls. My long-awaited dive into Resident Evil 4 has certainly been fruitful as it has allowed me to appreciate this change in direction for the recent remakes and has got me even more excited to jump into R8 when it releases, it does seem like a spiritual successor of sorts after all. The release of a new game from Rockstar has become somewhat of an event within the industry. With the scope and budget of new triple A games becoming larger with each passing year their necessary development times have begun to balloon in a similar fashion. Back in the good old days of PS1 and N64 where everything was more pixelated and polygonal, developers seemed to release new games on an almost yearly basis. Series like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon both had entire trilogies of games in the span of three years or so, whereas nowadays those same developers would be lucky to make a single game in that time. For example, Insomniac Games (creators of Spyro, Ratchet and Clank) took almost 4 years to release their most recent project, Spider-Man. Or look at another recent PS4 exclusive, God of War, which took almost 5 years to release after the studio’s previous project, God of War: Ascension. Longer time scales are becoming increasingly prevalent, but Rockstar has always been one of the worst offenders due to their insane attention to detail and seemingly endless supply of money and resources (GTA V was the highest-grossing entertainment product ever, across all media) which enables them to basically do whatever they want. Prior to Red Dead Redemption 2’s release, it had been 5 years since Rockstar had released their last game, Grand Theft Auto V. This meant that people had been very much deprived of Rockstar’s particular style and content for a number of years (barring their continue support of GTA Online), this led to large levels of hype and perhaps unachievably high expectations from a large proportion of the gaming public. By I and many others, the original Red Dead Redemption is looked back upon as Rockstar’s greatest game, with a layered and emotional story which included their most relatable and sympathetic character to date in the form of John Marston. Many believed that Rockstar would not come back to this world, leaving the original a standalone, concise experience, as they feared they would be unable to capture the magic of this game again. By creating a follow-up to one of their most beloved games Rockstar was setting themselves a near unsurmountable task; to appease the expectations of the original fan base while also trying to craft a story and character that could rival and perhaps even surpass the original. Although it is a rather bold statement, I would say that Rockstar did achieve this. I think they created an even more emotional and resonant story with Red Dead Redemption 2, but it’s the way that this was achieved that is even more interesting. This was accomplished by creating afresh, unpredictable narrative that subverts the audience’s expectations and constantly keeps them guessing and unsure of its direction.
The game is a masterful combination of gameplay and narrative. Although this piece will focus mostly on its narrative strengths, I feel I must mention its satisfying gameplay and its incredible, fluid open world. Rockstar has essentially crafted a living world with systems upon systems of animals, humans and occasional, scripted random events that make RDR 2’s world feel constantly moving and in flux, even when the player cannot see these interactions. Even the scripted interactions are varied and different enough that they are a joy to take part in, these can be anything ranging from helping out an NPC whose been attacked by animal to running into a group of Ku Klux Klan members burning crosses late at night (and subsequently shooting them, obviously) to spotting someone that’s been taken hostage on horseback and basically every other type of Wild West scenario that you could think of. Outside of these scenarios what you can do in the world is almost limitless, there are so many different systems that have been put in place (e.g. law enforcement, hunting patterns of animals, routes of trains/carriages, NPC routines etc.) that there will always be several of them interacting and influencing one another at any one time which leads to random and unimagined situations. The best example of this I experienced was when an eagle (under its own hunting pattern) picked up a snake (also in its own hunting routine) and dropped this on a human that was sitting nearby. I don’t believe this was a scripted event as it did not have an icon like all the other scripted ones, it simply arose from how complex and detailed Rockstar’s systems are in game. The open world is a wonderful playground to roam around in with so many different events and permutations of these, yet the best experience this world facilitates is the story itself. The narrative is an unpredictable and unconventional one, and sadly I will have to get into huge spoilers in order to properly explore this. For the first couple of missions it seems to be going by a relatively traditional outlaw story, following Dutch’s gang and our protagonist Arthur Morgan, as they hidefrom the Pinkertons and local law enforcement after a botched robbery. We are introduced to many familiar and unfamiliar characters within the gang (including a younger, angrier John Marston, the protagonist from the first game) and follow them as they barely avoid capture and move on to new areas in the hopes of safety and refuge from the forces that wish to stop them. The game starts as a slow-burn (which I imagined turned of many players who were expecting a bombastic story from the start) and it repeats this similar move of finding new areas and eventually fleeing them several times throughout the story. This gets the player into a false sense of security where they always expect the characters to get out just by the skin of their teeth, but then they don’t. This starts off small with individual characters. The sudden death trope is utilized very well in a lot of media such as in The Departed, where one of our main characters, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, gets shot in the head near the end of the film but I’ve never really seen it in a game before. However, RDR 2 uses this to great effect multiple different times. The first happens during a seemingly innocuous mission in the quiet, red-neck town of Rhodes. After escaping from the clutches of the law yet again and taking refuge in this small rural town, Dutch has began planning their next big score by pinning two powerful, yet incompetent families (Braithwaites and Grays) against each other. Things all seem to be going to plan, but during this mission to meet with one of their contacts the gang is ambushed by a group of Grays who have grown wise to Dutch’s schemes. These previously incompetent Grays deal a devastating blow to the gang; one of the younger, more wide-eyed members of the gang, Sean, has his head blown off, mid-sentence, at the start of the ambush. There is no fan-fare, no time to mourn. This character is simply gone, and it leaves the audience completely traumatised. Only a few missions before this, an entire bunch of both the gang and therefore the player’s time was used in order to save Sean from being captured, where he had spent most of the early game off-screen. We barely know his character and have only known him for a couple of hours but are already invested because we feel like his character arc has only just begun. He is the youngest and least disillusioned member of the gang, it is strongly hinted that over the course of the story we are going to see him become more serious and less comedic, but this never occurs. His life is snuffed out too early, much like the potential storyline that ended too soon as well; these feelings are enforced by the sudden, brutal way in which his death occurs. This may seem like a very specific example of how RDR 2 subverts expectations, but it happens at least two other times within the story. One of the gang’s main rivals throughout the story is a fellow band of Irish outlaws known as the O’Driscolls, early on the gang slaughters a bunch of O’Driscoll men and ends up taking one of them hostage, Kieran, who happens to save Arthur’s life. Due to his previous affiliation with the enemy, many of the camp mistreats and actively despises Kieran even though he tries his best to help them out and gain their trust. It appears as if they are setting him up for some sort of redemption arc, where he finally is welcomed into and becomes part of the gang. But much like Sean, this just never occurred. While Arthur is plodding about the camp getting on with his own business (for me this mainly involved eating stew and drinking coffee to get my stats up) a horse comes into the camp with a headless corpse on it, in its hands it holds Kieran’s head with both eyes gouged out. Behind this horse is a gang of O’Driscolls ready to ambush the unsuspecting group, having taken revenge upon Kieran for betraying them and joining Dutch. Both of these deaths are so sudden and unpredictable but they still both throw you right into the heat of the action with no time to grieve the loss of the character, one forcing you into a shoot-out with the Grays and the other forcing you into one with the O’Driscolls. By giving the player no time to understand the situation it emphasises the pressure and the danger of such a violent lifestyle, putting us in the shoes of Arthur; in his world you can’t focus on the loss of those around you but instead must look out for yourself. Although the death of Sean, Kiernan and the loss of their respective character arcs is tragic, the most horrible example of this happens to a member of the gang named Lenny. Like Sean, he is one of the younger and more vibrant within the group. He becomes a very likeable character early on when a mission solely focuses on him and Arthur going out drinking and the series of drunken misadventures that they get up to. Being a young black man and recently freed slave Lenny receives a fair amount of hate and racism directed towards him in the game, but Arthur sees him for the loyal and rational man that he is. Arthur’s fair treatment of Lenny makes us sympathetic towards him; he seems to be one of Arthur’s only true friends and this makes his death even more heart-braking. Unlike Sean and Kieran who both are killed in cutscenes and whose killers receive immediate retribution by Arthur killing them in a murderous rage, Lenny’s death is payed almost no attention and he is never truly avenged. After another botched robbery (another ‘great’ plan by Dutch) the gang is on the run from the Pinkertons, as the gang dashes across the rooftops away from the gunshots of the law, several lawmen suddenly emerge onto the roof in front and shoot Lenny dead. This occurs in a matter of seconds and the gameplay does not stop to even acknowledge that it has occurred, this emphasises howhopeless their situation actually is but also is one of the first signs that Dutch and some of the gang truly did not care for Lenny. Arthur was the only one that was impacted by his death and even he could not spare a moment to mourn for him, in fear that his life may too be cut short. These deaths feel wrong within the narrative; Sean, Kieran and Lenny are the youngest and most innocent among Dutch’s gang, yet they are the ones that experience the true pain and suffering caused by their exploits. Its expected that older characters like Hosea and to a certain extent even Arthur are at risk of dying within such a violent story, but we don’t expect these harsh realities to befall the truest of these characters. The sudden, violent nature of these deaths combined with the way it seems to fall upon the most innocent and redeemable of these characters only emphasises how horrific and unpredictable this lifestyle of violence and sin truly is. The narrative technique of these sudden deaths doesn’t only apply towards the main protagonists within Dutch’s gang, but also to their various antagonists throughout the game. The first main villain who kickstarts the plot is a business and oil tycoon named Leviticus Cornwall who comes into conflict with the gang after they rob one of his trains. He is introduced in a very ominous fashion early on and his presence continues to haunt the gang throughout a large portion of the game. Rockstar appears to be setting him up as the main antagonist, with enough money and resources to chase Dutch’s gang across the country. Yet he never truly becomes the main villain. His character disappears from the story for large amounts of time (although his presence can still be felt somewhat by the Pinkertons he has hired), and then eventually they met him near defenceless, boarding a boat in Saint Denis. Dutch has a short spat with the man before shooting the old codger in a very anti-climatic fashion. Within seconds he is no longer a threat to the group. And this continues for almost every other antagonist in the game. The Braithwaites, The Grays, Angelo Bronte, Colm O’Driscoll. Each one is introduced and later killed with very little impact on the wider overarching narrative. This is when I came to a realisation; Red Dead Redemption 2 does not have the same three act structure of any traditional movie or book but is instead far closer to the format of a long-running television or book series. In a way, each chapter seems to be its own self-contained story with its own major plot and antagonist (be this the Grays/Braithwaites in Chapter 3 or Angelo Bronte in Chapter 4) much like a self-contained season of a television show. Although I may have found the deaths of some of these villains anti-climactic at first, when looking it then in this more segmented, chapter-by-chapter way it becomes clear that they are in fact climaxes of their own individual stories. Of course, I’m not the first one who’s compared RDR 2’s structure to that of a television series (it will likely become apparent to anyone who has completed it), but I believe it was such an interesting choice from a narrative and structure perspective. Having Arthur and the rest of these characters going through so many different, distinct trials and tribulations brings us closer to them and makes our time spent with them feel so much longer and more involved than if it was simply one long overarching story. The large variety of villains that are introduced but never seem to take the spotlight also emphasises another key point within the game; it makes the audience question who the true villain actually is. When all these bad people have finally been slain or destroyed by Dutch’s gang it makes us question why bad things continue to occur for these characters. Surely once the bogeyman has been defeated these characters will be able to return to a normal, safer life, but this is not the case. It reveals that the true problem is within the gang itself, perhaps Dutch and some of his more avid supporters are the true reason why they continue to fail even once all outside forces have been overcome. By doing this, the structure of the narrative directly complements the story Rockstar is telling, the introduction and subsequent discarding of these villains eventually leads to us understanding that the true villain has been under our noses this whole time. Although the game’s structure is very compelling, it’s time to get onto the heart and soul of this game: its characters. Prior to its release I was worried that this game may suffer from a problem that many prequels to popular stories do. Due to us knowing the fates of many of the characters and the eventual outcome of this story (as was shown in the first game) I was worried that this may lower the stakes and prevent me from getting invested in this story and set of characters. But Rockstar managed to avoid this particular prequel problem by focusing the main crux of the narrative on mostly new characters, with the two main exceptions being John and Dutch. Arthur is obviously a new addition and this lack of knowledge surrounding him allows the writers and therefore the player to take greater control of his character and influence more based on their actions. It allows us to decide which path we take Arthur down, one of evil or one of good. It also allows full subplots to be influenced by the player, such as Arthur’s relationship with the gang’s shady money lender and loan shark Strauss. Arthur’s honour and reactions to the horrible work of chasing down people who borrowed money from Strauss are directly impacted by the player themselves and their choices can decide Strauss’ eventual fate. Some other notable examples are Sadie Adler, Charles Smith and Micah Bell. Adding these characters into the mix gives the story far greater depth than if it focused solely on characters from the first game. It was relatively easy to infer many of the events which preceded the original game, so having to play through them all with already-known characters wouldn’t have been as original or satisfying as the approach taken here. We don’t know the fates of Sadie, Charles and even our protagonist Arthur, which makes it far easier to get invested in their stories and feel genuine fear and empathy towards them when they are put in dangerous or perilous situations. In focusing on these new characters Rockstar also created another problem for themselves; could these characters possibly match up to the original creations of John, Dutch or even some of the ancillary characters from the first game. Yet this seemed to be no problem, as a few of these characters are in fact some of the best Rockstar has ever created, characters like Sadie and Sean are immensely entertaining to be around, and above all Arthur is without a doubt the greatest character Rockstar has ever created (more on him in a bit). Although many of the new characters are arguably more interesting and layered, Rockstar still gives some attention to the returning cast as well. Its interesting to see John’s relationship to characters like Bill or Javier who he killed in the original game, but at this time was still friendly and close with. My only issue would be that they seem to turn on John (and in the process Arthur) relatively quickly after Dutch declares them as traitors; I would have liked to see some of the internal conflict these characters experienced at having to turn on their own brothers in arms. Putting this aside the game still develops these characters and many others far more than they were in the original game, especially considering Bill was essentially just a red-neck and Javier was a Mexican stereotype. Out of all the characters from the original game, the one who is expanded upon the most is obviously Dutch Van Der Linde, the charismatic leader of the gang and the eventual antagonist of the game. The reason there are so many minor antagonists in this game (as I mentioned earlier) is because Dutch is the true threat to everyone Arthur cares about. Although this is obvious to the player as Dutch was also the main antagonist of the first game, it makes the whole story far more tragic as we know that Dutch’s downfall is inevitable. From the start he’s a man whose goals are truly divided. Obviously, part of him intends to care for and protect his gang from the harsh outside world and the forces which wish to capture them, but he also exudes a sense of overwhelming greed. He doesn’t know when enough is enough. Every time one of his plans goes horribly wrong, he doesn’t change his ways but instead continues plotting riskier and more dangerous plans. Each time a plan fails he makes his plans more ludicrous and difficult in order to try and cover their loses for the previous botched jobs. Eventually Arthur and many others begin to catch on to this fact, that Dutch is dreaming far too big and in the process is endangering them all with his unachievable schemes. When they try to call his leadership and judgement into question, Dutch labels Arthur and his supporters as traitors, causing several of the men to turn on each other. Many are still blinded by Dutch’s charisma and take his side, where as others see him for the dangerous megalomaniac he is and take Arthur’s side against him. The gang is destroyed from the inside by descent and a lack of trust until eventually violence erupts amongst its members. All of this was caused by Dutch’s compulsion to achieve more and his attempt to protect his followers in his own twisted way. Near the end Dutch reveals his more savage nature and murderous tendencies in a desperate attempt to keep control of the gang, but by this point it is too late. They have lost too many people and the authorities are hot on their trail; the gang’s time has finally come to an end, but it was not any outside force that eventually destroyed then but Dutch’s own greed and hubris. But the reason Dutch is such a compelling villain is because aside from all his faults he is still sympathetic. He took Arthur and many of the others in at a young age, giving them food, shelter and a family; he didn’t do this in the hopes of manipulating or controlling them but simply out of his want to help people. By leading the gang, he hopes to preserve the traditional outlaw lifestyle that is being lost as the Wild