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Hugh Likes Comics: X-Men: Battle of the Atom

November 1, 2013

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Today’s comic is X-Men, Battle of the Atom, written by Brian Michael Bendis, and drawn by various artists. 2013 is the 50th anniversary of Uncanny X-men, and Marvel is celebrating with a crossover featuring those two most pressing issues to mutant-kind, Time Travel and The Phoenix. In classic X-men style, the story plays out in a bunch of different titles over the course of a couple months, and as of writing, they are about halfway done.

I’m on record as hating crossovers, and this one takes a few of the miss-steps that irk me. Characters are acting against their type, there’s a lot of scenes where people just shout their opinions without doing anything, and characters appear for no other purpose than to be seen and fill out the page. It’s a lot like the American Government Shutdown, actually.

But for all that, I’m surprised to find myself really enjoying the story, and eagerly awaiting the next part. The story is stuffed full of nostalgia and angst, and unites the past, present, and future X-Men. To condense a long story into a single paragraph, after the last catastrophic crossover event, Cyclops has gone rogue, and under the influence of everyone’s favorite cosmic fire bird, killed Professor Xavier. In an attempt to prevent this from happening, his former team-mate Hank McCoy built a time machine and brings the original five teenagers from 1963 to the present and showed them how everything turned out. I don’t know why he didn’t just use the time machine to prevent the murder, but what do I know from storytelling. It turns out that Causality will not be denied, however, and when Teenage Cyclops is nearly killed, everyone realizes that doing this stupid thing might have been a mistake. But just as everyone is about to send the five kids home to prevent something horrible from happening, a DIFFERENT set of time travelers appear: X-men from the future who have come to make sure the Original Five-man band all go back home. Much shouting, angst, and fighting for no reason ensues, and in the confusion, Teenage Jean Grey and Cyclops escape. Seeing how their future worked out for them, they are inclined to stay in the present, even if it means more trouble down the road.

It’s difficult to say what makes this story work exactly. It has a lot of moving parts, not all of which seem to be on the same track, but the story is crazy enough at this point that literally anything can happen. The stakes are as high as they can be in a comic-book universe, and these characters have been struggling against each other, to say nothing of the Marvel Universe villains, for so long, that I’m really cheering for them to catch a break. The visions of the future, including a version of Jean Grey in Xorn armor (Xorn was a character from the late-90’s/early 2000’s X-men who dressed in armor covered in chains and wore a skull-mask. He ended up being a bad guy, go figure) and an Iron Man armor painted up in Sentinel colors with an X across it’s chest plate, are both cool and tantalizing. I haven’t been keeping a close eye on the X-books, but the comics gave me enough back-story when I needed it, and I wasn’t lost.  Also, Jubilee is both a teenage mother and a vampire, but I don’t think it’s a vampire baby.  I’m probably going to go into back issues and find out how that happened, because someone has done the impossible and made Jubilee a character I want to see more of.

This is a crossover that really seems like it’s trying to move forward while still hitting the high notes of the team’s fifty year history. It might not appeal to casual readers, but if you’re a fan, you should check it out.

Megaman I: Elegance in Design

October 1, 2013

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System: Nintendo NES/Famicom

Release Date: 1987

Megaman’s creator, Keiji Inafune recently funded a kickstarter for his new independent project, Mighty Number 9. Inspired by the buzz surrounding the new project, I went back and looked at the Blue Bomber’s original adventure with new eyes.

I didn’t have “Megaman” for my NES, but lots of my friends did, and I remember the games fondly from the early nineties. I also recall them being controller-threateningly difficult. I was curious to see how the first outing would stack up to my memories.

First of all, it is worth noting that the first game lacks the graphical and musical polish of the sequels. There are only six stages, and once the player determines the proper order for playing them, they fall rather quickly. Especially if you use the well-known ‘pause trick.’ Likewise, there’s not much of a story besides ‘You’re a good robot, they’re evil robots, go fight them.’ It’s the sort of fare from the era that is simple, but has been expanded upon greatly in the years since. For example, in the much-praised Megaman comic, put out by Archie Comics.