West era begins to come to an end; he is a buck in a system, a self-named rebel who hopes to continue his fight against society until the very end. Its impossible to tell why he truly wants to help those in his gang, it may be so they continue to follow and support him (in an almost cult-like manner) or it may simply be because he sees them as his family and wants the best for them. Dutch operates almost entirely in shades of grey and his motivations are not always clear, that is why he is so compelling and that is why it is difficult to truly hate him. At the end of the game, after he had let Arthur die and sided with the traitorous Micah, I was almost certain that Dutch had to die, that his death at the hands of John in the original game was now justified, however even then he makes another baffling and somewhat heroic move. In order to save John and Sadie he shots Micah in order to give John enough time to kill him and finish the job. Although this one good action can never make up for the multitude of wrongs Dutch has committed, it makes the player and John question whether Dutch was really as bad as they once believed. This explains why John is so conflicted about killing Dutch in the original, he is obviously a bad man but one that shows glimmers of kindness and sympathy towards those he loves. The relationship between Dutch and John has now been forever heightened by this game. In the original Dutch seemed far more psychotic and evil, a cookie-cutter villain for John to slay before he can get back to his family. But now, it means so much more. We have seen their troubled history, violent break-up and the hints of reconciliation that occurred along the way. I used to think that the backstory of these two characters would be too predictable and traditional to base a game around, but in actuality their relationship was more complex and layered than I could ever imagine. Although I have not mentioned him as much as I should, I feel I must say that my favourite aspect of RDR 2 is the character of Arthur Morgan and his journey is perhaps one of the most emotional I have ever experienced in any medium. This was incredibly surprising to me as John Marston was one of my favourite video game characters of the last generation, he was a charming, sarcastic gunslinger who had to kill in order to protect his family and met a tragic end in the process. When the government he had been working for the whole game finally killed John after he had murdered several people under their instructions, I felt personally betrayed. The whole game I was fighting for John to finish hunting his old gang members and return to his family, and although he was allowed to for a time, the agents felt they could not let such a dangerous outlaw escape justice and decide to kill him. This felt so wrong and unfair to me, I had never felt such a sense of injustice from a game. In the lead-up to RDR 2 I was worried that no main character could rival John Marston in my heart, but little did I know that Arthur would affect me emotionally in ways that I could never imagine. At the start of the game he seemed like a relatively standard outlaw protagonist. His personality was a lot drier and more straight-forward when compared to John’s, and at first I was worried that this may make him quite a boring protagonist. He felt like an older, disillusioned man (similar to Michael from GTA V) which would have been unique several years ago, but nowadays that’s become the standard for a lot of stories; perhaps older, sadder protagonists are supposed to better connect with the audience. But as I spent time with Arthur, he began to grow on me, due to how real and harsh his view of the world is. Arthur has been in the gang his whole life and has grown up surrounded by violence and was taught to hate the system of government that threatens to end their way of life. He isn’t afraid to use violence to solve situations and threaten people; you get the feeling that he has no problem killing anyone that gets in his way. Arthur is not a good person and he knows this. Many of the other gang members try to delude themselves with the idea that they only kill and steal from those who deserve it, but this is completely contradicted by their actions. Like when they rob a train full of innocent passengers or Strauss’ loan shark activities which only seem to target people/ families who would be unable to pay back the debt. Arthur, on the other hand, knows how wrong his actions are and continues them anyway in order to protect the people within the gang, even at the cost of his own soul and morality. Once I realised this, my appreciation of Arthur was so much greater, he isn’t some Walter White-esque anti-hero who tries to justify his actions; he does them for a good cause but does not try to claim this makes them acceptable. This may make him a more layered and flawed character, but it isn’t even the best thing about him. The greatest part of Arthur’s character is also Red DeadRedemption 2’s greatest subversion of expectations. Just over about half-way through the game, Arthur collapses on the way to another mission. He is hauled into a doctor’s office wherehe is examined and subsequently diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Although it’s an affliction which is easily cured today, back in the game’s less advanced time of 1899 it was essentially a death sentence. This reveal completely shocked me from a narrative perspective. Of course, main characters die in media, hell it happened to John Marston at the end of his adventure in the original RDR, but usually they go out in a blaze of glory. Usually they don’t see their death coming or they allow themselves to die for a particular cause, but Arthur is not afforded this luxury (at least initially). Being told that he only has a short time left to live causes a complete shift within his character; his approaching death is now inevitableand it forces him to consider what meaning his life has actually had. Contracting this illness is almost a karmic punishment for Arthur’s years of misdeeds, this is especially obvious since he likely contracted it while beating a sick mannamed Mr Downes in order to claim a debt. Arthur seems to realise this as the illness causes him to look back on his years of violence and crime and attempt to make up for these. This theme of what makes life meaningful is present in other media, such as in the classic Akira Kurosawa film ‘Ikiru’, but it is one that I have never seen attempted in a game before. This kind of retrospection on death and the meaning of life requires a level of writing skill and talent which is difficult to come by in the industry, Rockstar is one of the only developers I feel could explore this effectively, rivalled by maybe only Naughty Dog in my mind. In order to be successful this story also requires a vessel, a developed character who is used to explore this very personal, human story and Arthur (being as flawed and layered as he is) is perfectly suited to this. As the player you expect Arthur to live at least until the end of the game, maybe even into the post-game if possible, but revealing that he is dying changes the whole experience. We’re forced to watch this man struggle through the last few weeks of his life in order to try and right the wrongs he has committed. The revelation of his illness causes a complete character shift for Arthur, he is no longer the tough, no nonsense killer that he spent most of his life as but instead becomes a more sombre, reflective man. He wants to make the most of the time that he has left and wants to help the people he cares about most, even after he’s gone. He begins trying to help those around him in the best way he can. Instead of chasing down people who owe them debts he now decides to cover the debt himself sometimes even gives the debtors money in order to allow them to escape: after all, money is of no use to a dead man. This change is best shown in the way he treats the family of Mr Downes, the man he likely contracted tuberculosis from while beating. He saves both the now widowed Mrs Downes and her son from dangerous situations and gives them money in order to cover their debts and allow them to start a new life elsewhere. He says himself that this is not in order to get forgiveness from them, but simply because he wronged them and now feels obliged to support them. Although Arthur wants to help the strangers he has wronged in his life, his main goal is to help those within the gang that are still innocent and capable of saving. He stops living in the present and begins to look forward at the long-reaching plans of Dutch and the gang; in doing this Arthur soon realises that Dutch is going to continue to put the gang in increasingly riskier situations with his far-fetched plans. He tries to warn Dutch of this and make him see the error of his ways, but Dutch is too wrapped up in his own mind and sees this as Arthur trying to take control away from him or overthrow him as the leader of the gang. Arthur now sees that Dutch will soon cause the downfall of the gang if he continues to lead in this way. Arthur does not want to take Dutch on directly since he raised him, but also because Dutch still has a lot of support from several of the gang members. Arthur begins telling many of the other members to try and leave the gang before it collapses, something he would have considered traitorous before his diagnosis. Many of them, such as Charles and Sadie, agree with Arthur and see through Dutch’s schemes. However, the people that Arthur wants to help the most are John and Abigail Marston, as they have a young son, Jack, who would be most negatively impacted by Dutch’s actions. Arthur tries to convince John to leave the gang many times following his diagnosis in order to try and protect them, but John does not have enough money or resources to care for his family; that is why they have stayed with the gang all these years. To allow John’s escape, Arthur devises a plan to steal the money that Dutch has been keeping from their various jobs over the years and give it to them. Obviously, this doesn’t go according to plan and Arthur ends up in a final showdown with Dutch and any of the followers he still has left (e.g. Micah, Bill, Javier etc). Neither side particularly wants to kill the other and the men are left in a standoff over how to proceed. If this had continued perhaps,they could have come to a mutual understanding, however this is interrupted by the Pinkertons and several government officials who finally catch up with the gang after months of searching. Here you can choose whether to go back for the money or help John escape, although any rational person would help John escape, not only because we care for him but because going back for the money would mean certain death or capture. If you chose to help John, him and Arthur are forced up into the hills where they have a final, touching farewell where Arthur gives John his hat. Arthur decides to sacrifice himself by staying behind to fend off the incoming hoards of lawmen and Dutch’s remaining men. But this isn’t what kills him (at least if your honour is high enough), even after he has survived the gunfight and had an extended brawl with Micah atop the mountain (although this likely contributed to his early death) he isn’t killed. Dutch and Micah seem to take pity on him, on this broken, dying man and flee before the law have any chance of catching up with them. And there Arthur is left too die alone, despite being betrayed by Dutch and losing the only life he had ever known he isn’t sad. He is happy to have saved John, his family and any other people that he decided to help in the last days of his life. As the sun rises above the horizon and the illness finally claims him, Arthur, the reformed outlaw, is allowed to die a hero; knowing in his heart that he tried to be a better man. Arthur’s diagnosis and death was a uniquely emotional experience for me. Never in a game before have I seen a character, let alone the protagonist, truly fear their impending death. Although he begins the game as a tough, emotionless killer this revelation seems to strip away all the layers of bravado and swagger until all that is left is a sad, hopeless man with a life full of regret and empty of meaning. Unlike many characters in the medium, Arthur is obviously impacted upon by the disturbing and emotional trauma which he is forced to endure as part of his journey. Near the end of the game he isn’t afraid to let his emotions be known, one of the most effecting scenes occurred when he was talking to a recurring nun character who shows up throughout the game.He finally admits that he is dying and that he is afraid, helped along by the fantastic performance from Roger Clark. This line broke my heart. In a single sentence it showed all the years of regret and sadness culminating in full on terror of his own demise. I have never felt so closely connected to a videogame character as I did to Arthur Morgan in this moment. It is impossible not to find him sympathetic, he may have done horrible things, but he feels genuine guilt and remorse for those that he has wronged. He does not want people to forgive him, but simply wants to feel like he has put some good into the world after years of taking from it. There was a similarly emotional moment during the climax where Arthur’s horse is shot down in the chase. Even though there are bullets flying and John is telling him they must go, he stops and allows a moment of grief for his loyal animal. He whispers a simple painful “Thank you” to his horse. This is amplified by the connection the player forms with their horse over the course of the game and it could be seen as a little manipulative (e.g. trying to pull some heart strings by killing of the animal) but it doesn’t. Arthur’s reaction is just so heartfelt and beautiful that it makes any of these more cynical or analytical thoughts leave your mind. He risks both his and John’s lives to say goodbye to this loyal animal that has allowed him to accomplish his goals and in some cases has even saved him throughout the game. Earlier in the game Arthur could barely spare a second to mourn the deaths of characters like Sean, Kieran and especially Lenny out of fear of dying himself, this moment feels like a response to those moments. Arthur is a changed man, he now understands that the loss of life, whether this be in humans or even animals, is something to respect. These two scenes are only a few of the numerous instances in the game where I felt genuinely emotional for and connected to Arthur; he felt truly human and alive. That’s why it was so hard to face the fact that he was going to die. Although you know well in advance, for almost half the game, it didn’t make the loss of this character any less traumatic. When Arthur finally passed away on top of that mountain, I was completely split emotionally. Part of me was happy that he had saved John and the others; he had achieved the redemption he didn’t think he deserved. But the other part of me was practically in mourning, he was the most real character I had ever had the pleasure of playing as and losing him made me strangely upset. By the end of the experience I thought he was a better character than even John Marston, probably one of the only other characters I’ve ever felt truly connected to. Rockstar characters just seem to have this effect on me. Although I’m conflicted about my feelings towards Arthur’s sacrifice, its indisputable that he achieved his goal of protecting John and his family. His actions allowed John to escape to a quieter life with his family, where he was allowed to build a farm (during a sick-ass song) and provide for his family. This is shown in the Epilogue to the game, where we once again take control of John Marston after not playing as him for more than 8 years (his last appearance being the Undead Nightmare expansion of the original, although its obviously not canon). At first I was kind of surprised by how underwhelming I found playing as John. In the lead up to RDR 2’s release I did assume that we would once again be able to take control of John Marston, probably after the death of the other guy (the little respect I showed Arthur at the time). I was very much looking forward to spending time with John again, but when I eventually got to this point my opinion had been completely reversed. I was severely missing Arthur (a type of withdrawal almost) and even John couldn’t fill the hole in my heart that he had left. After a few hours with John, seeing him met Uncle and Charles, seeing him build the classic farm from the original and seeing him propose to his wife, I began to feel more comfortable with John again. But this time only confirmed my original statement, I liked Arthur far more. Although I can understand why this had to be done. By allowing us to roam around as John and see him begin a normal life after Arthur’s death, it emphasises why Arthur sacrificed his life; so John could truly be free. The Epilogue (and entire game) concludes with John and his previous fellow gang members, Charles and Sadie, heading to finally kill Micah, the man who previously betrayed them by talking to the law and essentially killed Arthur during their fight on the mountainside. I mentioned this altercation earlier when talking about John’s relationship with Dutch, but it is a perfect ending to the game. As John, I killed hoards of Micah’s men, all the while wearing Arthur’s hat which he had given to me. It was cathartic, as if John (and in turn myself) were continuing on the legend of Arthur just a bit more by donning his hat and finally killing the traitor who he had warned Dutch about so long before. It also leads perfectly into the original game, with Dutch killing Micah this makes his position as a villain less concrete and makes John even more conflicted about being asked to kill him later. If this were where the story ended it would be a happy, yet bittersweet one; with Arthur losing his life in an attempt to save John, and John later returning to take revenge on those who had wronged them both. But the story doesn’t end here. Rockstar had to deliver one last painful reminder about the fates of these characters. After the ending John returns to his family and they continue to work away on the farm, hopefully for the foreseeable future. But we as the audience know this peace will not last. Soon the government will show up and force John back into his old killing ways; and even after he’s done everything they’ve asked they will kill him anyway. This is the true tragedy of the game. It was horrible to lose Arthur butknowing John’s inevitable fate almost makes Arthur’s sacrifice pointless. This is a very bleak way to look at the whole message behind the game, perhaps no matter how hard we try to achieve something it can’t be maintained forever. But I think there is a more beautiful and poignant way to look at this. Even though John will technically die, Arthur’s sacrifice may still have payed off. John has been immortalised in the post-game of Red Dead Redemption 2. After the original game John was simply dead, there was no way to be with him again without replaying the same events. But now he can continue to live on forever, with his family and his farm, and we can go on this journey with him as often as we want (you just need to start up the game). I could put RDR 2 back into my console in 10 years and John will still be there, raising his son, loving his wife, bantering with Uncle. This is what Arthur would have truly wanted, his sacrifice meant that John Marston will forever be there to take care of his family; whether we as a player are there to see this or not. It’s just too bad Arthur will never be afforded this luxury. He’ll never be able to live on in the game, that is something we simply cannot change, but he will always live on in my heart. Although it may seem unlikely based on some of my previous posts, I haven’t actually ever really watched an anime. Now I know what you’re thinking, this guy wrote more than 3000 words talking about his supposed ‘addiction’ to Persona, but he’s never watched an anime which Persona essentially just is but in a different medium. Yeah, it’s true (well for the most part). Unless your image of me as a complete reject wasn’t completely established yet, I recently decided to try and correct this gap in my knowledge by watching some anime. My original statement, that I’ve never watched an anime, isn’t 100% true. I have actually dipped my toe into this giant genre once before, and as you may have guessed this was originally spurred on by my obsession with Persona. As I mentioned near the end of those previous posts about the series, I had very much considered also watching the many anime adaptions of the Persona games in order to continue on my voyage and so I did.Persona 4: The Animation was my first foray into this genre as my initial obsession was with that game, but I later found myself watching all four of the Persona 3 movies as well. These gave me a good idea of some of the conventions and general style of these types of anime’s, but it was still relatively ordinary to me considering I had already spent hundreds of hours with these stories and characters, I had still yet a experience something new from within this genre.
My real first experience with an anime was far more recently, and is what this piece is actually about. I’m going to be discussing one of the most popular animes (and mangas) from the past several years, My Hero Academia. For the record I have been watching the subtitled version as I feel like its far closer to the original version than any dub could be, also I feel like most dubbed animes sound a whole lot more childish than with the original Japanese. The main plot is set in a world where 80% of the population have developed their own Superpowers known as Quirks, here it follows a boy with seemingly no powers (a Quirkless) named Izuku Midoriya as he tries to get by in a world filled with super-powered people. Even though he has no powers he has his sights on getting into UA High School, the most prestigious school for heroes in the world. This puts him into direct conflict with one of his previous childhood friends (now enemy), Katsuki Bakugo, who has an extremely powerful explosion Quirk. Midoriya aims to become the world’s greatest hero, even though he has no powers in a world filled with them. This is really only the synopsis for the first couple episodes, so in order to give a full overview of the series as a whole I need to spoil some reveals from early on. Within this world, there is a number one hero, All Might, essentially Superman but way more powerful and generally much better in every way (yes, come at me). But his powers are slowly declining after being injured in a fight years previously, meaning he can only operate as a hero for a few hours a day. He is worried that soon he will no longer be able to operate as a hero and that the world will fall into chaos.Luckily his Quirk (All for One), allows him to pass on his immense powers to another person. After a meaningful interaction with Midoriya, All Might decides that his drive to become a hero and protect people despite his large disadvantage in the form of being Quirkless makes him an ideal candidate to inherent his powers. So Midoriya trains his body to the point that it can handle All Might’s power in quite an inspiring training montage of him working out and he eventually inherits All Might’s power. At this point I was enjoying the series, especially due to some emotional moments that happen early in the series that really affected me (and that I will get to later), but I felt that it was kind of at risk of becoming generic. With Midoriya finally gaining a power and him going off to try and get into hero school I felt like it was at risk off feeling like just any other superhero series. That is until Midoriya first uses his power in the series. This occurs while he is competing in the entrance exam of UA high school, where the applicants are tasked with taking down giant robots with their Quirks in order to gather the most points. In order to protect another applicant (and his eventual love interest), Ochaco Uraraka, who has a zero gravity Quirk, Midoriya leaps into action. He channels the power into his legs to throw himself hundreds of metres up into the air and then charges it into his fist to deliver one devastating blow which destroys the robot in a single hit. This sequence looks awesome (like it would in any other power based Shonen anime), but it’s the aftermath that makes it even more amazing. The force of All Might’s power was too much for Midoriya, it has shattered the bones in both of his legs as well as his entire arm, leaving him to fall helplessly to the ground. Here the series has established the breadth of All Might’s insane power as only a fraction of it was able to destroy Midoriya’s body. Even from an outside perspective, the constant powering-up and near invincible characters that exist within the Shonen genre seemed like a big problem for example in franchises such as Naruto and Dragonball. How can a show have any stakes if the characters are constantly pulling new powers out of their ass and (usually nearer the end of the series) when they are nearly invincible. My Hero Academia subverts this from the first couple of episodes, by showing the insane power of All Might (early on his punches are so strong the wind pressure causes the weather to change) but then putting this same power in Midoriya’s body practically destroys him. There is a clear power level being established, Midoriya could conceivably be as powerful as All Might one day, but he has an incredibly long way to go till then. After he destroys his body so badly, Midoriya has to become a lot smarter with his power and use it far more sporadically in order to make his way through fights. This makes his character incredibly compelling as he does have the power to deal with almost any situation but he has to work out the smartest way to pull this off while limiting the damaged caused to himself and his surroundings. The way this power develops over the course of the series is also incredibly interesting, he develops into using each of his fingers as a weapon by shooting off the full force of All Might’s power through each one individually (almost like a gun), this still mangles his fingers in the same way it destroyed his arms/legs but it allows him to fight for longer as each finger allows a separate attack. You’d think that since this formula is so compelling (and awesome to watch when he eventually lets out his massive power) the writer (or Mangaka as there known), Kohei Horikoshi would want to keep this the same and keep this dynamic going for as long as possible but he decides to change it up quite a lot as the story progresses. Eventually, much later on in the series, Midoriya has used this incredible power so much that his body can barely withstand it anymore if he keeps going at the same rate. Because of this Midoriya has to switch up his fighting style even more, now instead of trying to use all of All Might’s power in a single burst (destroying his body in the process) he now decides to only use 5% of All Might’s power to give him increased speed and power in the form of All for One: Full Cowling, although it isn’t as powerful this is far more useful as he can use it to stay powered up continuously. The full All Might power is only saved for situations where there is no other option but to sacrifice his body in order to win, and these are the best moments in the show due to their sparseness. Midoriya is the main character in the series (and that’s why I spent so much time on him), but another huge aspect of the show is its large cast of likeable and layered characters. I already mentioned Bakugo, but he too is a very interesting character and the perfect opposition for Midoriya (or Deku as he sarcastically refers to him as). Bakugo is a hot head (both literally and figuratively due to his Quirk), at first he seems incredibly unlikeable with the horrible way that he treats Midoriya but there is something endearing about him deep down that makes him somewhat redeemable. He isn’t just the typical bully character, but is instead very intelligent and skilled, he has the same strong desire to become a hero and protect people as Midoriya does. Once they both arrive in UA it becomes apparent that it isn’t just Midoriya that Bakugo dislikes but everyone, he sees himself as so much better than everyone else that he doesn’t even have time for them (and although he’s in the wrong he is perhaps the strongest out of them all). Then his hate comes across less as an attack towards Midoriya but a general insecurity about being the best that means he has to remain mean and defensive around everyone. Bakugo’s character personifies the show’s brilliance in a way, as the typical bully/adversary character to Midoriya most writers would barely flesh him out at all and would make him wholly dislikeable but in this show he is as deep, layered and motivated as the shows protagonist. Although not all of the characters are as fleshed out or well developed as Bakugo the show does a great job giving them all there time in the spotlight and making them more relatable and deep because of this. I don’t have enough time to cover every character in the shows huge main cast with as much detail as Midoriya and Bakugo but I’ll try to at least say how each one is compelling as well as how the show achieves this. The first character I’ll mention has essentially became one of the main characters in the show, up there with Midoriya and Bakugo, and his arc highlights one of my other main loves of the series: the way it can seamlessly focus on another character and make them just as compelling (perhaps even more so) than the main protagonist. Shoto Todoroki is present throughout Season 1, but he is very much in the background. There is an element of mystery to him as he was one of the few pupils who got into UA through recommendations alone, meaning he is obviously very powerful. His Quirk has half of his body being cold and the other half of his body being hot, meaning he can essentially shoot of immense fire or ice powers at will from that side of his body. However he comes to the forefront early in Season 2 where he has to face off against Midoriya during the UA Sports Festival where the students are forced to compete in 1v1 battles to proceed further in the tournament. Here, Todoroki’s father is introduced, the number 2 hero, Endeavor. And so to is his backstory, and it is quite disturbing. Instead of Endeavor being heroic (as would be expected from the 2nd most popular hero) it is revealed that Todoroki was produced through selective breeding in order to make the most powerful hero who could one day surpass All Might. This was done with complete disregard to Todoroki’s mother (from who he inherited the ice section of his Quirk) who was physically and emotionally manipulated by Endeavor. This drove her to madness and eventually led to her forcibly burning Todoroki as he reminded her too much of Endeavor. She is obviously locked up for this, but this leaves Todoroki with a lot of hatred towards his father due to the way he treated his mother. Because of this Todoroki only uses the ice side of his Quirk out of resentment towards his father. Now until this episode we had little to no information on Todoroki, so although it is extremely compelling, I found myself wondering: why are we being told all this for such a minor character. It isn’t until the end of the fight that I realised why, upon completion of the fight (after an absolutely astonishing battle which I’ll come back to) it is revealed that Todoroki has actually won, eliminating Midoriya (the main character) early on in the tournament. This was mind-blowing to me as it completely subverts your expectations, Midoriya doesn’t even get eliminated in the final battle but instead in the semi finals. While the shock from this revelation is still settling in, the title of this episode is finally revealed, “Shoto Todoroki: Origin”, now we realise what has been happening. In the span of a single 24 minute episode, Todoroki has become one of the shows main characters and in many ways has become even more compelling than Midoriya. This is when I realised that although Midoriya is the main character, the show is truly an ensemble. I’d never seen anything like this before, of course all shows usually have an episode or two which focus on individual characters, but My Hero Academia go’s even further by essentially using this episode to graduate a minor character into one of the main cast. Todoroki is the most obvious example of this happening, but it continues to happen throughout, in varying degrees, to a variety of different characters. Ochaco Uraraka (who I’ve already mentioned) is given a similar moment during the Sports Festival where she must compete against Bakugo, who’s explosive powers are obviously far more devastating than her zero gravity Quirk. However she refuses to give up letting Bakugo severely injure her with multiple attacks in order to create the necessary debris for her to use in a counter-attack. Although this ends up not working as Bakugo manages to let off one final devastating explosion that stops her attack, her motivation and drive is shown as she continues to fight despite being almost fully immobilised. During this fight we are also shown her backstory, that she wants to become a pro hero in order to make enough money to support her parents. We also see how Midoriya inspired her to continue through his repeated fighting in the face of defeat. Although this sequence wasn’t anywhere near as large and important to the overall series as Todoroki’s, it adds so many more layers to her character. However these aren’t just limited to the main cast or supporting characters, there are characters who show up for only an episode or two but in that short time receive more development than most side characters in other shows. For example, during that same Sports Festival arc Midoriya has to go up against a new character named Hitoshi Shinso. Although we know Midoriya has an immense power, Shinso becomes much more intimidating when it’s revealed that his power is akin to mind control. He takes control of Midoriya and practically forces him to forfeit by attempting to make him walk out of bonds. This shows that how strong someone is isn’t necessarily the end-all, be-all. Midoriya could have been easily taken out by Shinso’s mind control power despite his insane power. However part of me wanted Shinso to win, as you are shown a small portion of his backstory where he is mocked for having a power more akin to a villain despite wanting to become a hero. Obviously Midoriya was going to win (even that isn’t a definite as I hadn’t got to the Todoroki fight yet), but part of me really felt for Shinso despite his character literally not being explored except for a couple of scenes. The show mainly focuses on the characters from Class 1-A (Midoriya’s class), with the other classes from UA usually getting the short end of the straw, but there have even been times where these characters have been allowed to shine in a similar way. In Season 3, when a group of villains attack the students during a trainingcamp, two students from Class 1-B really stood out. When a villain called Mustard knocks out a majority of the students with his sleeping gas (including many of Class 1-A), the students Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Itsuka Kendo are the last line of defence against this villain. This confrontation is one of the tensest battles in the show to date, mainly because since these characters are so minor they genuinely could be about to be killed off.Mustard’s gas is merely a defensive power rather than an attacking one so he has instead brought a literal gun with him in order to fight off the students. Tetsutetsu’s power allows him to harden his skin into metal (much like Colossus) and Kendo has the ability to enlarge both of her hands into a giant size, in other words they aren’t exactly the best suited to take on an armed villain while also trying to avoid his incapacitating sleeping gas Quirk. Although Tetsutetsu can solidify his skin into metal,when he does actually try to attack Mustard he is met with a barrage of bullets. These are noticeably painful and although the first few ping off him it becomes noticeable that his metal skin is becoming worn and cracking under the immense force from the blasts. Neither of them can take on Mustard directly, due to his firearm, so they must instead use the gas surrounding them as cover to hide their attacks from him. Mustard has the upper hand throughout, and eventually manages to immobilize Tetsutetsu with repeated shots. This scene becomes quite horrific as although it is a superhero story, what’s really happening is a villain repeatedly shooting a young man. His metal begins to crack under the force and just when he finally gives up revealing his flesh underneath, Kendo jumps from the gas knocking Mustard backwards with her enlarged fist. This gives Tetsutetsu enough time to deliver one last punch, so powerful that it shatters Mustard’s mask and his face in general. Neither of these characters are given much build-up in the lead up to this fight (no backstory or flashbacks like with other characters), yet putting them in such a tense situation where they prevail against all odds really got me to care about these two characters. They could never be focused on again in the series (even though this is doubtful based on this great moment) and I would care about them just as much as some of the other characters which we see weekly, simply due to the superb execution in this scene. I may have spent too much time on this one point, about how the show expertly handles different characters and gets you to care about them but I feel this is a key aspect of what makes it so great. As of the most recent episode (S3, Ep 18) the show is still doing this in a fantastic way. In the current arc all of the heroes in Class 1-A are trying to get their provisional hero license so they can operate as heroes without technically breaking the law (without the license they would be vigilantes). I won’t get into all the details but essentially the students are in a sort of dodgeball scenario where they must get out other applicants in the exam by tagging them with balls. In this scenario there have been multiple large character moments much like the ones I have been describing.Denki Kaminari is a Class 1-A student who hasn’t been given much development throughout the series, so far he has been more of a comic relief character. His Quirk is the ability to shoot out electricity, however he can only do it in short bursts as if he lets off a large volt he will be let in a moronic state where he becomes an idiot for a short stretch of time. However when he and Bakugo come across another applicant who can manipulate flesh (and has turned many of their fellow classmates into little flesh balls), he has to step up the plate. Bakugo attacks straight ahead and ends up getting morphed into a little ball as well. Kaminari cannot use a large blast of electricity as it may damage his teammates so he must rely on his intuition to win. Here it is revealed that he has been working on improving his powers by visiting the workshop (run by Hatsume, a character who also steals the spotlight despite merely showing up in a few episodes). He throws a projectile at the other applicant which sticks to him, it appears that Kaminari has done something wrong as the projectile has no effect. However it is then revealed that this projectile is conductive and that any electricity will be drawn towards it, meaning Kaminari can aim a large blast of electricity but that it will only injure the other applicant. He fries the other applicant with his electricity, freeing Bakugo and his fellow students in the process while delivering a nice monologue to the over-confident applicant. This hero moment cements his character as another one of the series best, yet it’s not even the only example of this in the same 24 minute episode. Later on another character named Yugo Aoyama has a similarly impactful hero moment. His Quirk allows him to shoot a navel-laser (Yes a laser that shoots out of the bellybutton), which isn’t necessarily the most useful Quirk. However he somehow manages to use it in a sacrificial way. In the last few minutes of the ‘dodgeball’ stage of the exam only a few more spots are remaining. Aoyama realises that he likely isn’t going to pass in these last few minutes with his lower powered Quirk, so he decided to fire it up into the air in order to attract in other desperate enemies (who really need a target to pass). He hopes that while he attracts the others in, some of his fellow classmates may be able to pass by catching the enemies while they are distracted. Up to this point his character has been relatively one note with him simply being the flamboyant or fashionable one who always wants to be the centre of attention. In a way he kind of was in the end as his signal worked, managing to attract in many other enemies. He was willing to sacrifice his chance at becoming a hero in the hopes that his friends and fellow students may succeed in his place. This, much like Kaminari or Tetsutetsu/Kendo from Class 1-B, adds a whole new dimension to this character. We know very little about him or his motivations, but now we know that he truly cares about his fellow class mates and has quite a selfless and caring side to him when it comes to them. Both Kaminari and Aoyama were almost completely unimportant before this episode, yet now I actually care about them and if they succeed in the future. The show pulled off the same thing with Todoroki, Shinso, Tetsutetsu and Kendo and it is the only example of this that I have ever seen in television (let alone anime). This is what makes My Hero Academia and its characters special: they are all truly layered and important, even if we don’t know it yet. I probably shouldn’t have left this so late into the piece, but there is one aspect of My Hero Academia which I love above everything else (including the subversive way it handles plot and characters). This aspect is the strong emotional resonance that many moments throughout the show have had with me. There are almost too many to mention (especially in such a long piece) but I feel like I have to highlight a few of the most affecting ones.Earlier I mentioned there being an emotional moment early on that got to me. This occurs in Episode 2 of the series, when a Sludge villain kidnaps and tries to possess Bakugo. With All Might being injured there is no one who can possibly save Bakugo, so Midoriya runs into the fray in order to attempt to save him, despite him having no power at the time. Although its one of the less emotional ones, it’s just so inspiring. Midoriya is willing to sacrifice himself to save Bakugo, this is so powerful that it inspires All Might, who can barely maintain his powered form, to jump in and save them both. He destroys the monster in one hit; this hit is so powerful that it creates a huge gust of wind which literally causes it to rain due to the wind pressure. This moment really connected with me as it both showed Midoriya’s strong motivations as well as All Might’s insane level of power in one single scene. To be fair there aren’t a lot of these moments in Season 1 (well at least compared to the later seasons), but there is one other extremely epic scene which stands out. This takes place near the end of Season 1 where All Might has to face off against a Nomu, a monster that has designed to be resistant to his powers, in order to protect the UA students. He eventually realises that the Nomu has a shock absorbance power which is making All Might’s attacks futile. All Might knows that even though he is absorbing all of the attacks that there must be some limit to it, so he gives repeated punches to the Nomu, smashing it over and over again. Over time All Might finally releases a full 100% of his power, this creates a small explosion upon contact, which propels the Nomu through the roof and up into the atmosphere, passing through multiple clouds on the way up. This shows the full scale and extent of All Might’s power in such a fascinating way, he delivers one last final blow in order to protect his students. The emotional moments in Season 1 are relatively tame compared to some of the ones in Season 2, if you can believe it. The first major one that I have already mentioned is the fight between Midoriya and Todoroki during the UA Sports Festival. As I’ve already mentioned Todoroki has a severe grudge against his father, Endeavor, and therefore he refuses to use the fire part of his Quirk, which he inherited from his father, in order to spite him. Midoriya sees this and becomes angry; he sees Todoroki refusing to use all of his power and thinks that he is underestimating him. He wants them to have a fair fight so that the winner will truly know who is more powerful. Midoriya tries to goad Todoroki into using his fire side by telling him that the power is now his own, not his fathers. He tries to get a reaction out of Todoroki by insulting him and using his vast power to shatter Todoroki’s ice attacks. He is trying to back Todoroki into a corner where he is forced to accept the power as his own and use it in order to win. This shows Midoriya’s pure hero side shining through. Even though he is putting himself at a disadvantage by doing this he feels the need to help his opponent come to terms with his own powers and inadequacies, in order to make Todoroki a better hero. The fight itself is absolutely stunning. Todoroki throws up walls of ice against Midoriya, and each time Midoriya sacrifices a finger (by channelling All Might’s power into it) to completely destroy them. Todoroki thinks he can simply just tire Midoriya out by making him use all of his fingers, but even after Midoriya uses every single finger he begins using the same ones again, causing permanent damage to his body. Midoriya is sacrificing his own body as well as his chances at winning in order to make Todoroki embrace his full power. This comes to an incredible climax, where Midoriya finally almost beats Todoroki forcing him to use his fire power. Both of them are now content, with Midoriya ready to finally see the true winner and Todoroki having finally come to terms with his power they are ready to fight. This comes together in one last beautiful clash. Midoriya launches himself across the battlefield channelling All Might’s power into his fist for one final punch, at the same time Todoroki uses both his fire and ice attacks in unison surrounding himself in a large fiery explosion and he begins to glow almost white with the intense heat. The judges realise that both of them are at risk of seriously injuring the other so a teacher with a Cement creating Quirk tries to put up a wall between them. Both Midoriya and Todoroki hit this wall at the same time causing a huge, beautiful explosion that almost fills the whole arena. Apart from this sequence being absolutely breath-taking, the cherry on top does not arrive until the smoke clears and we realise that Todoroki has won. Despite this obviously being a large defeat for Midoriya, this interaction actually brought him and Todoroki closer together as they now feel a much closer connection to each other as they both respect each other. Todoroki respects Midoriya for sacrificing the match to help him realise his true potential and Midoriya respects Todoroki for finally coming to terms with his powers. This conflict is just so emotional to ponder, while also being beautiful to watch: the pure artistry on display in this sequence is something to behold. Could you believe that the show has another scene that almost rivals this interaction? Because it does and this scene occurred during Season 3. Although I examined the Midoriya and Todoroki fight in a huge amount of detail, and it is probably the best scene overall both in terms of its emotional significance as well as the amazing action happening on screen, there is still another scene that I would have to say is my favourite. This occurs early in Season 3 when a group of villains attack the students while at a training camp, this is the same attack in which Tetsutetsu and Kendo fought against Mustard (Jesus, that was a while ago). During this arc Midoriya meets a young boy named Kota who hates heroes because his parents were heroes who were killed in the line of duty. Midoriya tries to comfort Kota, but he doesn’t want anything to do with him as he is a hero. However when the villains attack, Midoriya realises that Kota is missing and that he could run into the path of a villain. Kota ends up being incredibly unlucky and runs into Muscular, a blood thirsty villain who actually killed his parents. Muscular’s Quirk allows him to enlarge his muscles to an insane degree essentially turning him into a huge hulking monstrosity. Midoriya arrives just in time to save Kota and he faces off against Muscular. Midoriya tries to use Full Cowling (only 5% of All Might’s power) to try and quickly incapacitate Muscular however he is just too strong and Midoriya is forced to use 100% of the All for One power in order to win. Throughout the show this final attack has been absolutely devastating to almost every opponent from the giant robot from his first exam to Todoroki during the sports festival. However the series does what it does best, and subverts your expectations even more. Muscular shakes off the attack with little to no damage. Midoriya’s arm is still completely shattered yet he has barely even scratched his enemy; he is completely outclassed against Muscular. Muscular attacks with violent delight in Midoriya’s pain sending him flying away, this leaves Kota in full view of Muscular who is ready to end his life. This is when Midoriya’s heroic qualities begin to shine through yet again. Despite his body being partially broken he jumps back into the fray to shield Kota from Muscular’s attack. Midoriya may be a young child but here you see his raw, powerful emotion as he screams at Muscular vowing that he will never hurt Kota, even as Muscular begins to force himself down on Midoriya beginning to suffocate him, Midoriya continues to scream showing that he will not give up. It’s not until he is almost fully engulfed that he eventually breaks down beginning to cry in pain beneath the hulking mass of Muscular. The screen cuts to black and we don’t know what has become of Midoriya, until a splash of water hits the screen. Muscular turns to see a weeping Kota, who has finally revealed that he has a Water based Quirk (much like his parents). He has been hiding this the whole time due to his hate towards heroes, but he has been so completely shocked and amazed my Midoriya’s efforts to protect him that he has completely changed his mind. It could even be assumed that his intense, passionate urge to protect Midoriya has caused this Quirk to develop. Midoriya’s heroic actions inspired Kota so much that he was willing to risk his life to try and stop Midoriya’s defeat. You may think this is the most poignant and emotional that a scene could possibly get, but somehow it gets even better. Muscular is surprised by this sudden attack from Kota, giving Midoriya enough time to plunge his fist deep into Muscular’s stomach. While he has Muscular pinned with one hand, Midoriya channels more power than he could ever imagine into his other hand and hits him with a “1,000,000% Smash”. The sheer idea that Midoriya at 100% could barely scratch Muscular, so much so that he had to dig deep down inside of himself and use “1,000,000%” of his power is insane. Obviously this number isn’t exact, as that kind of power would likely surpass All Might, it shows Midoriya’s desperation in this fight as he gathers all the power he possibly can and delivers one final catastrophic blow. This statement that he’s delivering one million percent of his power is just so epic and mind-blowing that it made me giddy when I first saw it, this is by far the most hype moment I have seen in any medium (TV show or movie) in the last couple of years. This confrontation, even more so than Midoriya vs Todoroki, is an absolutely perfect balance of the emotions behind the fight and the sheer awesomeness of what’s actually occurring on screen. In my mind it has defined Midoriya (or Deku – his hero name) as one of the greatest heroes of all time. The astonishing level of power he displays while also giving his all to protect someone is far more heroic than anything I’ve ever seen Superman do. Much like this scene cemented Midoriya as one of the greatest heroes of all time, it has also cemented My Hero Academia as one of my favourite shows of all time as well. Now if you’ve read my previous pieces then you know I do have a tendency to get obsessed with some things for a period of time, but in writing this piece I feel I can now say, without hyperbole, that My Hero Academia is quickly becoming one of my favourite shows of all time.It just kept hitting me with interesting concept after interesting concept, all while subverting my expectations in the process. Midoriya’s power is what drew me in at first, the sheer brilliance of a power that cannot be overused or solely depended upon because it hurts the user. Then it was the amazing way it handled characters, how it seemed to fluently introduce characters and in a matter of scenes convert them into main characters with just as compelling motivations and an ideology as Midoriya. Finally it was the absolutely riveting emotions that the show stirred within me during its most climatic scenes, whether this was the fantastic fight between Midoriya and Todoroki or the astonishing fight with Muscular where I went from deep sadness to near childlike giddiness in a matter of moments. I began watching this series in the hopes that it would give me more of an insight into anime and why it was so popular, but the show expanded beyond that delivering an experience that I’ve not been able to find in most other movies or television shows in recent years. This is a show that I would recommend to anyone, even if I have spoiled a lot of its greatest strengths in this piece, some of them just cannot be conveyed in words. It’s achievements need to be seen to be believed. Devil May Cry has always been a series that has intrigued me. I remember seeing reviews for the HD collection when it launched back in 2012 and thinking it looked like some of the coolest shit I’d ever seen. The style and character are what instantly grabbed me; I remember seeing the badass, trash-talking demon hunter Dante through my young pre-pubescent eyes and being instantly drawn towards it. By today’s standards his character and personality are about as camp and cheesy as it gets, but at the time my younger self found it awe-inspiring. However at the time we didn’t really have a lot of disposable income and I was really only limited to a few games a year, so I had a choice. Do I drop £40 on getting the HD collection which was a remaster of three relatively old PlayStation 2 games or do I spend that same money on the hottest, newest releases in order to feel part of the conversation. In retrospect the collection would probably have been the best value for money considering there were three full games included, but my younger self didn’t really seem to understand that concept and decided to go for a newer release which I believe was Far Cry 3 at the time. So Devil May Cry receded into the deeps of my mind never to be thought of again.
Until E3 2018 when Microsoft revealed the long-awaited Devil May Cry 5 during their E3 press conference. The series had still been around in the years since my ultimatum, with Ninja Theory’s 2013 remake DmC: Devil May Cry, but there hadn’t been an entry in the original franchise since 2008’s Devil May Cry 4, ten years prior to this announcement. This was the first time I had seen the reveal and was now awaiting the imminent release of a new, original Devil May Cry game and it gave me the incentive I needed to finally jump into the series. My first goal was to get my hands on the elusive HD collection which I managed to pick up on eBay for less than £10, a far cry from the original £40 price tag at its release. After a few days of twiddling my thumbs and rewatching the DMC 5 trailer on repeat the package finally arrived. I dusted off my PlayStation 3, put in the disc and prepared myself for the experience I’d imagined all those years ago. The first thing I’m met with upon booting up the game is a choice between each of the three games, although the games chronologically go in the order, DMC 3, DMC and then DMC 2, I’m going to be playing them in the order of release because playing/watching things chronologically doesn’t make very much sense. If you tried to play the Metal Gear games chronologically you’d probably have an aneurysm from all the retconning and inconsistent character developments. Anyway lets move on to the original Devil May Cry. The game opens with a stylish cutscene of Dante showing off his supernatural abilities, being able to essentially juggle a motorbike by repeatedly shooting it with his guns (apparently with infinite ammo) and with him subsequently shrugging off getting impaled by a very large, very Japanese sword. The one who has attacked him is another supernatural being named Trish, but she doesn’t aim to kill Dante, instead she is testing to see if he is truly the Son of Sparda, a legendary Demon. Upon confirming this she then tasks Dante with heading to Mallet Island, where an ancient evil named Mundus is gathering power. Following their arrival at the island, Trish decides to go off by herself (literally jumping miles out of frame) because apparently they didn’t want to have any NPC’s on this desolate island. Although it has been touted as one of the best action (or ‘character action’) games ever made, the first section of DMC has essentially no action. It has a much more quiet and atmospheric tone as you run throughout the halls of a gothic castle as an eerie track plays. It seems more like a survival horror game rather than a fast-paced hack and slash, and that’s because Devil May Cry originally started as a survival horror game. The game was originally Resident Evil 4, but after it began to delve into a more supernatural and action-packed territory it was deemed not correct for the franchise and Capcom turned it into a new IP. Saying that now seems pretty ironic considering that Resident Evil eventually turned into a sort of action title of its own by the time the 5th and 6th entries came around. Although this was likely a financial decision at the time as they couldn’t cancel the project due to the resources already invested into it, it actually payed off for Capcom as Devil May Cry is now one of their most popular franchises. Eventually you do come across your first puppet-like enemy and the combat was just as crunchy and satisfying as I’d expected. It did take some getting used to at first as it very quickly becomes apparent that the game is designed to be played with a very high level of skill in order to obtain the best rankings and to be as effective as possible. I originally thought this made the controls quite clunky but over time, as I got more used to the different combos and button-presses it became very satisfying to pull off. This is expected as the game was directed by Hideki Kamiya who went on to found Platinum Games and direct titles such as Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. The series has been knocked in the past for being needlessly difficult, more so in DMC 3 as those cheeky Japs decided to make the Japanese hard mode into normal mode in Europe and North America, leading to the game eventually being re-released, but I think the difficulty at points in all three of the original games is important as it forces players to not rely on the simplest moves and to experiment a bit more in order to find the most risky, yet effective moves. The whole cycle of identifying enemies, changing your attacks based on this and eventually getting those sweet, sweet red orbs upon killing them is just so satisfying that I kept on getting pulled back to the title, even after completing it. My continued playing is even more commendable considering I wanted to keep playing even though I knew I had several titles still to get through, showing just how much it hooked me. To wrap up the story, which is relatively unimportant in this game, after defeating several bosses, Trish eventually betrays Dante and it is revealed that she was created by Mundus to lure him to the island. However Dante refuses to kill her as she was created in the image of his mother, which puts up some warning signs as its pretty obvious he is flirting with her throughout and therefore has somewhat of an Oedipus complex. Luckily we won’t need to deal with this emotional baggage for very long as she soon sees the error of her ways and sacrifices herself for Dante, this obviously angers him which gives him the extra push he needs to defeat Mundus, in a shoot em’ up section of all things which apparently Kamyia likes to include in a lot of his games. Dante then cradles Trish in his arms, somehow bringing her back to life through the power of love (or in this case horrible line delivery), so he can continue their kind of creepy unspoken thing. They escape together as the island explodes and the first Devil May Cry is brought to a close. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience, some elements are a little out-dated by today’s standards such as the graphics but the combat was satisfying enough to keep me coming back for more, even after moving onto later entries in the series. A sequel is supposed to build upon the original and improve it by introducing new concepts and refining the already established ones, however somehow Devil May Cry 2 reals like more of a prototype for the original than a continuation. I knew DMC 2 had a reputation for not being very good going into it, so I tried to be positive and adjust my expectations accordingly. However I did find it hard to find some silver linings in this as it was kind of a slog. The combat system appears to have been simplified to the point where its more effective to simply button-mash then try to use complex combos, the guns also are included in the style meter which makes it extremely easy to get up to S ranks simply by launching and shooting a majority of enemies. The level design is also severely lacking compared to the original, with many of the levels being large and sprawling which makes them boring to traverse and even more boring to fight in as you must dash across the arena multiple times simply to reach certain enemies. This is further highlighted in the boss fights, with there being multiple bosses who cannot even be reached with sword attacks and therefore you simply must just shoot them from the other side of the level. This causes so little damage, even with Devil Trigger activated (a power-up which increases the damage of Dante’s attacks and makes him invulnerable to damage) that it leads to you having to mash the shoot button, standing still, for multiple minutes just to defeat the boss. I don’t mean to sound so negative but it’s hard to remain optimistic when it’s obviously such a huge step down from the original. There are only really two main things I can compliment the game for. The first is kind of backhanded, but I guess it’s a positive. Since the combat has been so simplified it was lot easier for me to obtain S ranks, both during battles and the missions. The other, actual compliment is that the cell-shaded art-style is very visually pleasing, especially the character designs for Dante and the other playable character Lucia. Another plus is that this was the design/look used for Dante when he was featured in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, that’s completely unrelated but I feel I had to mention it (please ATLUS, have my babies!). I just remembered I almost completely forgot the plot of DMC2, but that’s ok because the game seemed to as well. Its incredibly bare-bones, with Dante essentially being a side-character in his own game, he’s also gone the Harvey Dent route of flipping coins to make decisions for some reason. The real main character is a women named Lucia, who is trying to stop an evil businessman (who’s name I don’t remember and refuse to google out of spite) from gathering several magical artefacts named Arcana (Ohhhhh, those juicy social links) in the hopes that they will become a demon. There are two separate campaigns, one as Dante and one as Lucia, yet they may as well be one singular campaign as they visit a large majority of the same locations, there are multiple characters but not enough areas to justify them all, this is a problem which actually kind of becomes a staple for the Devil May Cry series (see DMC 4). In the story, Lucia eventually discovers that she was created by Mr Evil Businessman, sending her into an existential crisis over the fact that she’s essentially a demon. Although its kind of pointless, at least she has a character arc, compared to Dante who’s only reason for going on his adventure is getting a story about his father, Sparda (remember him, jeez this is going to be long) from an old women. That’s literally it, the only thing that keeps DMC 2 from being completely inconsequential is that it chronologically is the last game in the DMC timeline, and at the end Dante traps himself in hell in order to stop [Insert evil demon here] from taking over the world. So technically Dante is still trapped in Hell all these years later, which is funny because that’s exactly where DMC 2 belongs, the deepest pits of hell. Obviously I’m exaggerating to an extent, DMC 2 is not a horrible game by any means and there are far worse games out there that you could play instead. It was really a victim of production troubles from behind the scenes and interference from Capcom’s upper management. For some reason the team who made the original DMC, Team Little Devils, led by Hideki Kamiya was not brought back to create the sequel, to further rub it in they weren’t even informed of DMC 2 being in production until it was almost half way complete. This seems like a poor decision made by Capcom to turn around a sequel quicker, immediately after the first ones release. However this backfired as DMC 2 was met with serious production troubles, because of this the original director for DMC 2 (who to this day is still unknown) was deemed to not be working correctly and was replaced by now long-running franchise director Hideaki Itsuno. Although he wasn’t able to fully turn it around, I believe DMC 2 would have been a far worse game without Itsuno’s involvement. Luckily he was the director on the next Devil May Cry game from the start and it payed off big time. Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening is a prequel to the entire series, much like MGS 3: Snake Eater is to its series. Personally it is my favourite Devil May Cry game, as it combines all the best aspects of the series for me. The combat is far more similar to the original DMC and has some improvements which in my eyes make it even better. Dante is younger, wackier and generally just a joy to be around. He’s spouting cheesy one-liners left and right and is just generally being the coolest, yet he also seems to have a more dramatic, quiet side to him which was only seen very briefly in the original. But the thing that surprised me the most and completely exceeded my expectations was the game’s story. When I saw the level of art and creativity in the cinematics of the DMC 5 trailer, I kept asking myself when does this start in the series. And the answer is… it starts here baby! Before I get to the actual story I feel like I have to mention the cinematics and cutscenes in this game. Although they were originally made to be rendered on a PS2 they are seriously movie quality, with amazing cinematography, a brilliant score which is a mix of both hard rock and orchestral music and a sense of style which even out-preforms the gameplay at points. I found myself enjoying most of these cinematics more than gameplay at parts, which is a big endorsement considering how much I like the gameplay. The cutscene director, Yuji Shimomura, is just so good at it I’m surprised he hasn’t done more game work besides the Devil May Cry series and Bayonetta. The plot follows Dante and his brother Vergil who have always had a very intense (and violent) sibling rivalry. Vergil is trying to acquire the power of their father Sparda, by opening a door to the underworld, however in order to do this he requires Dante’s half of a necklace that was left to them. This puts the two brothers in conflict with each other as Dante tries to protect humanity and Vergil turns his back on humanity in order to fully embrace his demon side. There rivalry is the main crux of the story, but there is also another very interesting side story involving two other characters. Vergil has acquired the help of a mysterious man named Arkham whose assistance he needs in order to open the door to the underworld. However Arkham has a daughter, named Mary (though she no longer goes by that name, instead taking on the name Lady), who is in pursuit of Arkham In order to get revenge for him sacrificing her mother in a ritual. I found myself really invested in Lady and her quest for revenge, mainly because she is best girl (Just kidding although its true considering Lucia was kind of a waste and Trish gives off some serious incest vibes) and probably because she reminds of Makoto (once again, ATLUS call me), but I found Arkham to be a relatively boring and stereotypical adversary for her, or so I thought. Throughout the story a sort of demonic Jester follows Dante around and taunts him, seemingly disappearing and re-appearing out of nowhere. He seems like a version of Joker, but on crack-cocaine and made in Japan, and that’s about as insane as I can describe it using similes. Much like Dante, he is just a joy to watch, and seeing them both on screen together makes me happier than I’d like to admit. This tangent about the Jester may seem a bit pointless just now, but trust me it’ll make sense. Much like some of my favourite Guy Ritchie films all the different characters and plot lines eventually come together in one jaw-dropping scene. Dante reaches the gate to underworld and has a confrontation with Vergil, they are both evenly matched and really only succeed in completely tiring each other out. Eventually Lady arrives and stops the fight with her awesome bladed rocket launcher which I somehow forgot to mention. In their weakened state, the blast is enough to finally tire out them both and stop their fight. Its at this point that I begin waiting for Arkham to show up. Although we are supposed to think Vergil killed him, based on the narrative you know that someone has to show up to stop Dante and Lady defeating Vergil. However to my surprise it’s the Jester that shows up, in their weakened state he is able to overpower both Dante and Vergil. He reveals this was his master plan all along, for the brothers to distract each other while he swooped in and took the power of Sparda for himself by opening the gate. This in and of itself I found to be a clever twist, but it gets even better. The Jester begins talking to Lady about her past and about her mother, something it couldn’t possibly know, unless… The Jester reveals itself to be Arkham in disguise; he overpowers Lady and stabs her in the leg, smearing her blood on the gate. Arkham then reveals that her blood was the last step to opening the gate and that this was the only reason he married her mother and raised her. Although he switches between his human and Jester form to avoid their attacks, the three eventually overpower Arkham. Dante and Vergil realise he is the bigger enemy and unite to stop him gaining ultimate power, however they are too late as the gate begins to open and all the characters are separated as the floor crumbles around them. Now I may have went into a huge amount of detail with that scene but I believe this single scene shows how much Devil May Cry’s story has improved with this new game. This game includes two really great antagonists in the form of Vergil and Arkham/Jester. I believe it shows they have a great understanding of narrative structure, making us think Arkham is a relatively plain, boring side villain and them revealing him to be the hilarious Jester, who in some ways is more of a mastermind than Vergil. It also improves Vergil’s character, making him an anti-hero for a small portion of the game as he works to also defeat Arkham, however once that’s dealt with he sticks to his ideals and tries to reclaim Sparda’s power anyway. The revelations and character development in this scene combined with the beautiful, expertly crafted cutscene that its represented in makes it one of my best gaming memories this year. Although this is an experience that is likely just limited to me, it had such a profound effect on me that I felt I had to put it into words. The ending was also very effective as well. With Vergil taking his role back as the main antagonist after defeating Arkham, him and Dante have one last final fight to see who will inherit the necklace and therefore the key to Sparda’s power. Dante comes out on top, although he tries to stop him, Vergil plunges himself into the underworld in the hopes that this will help him unlock Sparda’s power, even though it means he will be stuck there just like his father once was (and just like Dante one day will be). After this Dante and Lady have one last insightful conversation where they both discuss the pain of losing a loved one, no matter how wrong they were or how evil they were, seeing them go is still truly saddening. This truly is a far cry from the inconsequential story in DMC 1 and the essentially non-existent story in DMC 2, to affect me on such an emotional level. Having the best gameplay in the Devil May Cry series and also having the most profound, entertaining and somewhat emotional story, Devil May Cry 3 is by far my favourite Devil May Cry game and possibly one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had this year. As much as I hate to say it, Devil May Cry 4 was kind of a disappointment in comparison. It still has a similar tone and style to DMC 3 but to me it seems like a bit of a step down. I think this is mainly down to the combat which I’m really conflicted about. There are two playable characters that play completely differently, the original character Dante and a new character named Nero, who has a demon arm good for long range grabbing. Surprisingly I actually find Nero’s combat a lot more satisfying then Dante’s. Nero has two main features that make him stand out. He has a sword called the Red Queen which has a motorcycle throttle on it, allowing him to charge up really, fast powerful attacks. Apart from looking good in cutscenes, it adds another level to gameplay as every attack can be charged at three different levels in order to make combat more layered and precise. The other main feature is Nero’s demon arm, which allows him to snatch enemies from the other side of the level or fling himself towards larger enemies such as bosses. This is very useful as the biggest problem I’ve found with the DMC series is that it can sometimes be hard to continue your combo (and get those sweet S ranks) as enemies are too far away for you to reach them before the meter goes down. Nero’s ability to shorten the distance between enemies using his grab makes the gameplay faster and more fluid. I’m not sure if its because I had to come down from the high of Nero’s gameplay or because it has been changed a lot since DMC 3 but I found Dante’s gameplay rather clunky in this game. This was really surprising to me, as DMC 4 is usually touted as having the best combat. Perhaps I just wasn’t as skilled enough to play Dante after relying on Nero’s all powerful grab attack for a few hours, but something about his gameplay just felt sluggish to me, like the buttons weren’t doing what I wanted. I probably just have to ‘get good’ as I’m sure many people would say, but it really didn’t feel as refined or as satisfying as DMC 3’s combat. Although Dante feels somewhat lacking in the gameplay department, what does redeem him a bit is that he still has the same quirky personality from DMC 3. During Dante’s part of the game there are essentially no new areas with you just backtracking through areas that Nero has already been to, but this wasn’t as egregious as I got to spend more time with Dante and see how he reacted to these situations. In comparison Nero is nowhere near as fun to be around for the first half of the game, he gets some bonus points for being voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch (Yu Narukami represent) but he really just feels like a discount version of Dante with the same flowing, White hair. He has a few good quips and one-liners, but really in the back of my mind I’d rather just be playing as Dante (although I’d rather have Nero’s combat). The only really interesting thing about his character is that he is apparently the son of Vergil, being able to wield his sword Yamato, but this isn’t really explored very much in the game so its relatively inconsequential (hopefully it will be explored more in DMC 5). Its not as bad as Raiden in MGS 2, as they didn’t try to trick us into thinking we’d be playing as Dante, with Nero being the fore-front of the game’s marketing, but its still a little egregious considering how good a character Dante is. The story was also a bit of a let down in comparison to DMC 3 as well. Really there isn’t much substance to it; essentially there is this evil pope who is trying to become a demon named Sanctus. Dante attempts to kill him during a religious ceremony, putting him into conflict with Nero (who does not know that the pope is evil). The first half of the game follows Nero as he attempts to track down Dante and eventually save his captured love interest, Kyrie. After spending half the game with Nero he is eventually overpowered and taken captive by Sanctus. It’s at this point that we take control of Dante and have to go back through all the same levels as Nero did but in reverse, much like Lucia/ Dante in DMC 2 who essentially had the exact same campaign. There isn’t much of consequence in the story, Dante eventually manages to free Nero and together they defeat Sanctus and free Kyrie, that’s pretty much it. The concept of Nero and Dante being against each other is interesting at first, but it isn’t really explored as they decide to unite against there common enemy very quickly. As for the franchise as a whole it has some interesting character interactions, since the game is set after DMC 1 but before DMC 2, it includes both Trish and Lady as Dante’s sidekicks. Its very satisfying to see them interact with each other, even Trish who was basically a non-character in the original is cool to see even if its more so just from nostalgia for the original. Sadly Lady is really only limited to two scenes in the entire game, even though she’s far more interesting than Trish who shows up consistently throughout (although never in cutscenes as I guess there still can’t be NPC’s 10 years later). Although I don’t mean to rag on it too much, DMC 4 was a partial disappointment to me. Perhaps this was because I loved DMC 3 so much, that my expectations were elevated going in. But to be fair the gameplay is still fun and although the story is pretty average its not horrible by any margin ( it still has those same action-packed cutscenes from DMC 3 which gives it some extra credit), so its still quite an enjoyable experience. Now most sane people would stop writing this here as its already needlessly long and I should have probably split it into separate parts, not to mention I’ve probably developed carpal tunnel from all typing. But I’ve gone this far, so I may as well give it my all. The most recent and also most controversial Devil May Cry game as I’ve already mentioned was Ninja Theory’s 2013 reboot DmC: Devil May Cry. Now the reason its controversial is because it’s the game that no one can seem to agree on, even most people can agree that DMC 2 isn’t very good so its quality is a lot more definitive. DmC: Devil May Cry has some serious problems; the plot is all over the place and the characterisation of Dante seems like its trying to be as edgy as possible. Although this isn’t entirely the fault of Ninja Theory as their original concept for Dante seemed very different, he seemed dark and broken and twisted (also he was smoking so that’s not your momma’s Dante anymore), but Capcom noticed the obvious backlash towards this change in character and tried to correct it. They forced them to make this Dante closer to the original, adding in different one-liners and jokes that didn’t match at all with his darker character and design. This resulted in Dante being a completely jumbled character, his darker side was not explored making him seem like more of an asshole than someone with a fractured psyche and the lighter, funnier side makes him seem like an insane person when combined with his other actions. Although Dante isn’t the only problem with the main story, the reboot also includes new versions of two series villains, Mundus (from DMC 1) who now is a sort of corporate businessman who rules over the human population through surveillance and mind control, and Vergil, who is actually Dante’s ally for most of the game, but decides to randomly turn on him at the very end as they have differing ideologies, although this seems like just a forced in reference to their rivalry from DMC 3 to remind fans how much they liked that game. So with Dante and Vergil being characters with random character shifts and very strange motivations it can be difficult to get invested in them, even Mundus who seems like the most complete character is really just a generic bad guy who wants to rule the world. Even though the story is a complete mess, I actually enjoy a lot of the design in the game. The whole idea of going into Limbo, this world between worlds, and the world breaking and exploding into different platforms was very interesting. A lot of the areas in this game even rival those in the originals when it comes to creativity, such as the nightclub level which feels like LSD fuelled trip filled with strobe lighting and dubstep. Another aspect of the game I actually enjoyed was the combat. Its not as complex as DMC 1 or DMC 3 but its still a very fun combat system, the controls have been simplified a bit which could be seen as a negative but it actually feels a lot better as its easier to pull off more complex moves. In this game, instead of Dante being half human, half demon, he is instead a Nephilim, a mix of both angel and demon. Because of this he has the ability to use both angel and demon weapons. He has a demon whip that brings enemies towards him and an angel version which brings him towards enemies, this is good as it incorporates Nero’s very satisfying grab mechanic from DMC 4. The demon weapons seem to rely on heavier attacks with a large battle axe and also fiery fists, where as the angel weapons are more focused on range with a large scythe that can reach far away enemies and literal throwing blades that can essential lock far away in place while they are sliced up, allowing you to focus on other enemies. Although Dante had multiple weapons to pick from in the previous games I always found them relatively uninteresting, instead sticking to his standard sword, however in this I really enjoyed using both the angel and demon weapons in order to pull off interesting combos and get better ranks by quickly switching between them with a button press. Many would say that its sacrilege, but by the end of my experience the large variety of weapon choice and interesting level design actually made me enjoy DmC’s combat more than DMC 4. Now DMC 4’s combat is still good but really in my opinion, outside of Nero’s combat, I just really couldn’t get into it. Overall I think DmC: Devil May Cry is unfairly hated upon for certain aspects of it simply because many people were salty that they thought they were getting this remake instead of DMC 5. I’m sure if more people looked back now knowing that they were still getting a DMC 5, they would be a lot kinder towards this game and would judge it more fairly. That’s not to say its perfect, the story and characters really aren’t good especially in comparison to the likes of DMC 3, but I think the gameplay and level design really make up for it. Perhaps this was because I went into it with such low expectations but I feel I could make a genuine argument for why I found this game better than DMC 4. So that’s it. I’ve done it. I’ve covered every single Devil May Cry game and it took ages. I did consider also looking at some supplementary material like the anime as well, but that’s probably just a bit too much to squeeze into this mammoth of a piece. At the end of the day, DMC 3 is my favourite by far, with the original DMC coming in at a close second. As I said earlier, although I know its sacrilege, I would genuinely put Devil May Cry 4 and DmC: Devil May Cry neck and neck against each other in terms of quality. DMC 4 has a pretty standard story with gameplay I found lacking, but DmC has an atrocious story with fun and satisfying gameplay, so I’m just going to be indecisive and give them a joint 3rd place. Sadly Devil May Cry 2 is severely lacking in content overall, with a poor quality story and poor quality gameplay so it comes in dead last, it still gets some points for the cool cell-shading though. So what should we expect from this franchise in the future? As I already mentioned DMC 5 looks truly terrific (it inspired me to write this huge piece after all), it looks like a modernised version of DMC 4 with a combat system that seems more refined, it seems to be going back to what made DMC 3’s great while also including a few necessary changes from the reboot of all things. We’ll being playing as Nero and Dante again as well as a yet to be revealed third character. Needless to say I am hyped for what’s to come from DMC 5 in the next couple of months, and as of just now it is definitely on my essential purchases next year. If you made it all the way to the end of this piece then you really are a soldier and I’d like to thank you for your support, now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go and hibernate until DMC 5’s release with Devil Trigger playing on a loop. For me, completing Persona 4 Golden was akin to the loss of a relationship with a close friend or loved one. One day it was there, a seemingly never-ending activity to fall back on whenever I didn't know what to do with myself, the next it was gone. After I had seen those credits roll, I knew there was a part of me missing. A void in my heart that I never knew existed, but now craved to be filled. After a few days of wallowing in my own misery (over something which, to be perfectly honest shouldn’t be that important), I decided it was time to take action. Although a great man (or woman, I really don’t know who) once said, “Time heals all wounds”, this was not advice which I could take to heart. In my mind, simply doing nothing would only cause my state to worsen, so I decided to go on a journey of knowledge and self-discovery (to put it dramatically). If I was going to find true happiness again, then I would have to take a deep dive into the Persona series.
My first stop on this journey was an unexpected one. The first game which I played following P4G was actually one of the least similar to it in the entire series, even though it had actually been developed by Atlus’ core Persona team. I’m of course speaking of Catherine, which was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011 (about a year or so before P4G even launched). This was mainly because I had already acquired the game for free several months back through PlayStation Plus so I didn’t have to mess around with buying new games or having to wait for deliveries to arrive. The story follows a 30-something man named Vincient who begins to experience deadly nightmares after he cheats on his girlfriend, Katherine with a K (a relatively proper and controlling women) with a free-loving, sex maniac (I guess is the right way to put it), Catherine with a C. Like Persona, the game is split into two main sections. In the real world Vincient hangs out at his favourite bar where you can talk to the regular patrons, text people from your phone, drink as well as play an arcade machine which helps you in the other main part of the game. In comparison to Persona, the is obviously much smaller scale as you cannot leave the confines of the bar. Despite this the creators still managed to pack the bar full of interesting people and sub-plots. The second section, which is far more substantial than the bar, is during Vincient’s nightmares. Here you must scale ginormous towers of blocks, by a combination of pushing and pulling in order to create paths up the tower. Along the way you will have to compete against other ‘sheep’ (don’t ask, it’s a nightmare thing) as well as bosses which slowly destroy the tower and add on extra pressure as Vincient must puzzle his way up to the top. Although it is obviously much different from Persona, which is a turn-based JRPG, these block puzzles in Catherine are immensely satisfying and I have a feeling they will have me coming back to the game a lot in the future. The one negative, I would bring up is that the story in Catherine does go a bit off the rails at points, to be fair P4G had similar moments but they felt much less frequent. I suppose it just comes with the territory though, when your dealing with demons and nightmares and people turning into sheep it’s pretty hard to stay grounded. Outside of some of those aforementioned moments, Catherine does have a relatively compelling story. It is all based around a morality system and raises some genuinely interesting moral dilemmas and questions surrounding relationships which I feel have managed to help me better understand myself as a person. Overall Catherine did manage to continue my Persona fix, the Persona team manages to bring their trademark style to the characters and story making my time spent away from Inaba (the setting in a P4G) a little more easy to stomach. Catherine was a great experience, that had managed to give me that feeling of being back in a world akin to P4G, but it was time for something more substantial and familiar. It was time to get back into the core Persona series. After scrolling through many blog posts and forums I decided that I would give the orginal Persona a miss. It was available to me, as the original PS1 game had received a remake on the PSP, but through my research I discovered that although it did still have the same turn-based combat it was lacking a large feature the later games had introduced. Both Persona 1 and 2 did not contain the Social Link system which I still believe was one of the main reasons I loved P4G so much. To me, it simply wouldn’t feel like the same experience without it. Although I will include the caveat that once I am all caught up on the series more recent instalments I may very well go back to Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment as there stories do seem incredibly interesting. From this point, the most logical step was to jump into Persona 3: FES (which is just the orginal Persona 3 with some added story and gameplay improvements). Persona 3 is incredibly similar to the orginal Persona 4 on the PS2 (which is in turn incredibly similar to P4G which was essentially just an expanded version of the original Persona 4 for the PS Vita). They look almost identical in both the way they play and how their story is told. It also was the first game to include the Social Link feature which I had sorely-missed by this point. Persona 3 follows a group of teenagers, who have the Potential, this means they have the power to use Personas. Essentially there is an extra amount of time during the night known as the Dark Hour, during this time shadows appear and the local school turns into a large, seemingly never-ending tower called Tartarus. Those with the Potential are the only ones who can stay awake (or even have memory of the Dark Hour) during this time, so they must take it upon themselves to fight the shadows and discover the true cause behind Tartarus and the whole Dark Hour. At this point I have played about 40 hours of Persona 3 and I’m happy to say that it has recaptured that feeling I got playing P4G about a month ago. Like P4G it’s cast of characters is fanatastic, with some of them such as Yukari (probably my love interest) and Akihiko (another silent badass) rivalling (although never surpassing) the likes of Noato and Kanji in my memory. The fact that they managed to replicate such a fantastic cast of characters across different games is amazing to me, and makes me even more hyped for when I eventually get round to Persona 5. Overall I think I am enjoying Persona 3’s story even more than P4G, I guess the science-gone wrong angle is more interesting to me than the murder mystery one. Jumping into another game with such a great story and cast of memorable characters has really taught me a valuable lesson in a way. About a month ago I thought I’d never be able to move on from the P4G characters, but once you actually take the plunge and try something different it becomes so much clearer. Moving on is an essential part of life. Life is transitory, always changing and evolving in new and frightening ways. If you don’t learn to move on and try to get on with your life then you’ll be stuck in that rut forever. If I hadn’t went out of my way to try the likes of Catherine and Persona 3 during my brief post-P4G depression then that could have lasted far longer than I was comfortable with. So yes, I believe that Persona is a new addiction in my life, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. At first I thought it was maybe just a phase, but now I think it might be a new part of me. I’ll probably play the Persona 4 spin-offs, fighting games, dancing games, maybe I’ll even give the anime another go. Now I’ll probably even be able to appreciate them even more as they include characters from Persona 3 who I have now also formed a deep connection with. After that there’s Persona 5, which will most likely be another transformative experience for me (in the same way that P4G and Persona 3 have been). The only reason for me not jumping into this straight after Persona 3 is really just that the price hasn’t gone down by much since its original launch. In trying to wrap this all into a nice little conclusion, I keep coming to the same problem. What happens when I run out? What about after Persona 5? What about after the hundereds of eventual spin-offs of that?. They’ve already announced two new dancing games: Persona 5: Dancing Star Night (which I’ll definetly be playing after that game) and Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night. This will reunite me with the Persona 3 characters and will hopefully serve as a fitting send off for the P3 cast in the same way that Persona 4: Dancing All Night allowed me to say goodbye to that cast. So back to answering that question. I think I’ve came to an interesting realisation. Even after I’m completely caught up, the Persona series will not be done. It’s still in its infancy when compared to other long running series. There will be a Persona 6 and hopefully several more to come after that. Although this experience has been an emotional and saddening journey at points, the series has also brought some much needed joy and excitement into my life. And for that I will always have a place in my heart for Persona: the series that taught me that it’s ok to move on, even when the future seems uncertain. One of the film scenes I always seemed to find myself watching over and over again growing up was Renton’s withdrawl scene in the original Trainspotting. No I’m not talking about the dead upside down baby with the backwards head, but the scene earlier in the film where he has to lock himself in his room with several different combinations of food, drink, medication and *ahem* pornography in order to successfully stay off of heroin for several days. Although this is essentially a pointless tangent to serve as an introduction, it always really put me off of taking drugs (I know, well done me). The whole idea of addiction, something that you just had to keep doing and that your body basically ceases to function without always deeply troubled me. However, I believe I recently experienced this first-hand when I finally completed my hundredth hour of Persona 4 Golden.
Now I know this is a huge over exaggeration (it’s mainly just for comic effect), but I decided to write this in order to try and convey a feeling that I’ve never felt in my life. Now for those who don’t know, Persona is a Japanese role playing series that started in the PS1 era. It is the most popular spin-off of another long-running JRPG series, Shin Megami Tensei. In the most recent games, gameplay is essentially split into two different sections. The first is the real world where you usually take the role of a high schooler where you must manage your time between spending time with your friends (these are known as Social Links, improving them allows you to craft more powerful Persona’s) and improving your own stats (e.g knowledge, courage). The second section is spent in dungeons, here you and your party of fellow high schoolers run about fighting Demons or Shadows with the power of your Persona, essentially a magical power that is specific to each individuals own personality. These take different forms in each of the games from multiple different dungeons based on each persons insecurities to a never-ending tower which reaches into the sky called Tartarus. Anyway apart from that simple synopsis, another key aspect of the Persona games (especially the newer ones) is that they are incredibly long. By the time I got to the end of my playthrough of Persona 4 Golden (P4G) I was clocking in at almost exactly 100 hours. This is an insane amount of time to spend in one world with one set of characters. Over the course of my many, many hours spent with this game I formed a very deep connection with the games cast of likeable characters. I went from finding Yosuke and Chie (your first two companions) a little grating to forming a genuine friendship with them both. Then there’s Teddy, a talking bear who loves puns and lives inside a world inside a TV, he’s got a surprising amount of character development considering he’s basically just supposed to be a cute sidekick. Next is Kanji, the punk with a heart of gold, needless to say he’s definetly my favourite male character (i.e I’d definetly date him if that was possible). This is mainly due to Troy Baker’s silky, smooth vocals, which I am a massive fan of. Finally onto one of the main attractions of Persona for many people, the romantic relationships. I guess I had three different partners over the course of the story. First was Yukiko who I kind of grew to loath by the end of the game. She was an interesting character but she does become quite bland in contrast to the others by the end. Next was Rise, who was a very enjoyable character, seeing both sides of her persona: being the always energetic idol and her more relatable normal self made her far more three dimensional than her type of character would be in another game. Although it was not meant to be. Above all, the person I finally decided to settle down with was Noato. She was smart, attractive and definetly the least annoying out of the any of the characters. I felt a genuine connection with her, and although I still find it kind of creepy I understand how people could begin to grow so attached to these fictional characters that they become attracted to them. With the likes of Noato and Kanji, I felt genuinely upset when I finally had to let them go, after the hours and months I had spent with them. I can only point to one other time in my life when I felt a similar (although much less impactlful) set of emotions. When I finished the fifth( and at the time), final season of Community. I had spent a good month or so binging each episode and I was having a blast. It seemed like there was no end in sight. But you know as they say, time flies when your having fun and everything’s eventual (well that’s kind of a mix of two sayings). Once I had finally finished the show I felt that there was a space in my heart that nothing else could fill, for a few days I sulked around in my free time with nothing else to do. I missed the characters and the setting so much that I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself, but eventually that passed. I moved onto the next game or film or TV show and the ‘loss’ of Community completely passed me by. I assumed the same thing would happen once I had finished Persona. It didn’t. I couldn’t get this feeling to go away. For the next week or two I spent the majority of my free time reading wikis, blog posts and articles about the Persona, and larger Shin Megami Tensei series. Unlike Community, Persona 4 did have several spin-offs and tie-in games which I could play/watch after I had completed the main game. However these didn’t satiate me long. Out of these there was an Anime, two fighting games (Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax) and a rhyme game (Persona 4: Dancing All Night). The problem for me was that, besides the first fighting game, all of these spin-offs had a largely different cast of voice actors who I don’t think brought the same realism to the characters. Some of my favourite characters like Kanji (Troy Baker was gone and replaced with someone much worse) and Naoto (who was replaced with a far less interesting voice actor) were gone. This was further hightened by the fact that no one actually knows who Noato’s original voice actress was, unlike Troy Baker who I could simply follow into his next Naughty Dog gig or at this point, basically any game under the sun, that character was gone. As I mentioned, Noato was the character I felt most connected to, so to essentially lose them and having no idea where I could follow this person’s work in the future was quite difficult. The Anime was probably the worst culprit, as it had the same voice cast (minus Noato :( ) for the first half or so and then suddenly decided to replace them all half way through. Needless to say, when I talk about this as a sort of ‘withdrawal’ from the lack of Persona in my life, it wasn’t the gameplay, or the grinding or really even the game itself that I missed so much, it was those characters who had been a large part of my life for several months that I missed. Although, the title of this does include “Renewal” after all. This story has to have a happy ending at some point. Although the whole process took much longer than my brief spat of post-Community depression, I did eventually manage to “shovel myself out of the shit” as Dr Jacoby would say. However real and important it felt to me, this was simply a game and these people were simply characters created by a team of developers and writers who have worked on several other games. Although it may not have been the most healthy choice, sometimes you just have to give in and feed the addiction. Sometimes the best way of moving on is to find something else to cling onto. Something new and different, yet still similar and welcoming. Persona is a series after all... With the announcement of the new X-Men: Red series, set to release early next year and finally return the original Jean Grey to the Marvel universe, I thought maybe it was time to give the X-Men series another try. I’ve never really been much of a comic book reader apart from the Robert Kirkman stuff (The Walking Dead, Invincible and Outcast to be exact) but earlier this year I did ‘dip my toe’ into the wider Marvel universe. With the announcement of Secret Empire (an event which I thoroughly enjoyed, even with its relatively lacklustre climax) I decided it was time to jump in. I read the whole of Nick Spencer’s Captain America: Steve Rodgers run on the lead-up to this event and then week-by-week I began to read the tie-in issues as they came out. This was a bit of an ordeal at first as I tried to make sense of many different comics which were already several issues into their run, most of these were kind-of pointless to the overall Secret Empire story but it did help me discover some of my favourite comics going forward. This includes the likes of Deadpool (Despicable Deadpool in its current post-Marvel Legacy form), Doctor Strange (which was probably one of the better tie-ins) and Ultimates2 (which has now sadly concluded). Whoops, well that was a long tangent, basically all I was trying to say is that when I first tried to jump into the Marvel Universe at the time of such a major event it was like navigating a mine field of continuity and half-complete story arcs. That’s why the ResurrXion event was so enticing to me.
Before the events of Marvel Legacy (and even before the events of Secret Empire), Marvel essentially decided to hit the reset button on their Inhuman and X-Man franchises, starting a number of new titles from scratch and establishing a new status quo for many of their teams and characters. I’m going to be talking mostly about the X-Men books here as I had very little interest in the Inhuman side of the event - although on another tangent I did try out Saladin Ahmed’s Black Bolt solo series which I thoroughly enjoyed, it feels really cool to read a comic made by a genuinely complex, intelligent writer rather than the usual explosions and cliches present in most Marvel comics. Back to ResurrXion, as I mentioned earlier this was essentially a fresh start, an easy way for me to jump into the Marvel universe and more specifically the world of the X-Men. I’ll deal with the more inconsequential titles first, I didn’t even try Generation X as the idea of teenage mutants with very little consequence or threat in their stories just seemed boring to me, I read a couple of issues of Cable but eventually thanks to the lack of text and pages upon pages of action scenes it dawned on me that the creators were much more content with delivering a mindless, run-of-the mill story about the the time-travelling assassin rather than anything meaty or substantial and then there’s Weapon X. This started out promising enough with a couple of issues showing the strong bond between Old Man Logan and Sabretooth, but quite soon into its run the comic entered its Mutants of Mass Destruction phase. This was a crossover with the Totally Awesome Hulk which involved Weapon X creating a creature which was a cross between the Wolverine and the Hulk. Although this was an interesting premise at first the excecution was just plain horrible. The writing for the cross-over was just plain bad and the art for each issue was bland and boring, there was literally nothing to keep me coming back for 6-Part story (including another issue at the start and at the end, rounding it up to 8 overall), so I didn’t. I stopped Weapon X there and I don’t plan on going back. If that was the more mediocre offerings in the ResurrXion line-up then I guess it’s time to move onto the better options. Iceman is a very good solo series for a character I had little to no interest in prior to this. There are two main reasons for this: one this tells a much more character driven story than you find in superhero comics (especially more formulaic ones like those found in the Marvel universe) and two thanks to its creator Sina Grace. The story follows a more mature Iceman who is kind of experiencing a midlife crisis, stuck between being a member of the X-Men and having a normal life in order to let the next generation take his place, also he has recently come out as gay. Iceman exploring his homosexuality is the core idea behind the series which is refereshing in a world of by-the-numbers comics (like Cable), I think this is mostly down to its creator Sina Grace (an outspoken gay man himself), he gives such an interesting perspective on what Iceman is going through and the way some of his friends and family react to the news is both realistic and heartbreaking. It actually reminds me of Black Bolt which I mentioned earlier, the passion project of a very skilled writer (in that case Saladin Ahmed) who just happens to be working within the confines of the Marvel universe. Sadly the issues can’t just be filled with the interesting character stuff, each issue does have an antagonist or monster of the week to fight which although they look nice on the page can feel jammed in and repititive. Apart from this my only other real criticism is that after about seven issues there isn’t really a clear narrative going forward, it feels much more episodic and the interesting family dynamics have kind of been pushed to the side. Not that this is a bad thing, but I would just prefer a more overarching story. Another high quality comic from the ResurrXion line-up is the Jean Grey series. This is less due to the creative team (although they’re great as well) but instead the whole premise. This follows a younger version of Jean Grey who got removed from her time period and brought to the present along with the rest of her original X-Men team (as shown in X-Men: Blue which I will get to shortly), as she searches for a way to avoid her destiny of being claimed by the Phoenix force. Although I was very interested by this premise it does take a couple issues to get going. At first it was basically just Jean Grey going on a bunch of disparate, unconnected adventures with characters from the Marvel universe such as Odinson (the current version of the original Thor, who is now unworthy) and Namor but after a couple of issues a broader narrative begins to become clear. It becomes a whole lot more interesting when we discover that the mystery voice which has been plaguing her since the start is actually the adult version of Jean Grey. This made the whole comic a lot more interesting to me especially as this is likely how she is going to be able to come back to star in the X-Men: Red series. It also is the catalyst which turns the story much more connected and serialised than before, each issue after this has Jean striving towards a particular goal or issue which is much more interesting than the random misadventures earlier on. Jean Grey is a more regular, Marvel affair than Iceman, but it’s interesting premise and guest appearances from some very interesting characters keep it fresh and interesting. Now onto the main meat of the ResurrXion line-up, X-Men: Gold, X-Men: Blue and Astonishing X-Men. Starting with X-Men: Gold, I was sad to say at first I was a little disappointed by this, the main writer Marc Guggenheim, known for his work on the CW’s Arrow (Don’t worry your day is coming Arrowverse. I just can’t work up the courage to write anything about you because I hate you), didn’t seem to have a good story planned out. The team is perhaps the most interesting part with a mix of obscure and well-known X-Men and Guggenheim does seem to have a good handle on these characters and the relationships between them (something he’s pretty shit at on Arrow, no I’m not letting it go). But too me personally the team dynamics are just not enough to hold up a series with such a substandard story. The arcs involving the X-Men having to go to Washington and contest the new act being past against Mutants are when the series is at its best. The opposition is not simply painted as racist or bigoted but instead people who are just afraid for their safety and the safety of their country, ethically the whole conflict is in the grey area which is best place to operate to create more relatable, realistic characters. These political themes continue on throughout most of the ongoing series but some completely ridiculous arcs involving fighting Omega Red in Russia with a bunch of Bratva (the leader of which is called Anatoly, seriously Marc it’s not funny at this point. Arrow will be getting the shit kicked out of it in a later piece) and also one fighting Sentinels which can turn into airborn nanites (that’s really not a big enough change to make just another bog-standard Sentinel fight compelling) completely drag down the series. It does appear to be getting a little better as it enters the Mojoworldwide crossover (which I will get into more detail about after X-Men: Blue), so there is still hope; as long as Marc can pull his finger out. (Maybe that’s a bit too harsh, the character dynamics have been quite good but the ridiculous story arcs just drag it down). Onto X-Men: Blue; this comic fairs a lot better than its companion comic. Seeing the original X-Men team in the present day is just a fun dynamic (it also doesn’t hurt that I’m now a big fan of this version of Jean Grey from her solo series), seeing how they react with this new world as well as the present day versions of themselves is just so interesting. This gives it an instant advantage over Gold as it simply just has a more interesting presence and even though it is basically aping old X-Men comics it somehow feels less tedious and less formulaic than Gold. It also has another advantage over Gold in the fact that the majority of its story arcs are much more interesting. The first arc is a relatively by-the-numbers original X-Men story but is completely recontextualised by the reveal that they are working for Magneto (Gold does not have any interesting twists or even character additions when I think about it, it’s pretty boring and uneventful for most of the run), this changes the whole set-up drastically from what I originally thought. The introduction of Wolverine’s son from the Ultimate universe, Jimmy Hudson is also a very interesting arc as it adds a new member to the team (which could have gotten stale after a while), it also draws attention back to some of the fallout from the destruction of the Ultimate universe which is where I think Marvel is always at its best hence my appreciation for Ultimates2 (all those many words ago) and The Unworthy Thor (another compelling story which ties up threads left over from the Ultimate universe. He’s also a very interesting addition to the team, he starts off at first as essentially just a replacement for Wolverine but over time develops his own personality and dynamics with other characters which oppose this. The only arc which I think kind of falls short (like most of Gold did) is one involving the Goblin King and her army of hex-men, that’s already a silly premise as is but Beast exploring the consequences of his new magic powers could have been so much more compelling a story but we’re stuck with this chessy, kind of tongue-in-cheek affair. This is highlighted even more by the side story in these issues which involves Jimmy trying to find out more about his origin (which I’ve already mentioned I find very interesting) involving Miss Sinister. I would have rather just had a story focused instead on Jimmy or for the creative team to wait a while until they could deliver a more emotional story relating to Beast’s magic, this story beat can essentially not be used again and seems like such a waste to use it on such a stupid premise. Overall Blue is much more successful than Gold, it’s arcs are actually interesting and do things to mix up the formula from issue to issue (unlike Gold which’s story and feel stay relatively stagnant), it’s not perfect but it makes great strides towards reestablishing the X-Men to the level they once were. While I’m on the topic I’d also like to mention the crossover between Gold/Blue known as Mojoworldwide. This sees both teams being trapped in the Mojoverse, essentially an intergalactic reality show where they must face some of their greatest foes from the past. Although this is action-packed, popcorn fun the dynamic between the two teams is very good and although it relies heavily on nostalgia seeing some of the classic X-Men villains and iconography with these newer teams is a site to behold. Blue is obviously the superior comic, but when they are together it certainly brings the best out in Gold and its creative team. (Guggenheim channeling some Arrow Season 5 magic into this crossover. Sorry I couldn’t help myself. Its probably beyond annoying at his point. Let’s just call it foreshadowing for a future piece and move on). On to the final and most recent addition to the ResurrXion line-up, Astonishing X-Men. This is probably the most serialised out of all of the stories, it follows a traditional X-Men team (like Gold and Blue), but instead of telling its story in small, non-consequential arcs it tells one long serialised story over several issues (so far, this could change down the line). I also found it the most compelling story so far out of all these comics, the Shadow King manipulating several of the characters like Logan, Rogue and Mystique is so interesting as it gives us a more in depth look into their psyches. There is also the return of a certain major character (certain major Professor) who has been dead for several years within the Marvel universe, this in and of itself makes the series feel so much more important than the other X-Men titles overall. This may be hard to explain, but this series feels more artistic than the other titles like Blue and Gold which feel safe and formulaic (almost as if they’re specifically designed to appeal to the largest demographic and to go on for as long as possible, wink). Although I’m not very familiar with the writer Charles Soule, he has a great handle of these characters and seems to take real care in each page and scenario to make it as effective as possible. Overall I think I may even like this better than X-Men: Blue, although it is good in its own right, Astonishing X-Men is better because of its own reasons. It’s got a drastically different tone and approach to Blue, but this only makes it better. Luckily these two great X-Men comics can exist together. Thanks for joining me on this behemoth of an analysis, so if I had to condense this down into a few words I think ResurrXion has been very successful overall. Although some titles are severely lacking (Cable, Weapon X especially), with others being kind of mediocre (X-Men: Gold, sorry Guggenheim, it should be noted I have an obvious bias in this case) but this is actually salvaged by some very great comics such as Iceman, Astonishing X-Men and X-Men: Blue (and Jean Grey as well, they kind of lump together as one in my mind due to the similarities). They are all good in their own right, but I believe these series have managed to take back some of the reputation the X-Men franchise has lost over the last couple years. This has me looking forward to X-Men: Red when it comes out, perhaps I’ll have given up on this series again by then, but as of just now it’s shaping up to be another satisfying entry in this long-running saga. With the fall television season finally kicking into gear, with the return of Network mainstays like the Arrowverse shows and The Walking Dead, the market is flooded with lots of options and us as viewers almost have too much to choose from. Each day about 3 or 4 new TV episodes is added to my ever-growing watchlist, although I did enjoy this at first eventually it just gets overwhelming and you need to become a bit more selective in your viewing habits. Goodbye Arrowverse (your better in binges anyway, well your moderately entertaining in binges, your actually near unbearable week-to-week). Goodbye Outlander (I’m sorry your just not as interesting on a weekly basis). But out of all these shows there’s one that I feel a compulsion to watch every week, as soon as it’s available, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. A bit of a mouthful yeah but it’s consistently one of the most complex, interesting shows on television. Not only does it have some really high concept fantasy/science fiction ideas, but it is also consistently charming with a large ensemble cast of likeable characters who are a joy to behold.
Before I get too much into why I love this show I should probably give some background as to how I originally found the show. I’ve been following Max Landis, the creator and executive producer on Dirk, for the last couple years now. It must have been around 2015 when American Ultra, a film he wrote the screenplay for, came out. Although I never saw the film due to some relatively mixed reviews, I remember seeing Landis talking about the film and being transfixed. There’s was something a little crazy about him, that unpredictable quality, but he was also very knowledgeable and seemed to have such an understanding and passion for his work. Although he didn’t have a web show or podcast that I could keep up to date on frequently like many other of my favourite ‘internet celebrities’ I still felt the need to try and find as much of him as I could. He made a few appearances on some shows which I liked, but the main place I could get my fix was his Twitter feed which has provided me with a lot of hilarity over the last couple years. After that I tried to stay up-to-date on his projects such as Victor Frankenstein and Mr. Right but I was sad to see that they just weren’t as good as I thought they’d be. Well-written yeah, but as films they just weren’t really hitting the mark. I realised in hindsight that this was likely due to the directors. One of Landis’ first films Chronicle which he worked on with director Josh Trank was good because the two worked well together, but I feel these other examples I have mentioned were cases of the directors basically just taking his script and not using it to it’s full potential. That’s why when it was announced that he would be the creator and EP behind Dirk I was so excited, this was his chance to essentially have full creative control over a project and the results were spectacular. So back to Dirk, I originally tried it out based on my love of Landis and his previous writing, but I was kind of shocked to find it was a genuine show with real production values. I probably shouldn’t have had such low expectations for the quality of production going in considering it was on BBC America which has had a couple hit shows like Orphan Black, but I was still surprised nonetheless. The show grabbed me almost immediately with its weird kind of quirky style, there’s tons of things happening every minute, many of which seem completely unrelated. For the first part of the first episode it almost seemed too much, how could any of these conflicting threads possibly be related. But the show begins to tie it all together relatively quickly, not to spoil much but the first season dives into time-travelling, body swapping, secret cults and ex-rockstars all under the same long-running mystery. It’s completely engrossing and keeps you guessing all the way up to the end, connecting these parts together was incredibly satisfying. It reminded me of Guy Ritchie’s early work such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Seeing all these disparate characters coming together through impossible odds just like it did in those films is one of the main reasons I love Dirk. We’re introduced to Dirk and his new partner Todd, an insane, Holistic detective and an obvious sceptic respectively. They (well more-so Dirk, Todd is pretty oblivious most of the time) lead us into this new world which grows more insane by the minute. Like most of the characters on this show the two have great chemistry, Elijah Wood and Samuel Barrnet seem like they’ve been friends for years after only a couple days. There not the only duo we follow along on their journey, we also get to see the computer savvy Ken and the killing machine Bart (who kills literally everyone she comes across, apart from Ken). Although there on the other side of the country and their story seems almost completely unrelated, the stories connect in interesting ways and Bart provides more insight onto how Dirk became the way he is. These strong character dynamics combined with the incredibly interesting story kept me hooked each week. That year I returned to it every week, prioritising it over the latest episode of Better Call Saul or Game of Thrones just because of how interesting it’s core concepts were. It all culminated in a last couple of episodes that somehow managed to tie everything back together, even things which seemed impossibly stupid before began to make sense. Sure, I loved Max Landis’ characters and dialogue but the bonkers, ever-unfolding story was what really kept me coming back. I could barely comprehend how he took something so insane and made it almost seem plausible, I genuinely cared about these characters and the situations they were stuck in. As I’m writing this Dirk Gently has just began its second season, and just like the last this one deals with some pretty bonkers fantastical concepts (this time in an actual fantasy land), which I’m truly excited to see how Landis and his creative team make into something that affects me and keeps me coming back week-after-week over all the other great television on at the moment. When people talk about their favourite Halloween flicks there’s always the obligatory mention of Friday the 13th or Halloween (one of my personal favourites), but when I think of this genre there’s only one movie which jumps to mind, Scream. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s 1996 horror masterclass is probably one of my favourite horror movies. Although it’s not usually people’s first thought, Scream holds a special place in my heart. Back in the early 2000’s when I would spend my days surfing through the Sky cinema channels and trying to guess the password to my parents’ parental locks (luckily for me I realised pretty quickly it was just their wedding anniversary) the Sky Horror selection was dismal to say the least. Instead of the classics I mentioned earlier we had Friday the 13 Part 7 and Halloween: Resurrection, which for reference includes Busta Rhymes fly-kicking Michael Myers into electrical wires while saying the line “Trick or Treat motherfucker!”. Now I’m not saying there isn’t a market for this type of film (even writing this is making me really want to watch that scene from Halloween: Resurrection on repeat), but as a young film buff trying to explore the world of horror these were hardly enough to satisfy me. But there was a silver lining to these ‘dark times’, it helped me discover the Scream franchise. Scream 2 and 3 to be exact, they played over and over again, almost every weekend. Although in hindsight these are no way near as good as the first, they were fine art compared to the other drivel which was on Sky horror at that time. I can’t exactly remember what first drew me to them, I think it was Wes Craven’s name. I knew he had directed the original Nightmare on Elm Street, although I don’t think I had even seen it by this point, and I had became fascinated with his first film The Last House on The Left, mostly because I saw a poster for it claiming it was one of the most messed up films ever made (and that’s 70s messed up, so we’re talking real bad). I remember watching Scream 2 and realising that I was experiencing something different from the rest. These characters knew about horror movies, they knew about Freddy and Jason and knew about all the clichés that annoyed me so much about all the other films. I loved Scream 2 at the time, with its meta-narrative and it’s Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy represent!), but there was always the nagging feeling that I was missing something, I had to see the original.
I remember writing it down on a shopping list (Scream DVD - 1996) and just hoping nobody would notice. My parents, always willing to indulge my film obsession, actually allowed this. I remember walking into HMV and finding my now coveted I Know What You Did Last Summer/ Scream double disk, to me it was a one in a million chance. This random movie that I was looking for just showing up at my next trip into town, could it be destiny? (Well no, I wasn’t aware at the time how popular Scream was, I thought it was this hidden little gem I had uncovered). I remember watching it on my tiny little DVD player and being absolutely floored. It was like Scream 2 (and 3) but so much better, unlike the sequels this film was an actually good horror film as well as a great satire. When I first saw the film the meta-stuff was what stuck out to me the most. Jaime Kennedy’s character was basically the most well-written thing I had seen at this point, the way he referenced other films and applied it to real life was scarily akin to what I was thinking while watching the film. Having them explain ‘the most important rules to remember in order to successfully survive a horror movie’ made me almost giddy, here was this genre I loved essentially getting deconstructed right in front of my eyes. This was my first notable experience with satire, obviously I knew about parody in the form of Scary Movie (a film that parodied Scream itself) and the ever-worsening Jason Friedberg/ Aaron Seltzer films, but here it was in a film that wasn’t necessarily a comedy. In this film, the satire amplifies the movie rather than retracting from its impact, acknowledging and downright making fun of the clichés present in most horror movies allowed the film to avoid these and even provide interesting twists on the classic formula. The final reveal of the killer is something that still blows my mind to this day (up there with that first time you finished Pulp Fiction and started piecing all the different parts together), I remember getting to that final house party, I had gone through every character in my head and out of the surviving characters almost everyone had been on-screen with the killer at one point or another, unless they pulled some weird supernatural rubbish at the end or introduced a character out of no-where the identity of the killer would have made no sense. But as many of you know, it wasn’t a single killer, but two. When I discovered that Billy and Stu (Matthew Lilard, who I really liked from his role as Shaggy in the live-action Scobby Doo, nowadays he’s still crying in Twin Peaks presumably) were actually both the killers, one on the phone, while the other committed the murders in the traditional Ghostface mask I was amazed that this prospect had never crossed my mind. It kept me and the rest of the audience constantly guessing as to who the killer actually was, it’s one of the biggest ‘twists’ in the horror genre and I have not seen it replicated at that standard to this day. So as I’ve covered, the reason Scream holds a special place in my heart is due to its successful use of satire to uplift the relatively standard material and to subvert the audience’s expectations but upon rewatches another great quality stuck out to me. The film actually has a genuinely engrossing, emotionally affecting story. The story of Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell, one of my main childhood crushes, mostly thanks to Wild Things) a daughter whose mother was raped and murdered about a year before the events of the movie was something that really affected me. Seeing her emotion as these painful memories are brought back in light of the recent murder spree always affected me. I also found it surprising how good a plot it had compared to most other horror movies at the time. The idea of a man, Cotton Weary, who had been wrongly convicted for the rape/murder of Sydney’s mother, and now the real killers had come back to torment Sydney for her mother’s sins. It really made the film stand out in my mind, the movie wasn’t simply an excuse to show a killer running around chopping up teens but it had a real message behind it and a plot which was genuinely intriguing. So why is Scream so great, the satire lifts the film above its source material becoming more than just a horror movie but a full deconstruction of the genre and what makes it so great. The film had a tense, thrilling story which really made me care about the characters, who usually aren’t very important in horror films and are more so there for maximum kills. In my mind it’s still the greatest example of satire outside of the comedic genre, and is the definitive example within the horror genre. It takes a lot to completely change someone’s perception of a genre and what it aims to achieve, but that’s what Scream was to me. It was a game-changer, and to this day is my favourite horror film because of the profound effect it had on me. I guess I’ll start this new venture with something that’s fresh in my mind, Thor: Ragnarok. The Marvel films are kind of an event for me whenever I go to the cinema, a couple of years ago I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between Marvel and DC, but years on the internet and being fully immersed in the culture which comes with it amplified my love for these characters and their source material to a level I would never have thought of. After the widespread acclaim for The Avengers on its arrival, I spent the years following trying to stay as up-to-date as possible on the MCU as I could. I’m a viewer of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D for pete’s sake (censoring myself for future me), and ‘Yes’ it does get much better in the second season. Anyway I became completely immersed in the MCU, watching each new instalment as it came out. I was on a high for a few years following The Avengers, with the high quality of both Captain America: The Winter Solider and Guardians of Galaxy in 2014. I thought Marvel and Kevin Feige could do no wrong.
But then 2015 came, and with it came two pretty mediocre films. First came Age of Ultron, which even as a Joss Whedon fan (I’m a Buffy and Angel fan from my younger, more impressionable years) was unfocused and obviously rushed in order to set up the rest of the universe. Then came Ant-Man, a film which was a shell of its former self in the aftermath of Edgar Wright’s departure, there were some interesting, zany titbits which managed to shine through the mediocrity, but these weren’t enough to save it in my eyes. Neither of these films are bad, both well-written and shot on a filmmaking level, but neither of them were particularly memorable and it appeared that Marvel maybe had gotten a bit too full of itself. I think Marvel noticed this error in their ways and made a swift course-correction by the time 2016 rolled around. Captain America: Civil War, directed by the Russo Brothers of the Winter Soldier and Community fame (another show that has a special place in my heart), was a great addition to the MCU. It was essentially an Avengers-movie with a cast that was balanced and all used to great effect (they made Hawkeye an interesting character with only 10-15 minutes in the spotlight!). This success continued with Doctor Strange later that year being a relatively common superhero origin story that was lifted up by some truly trippy visuals and some cool changes to the typical final showdown which made it stick out in a way the previous film of the same ilk, Ant-Man, had not. This successful 2016, really put my faith back into Marvel, showing that they could change when needed. Going into 2017 I was really looking forward to the now 3 Marvel films coming out that year. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was an enjoyable romp, which although didn’t meet the same high standards of the original was still a great film in its own right. This winning streak continued with Spider-Man: Homecoming later on that year, I was originally trepadatious about this due to Sony (who haven’t made a good Spider-Man since the early Sam Raimi days) being so involved in the project and the trailers which seemed to reveal way to much of the plot. But it really exceeded my expectations delivering a relatable, actually teenage Peter Parker and pulling off the feeling of an 80s era John Hughes film. One of its biggest advantages was the portrayal of Michael Keaton as the Vulture, who really overcame Marvel’s traditional villain problem to become a truly compelling, genuinely threatening character. If all my gushing hadn’t conveyed this point already, I was very excited going into Thor: Ragnarok, the third and final MCU film of 2017. And I’m happy to say I was not disappointed (to cut to the chase, 3 paragraphs in). One of the biggest advantages of this film is it’s director Taika Waititi. One of his previous films What We Do In The Shadows is one of the funniest I’ve seen in recent years. He just has a real understanding of comic timing and improvisation which make his work a joy to behold. His influence can be seen in almost every frame of the film, whether it’s the new colour palette, rock and roll soundtrack or the hilarious jokes and visual gags which litter the film. After the drab, self-importance of Thor: The Dark World, which bored the life out of me and based on its reviews everyone else as well, it’s refreshing to have a movie which isn’t afraid to have a laugh and make fun of how silly the whole premise actually is. Now it’s not all laughs, even I can get sick of the usual Marvel one-liners and jokes at inappropriate times, but this film does have some genuine moments which are emotionally affecting and that will have lasting consequences on the rest of the MCU going forward. I was surprised by how consequential this film actually was, by the end the entire formula for this character has completely shifted leaving him to go in new and exciting directions as the universe enters it next stage. For the shortest film in the MCU, you really can’t feel it. The film has a quick, zippy pace which jumps from place to place and really gets the narrative going without having to rely on too much set-up. It was also interesting to see more characters in what would appear to be a solo movie. Having Hulk in the mix really gives Thor someone to play off of, and as this universe moves forward I feel these team-up films and ensemble pieces (like Civil War) are the right choice, as they help to develop more of the characters and shorten the long wait between each new instalment. This is probably my favourite portrayal of the Hulk so far in the MCU, although he was interesting in The Avengers and less so in Age of Ultron, we get a new side to this character here. We get Hulk, without Banner for a pretty large portion of the film, it is an interesting exploration of the character who’s not entirely just a huge, green rage monster but a creature which has actually developed its own personality and is battling with Banner simply to survive before he is bottled up back inside again. Another interesting character is Tessa Thompson as one of the Valkyrie, she has great chemistry with Hemsworth and Ruffalo, her character is also a lot more interesting than her hard-drinking, badass persona would let on. There’s a traumatic event in her past which gives her a real motivation to defeat the film’s main villain Hela. Speaking of Hela, Cate Blanchett is hella good in the role (Sorry I’ve been playing too much Life is Strange), maybe not that great but she certainly is an improvement over more forgettable villains like Malekith and Whiplash. She has an interesting connection to Thor which gives her character a lot more depth, she also isn’t out to just destroy the world as many of the other one-note MCU villains but actually wants to take control of Asgard through her own manoeuvrings. Blanchett is chewing as much scenery as possible, but she’s a good enough actress that she’s able to make it work and appear genuinely threatening even though she is hamming it up. She’s no Vulture, but she’s compelling enough to sustain the plot and keep momentum going forward. Although these more dramatic actors are very good in the movie, such as Anthony Hopkins, the stand outs are the more comedic focused. Chris Hemsworth is given lots of room to flex his comedic muscles (and his literal ones), after his very funny performance in Ghostbusters last year (which was one of the main redeeming qualities of that film, along with Kate McKinnon) I feel it’s about to time to allow him to use this wide range. It really helps you care for Thor as a character, especially since he has been out of the spotlight for so long, I forgot how much I liked him after the mediocrity of The Dark World and his pretty meaningless role in Age of Ultron. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the funniest lines were improvised due to Hemsworth’s previous experience and the presence of Taika Waititi behind the camera. On to the meat of the comedic bone, one of the funniest characters in the whole film is Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster. The character doesn’t exactly have tons of laugh-out loud moments but it’s Jeff Goldblum, literally anything he does made me chuckle at the very least, and almost break down in tears at his best. The way he delivers his lines with the occasional classic ‘Ah’ in between just cracks me up, although I may be a little biased considering I literally watched Independence Day: Resurgence just for him. The funniest character overall is probably a simple rock monster called Korg, voiced by Taika Waititi himself, this character steals literally every scene he is in. Even during dramatic moments, he still manages to pull off jokes without it feeling jarring tonally. It’s hard not to spoil many of the film’s funniest of lines, but he always has a little comment or drones on just a bit too long that it becomes hilarious. Also that New Zealand accent gives me flashbacks to What We Do In The Shadows and Flight of the Concords, which made it interesting to see how far Waititi has come from those humble beginnings to directing and starring in this huge blockbuster. In conclusion, Thor: Ragnarok surpassed my expectations when it came to how funny the movie was, as I was expecting the traditional Marvel one-liner fair but got something so much more funny and exciting. The film also surprised me with the lasting consequences it has left on some of its characters and the way it has permanently altered their lives moving forward. The MCU is officially on a winning streak again, with Guardians 2, Spider-Man, and now Ragnarok. It leaves me with high hopes for the future with Black Panther (directed by Ryan Coggler, known for Creed, which has me excited as it is) and finally Infinity War, essentially the culmination of everything the MCU has been building up to, even if its prequel levels bad the complete awe of seeing all these characters I love so much will probably keep me blinded for months following, and out of all of them Thor will now have a special place in my heart thanks to this movie. |
authorSo this is weird. I’ve made a website, I’m not expecting anyone to read it (actually I’d rather they didn’t.) Basically I’ve been struggling to write creative things recently, every idea I come up with, no matter how much I think I believe in it, leads me nowhere. I guess you could call it writer’s block, but it’s more so that I tend to overthink and second-guess myself down to the smallest details, this means it takes me forever to make anything and once I have I’m incredibly demotivated to continue it. So, after being inspired by an Australian writer, Gabriel Bergmoser, who’s blog and podcasts I’ve been reading and listening to for the past few years I decided this would be an interesting experiment to try out. Basically I have no idea what I’m going to write, it’s unlikely to be creative or short stories, more-so this kind of string-of-consciousness opinion piece based on the things I’m thinking about at the moment. From films to television or maybe books and music. Anyway I hope you find some of this stuff interesting. Let’s hope I don’t say anything too incriminating considering my name is plastered all over this. Granted, this is something I will probably only update about four times in my life, unless I really enjoy it. It’s more so to help me be more creative and actually produce something for once.
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January 2021
CategoriesNot really sure? Opinions on the blog, mainly about entertainment. I'll also be posting some fiction or short stories eventually for your feedback and enjoyment.
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