While I will agree that Megaman is hard, it was not quite so bad as I remember. Aside from a few of the end stage bosses, (and I am looking squarely at you, one-eyed rock monster) the deaths don’t feel cheap. Unlike other 8-bit era platformers, there is no countdown clock. The game gives you plenty of time to observe and experiment. Megaman really is the start of what later-generation indie developers would call ‘puzzle platformers.’ Most of the game can be best progressed by observing the challenge and discovering the pattern, or choosing the best Robot Master’s subweapon for the situation. For example, the flying torpedo enemies can often knock you into a pit when they explode, but freezing them rather than shooting them with your regular gun solves the dilemma. Most of the jumping puzzles can likewise be bypassed with the Magnet Beam.

This creates an odd challenge curve as the game actually gets EASIER as you gain new powers. The game’s non-linear nature lets you play the stages in any order, but the real challenge is figuring out an optimal path. each Robot Master has a weakness, and some levels, such as Fire Man’s stage, are practically impassable without the right weapon.

All in all, Megaman I is a solid entry in the NES’s roster of games. While its sprites and textures are a little less eye-popping than its successors, it is at the very least noteworthy for being the progenitor of something great, and a whole lot of fun. You don’t need to play it to get into the series, as there isn’t much of a story aside from the window-dressing standard to that generation, but it is certainly worth your time. Just watch out for those disappearing block puzzles.

Otakon 2013: Day One

August 15, 2013

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Otakon is one of the conventions I’ve been going to the longest, and with attendance of over 30,000 people, it’s certainly the biggest one I’ve been to so far. It takes over the Baltimore Convention Center, and most of the harbor, for three days every summer. In spite of it’s size, unlike the other big conventions on the East Coast like Dragon*Con and NY Comicon, it is devoted entirely to Anime and Asian culture.

I first attended Otakon in 2004, and although I have missed it once or twice, I’ve been back almost every year since. I particularly enjoy Otakon because it is for a medium I’m not trying to make an eventual living in. Balticon is great fun, but in a lot of ways, I’m still working the whole time I’m there. I’m making contacts, learning new techniques, and hunting for trade secrets in addition to spending time with all my friends from twitter. But Otakon is a chance to fully relax and enjoy the spectacle. So with that being said, let’s begin this year’s review of the show! I packed in so much this year, I’m going to go through it day by day.

Day one was my day to really watch new anime, and was filled to the brim. I watched some new things, some old things, and even a US Premier movie!

First up: “Occult Academy.” This might be my favorite series from the convention. When a teenage girl’s father dies under mysterious circumstances, she inherits the private school he owned, which is famous for its study of supernatural phenomena. But his obsession with the occult drove her parents apart, and she ‘hates the occult.’ Beset with the supernatural, a scheming faculty, and a time-traveler sent back to prevent an apocalypse centered around the school, can she save the world and find her father’s killer?

I really liked this series. It is made up of a nice blend of comedy and drama, and is centered around a tough, capable heroine who isn’t reduced to a sex object or damsel in distress in the face of the monsters. This series is on the Crunchy Roll anime streaming service, and I’m adding it to my pile to watch.

“A Certain Scientific Railgun” Fewer railguns, and much less scientific than I was expecting, but this is a slice-of-life comedy or sorts that is not without its charms. A companion piece to an apparently much more dramatic series called “A Certain Magical Index,” which I have not seen, the series is set in a futuristic city where 80% of the residents are boarding school students, and most of them have unusual ‘Esper’ talents. The Railgun of the title refers to the main character, a powerful esper girl with psycho-electric powers who can launch 100 yen coins like a railgun. She has a penchant for vigilante justice, which exasperates her roommate, who is a member of a school-based local law enforcement agency. I have no idea how that works, by the way. Anime, I guess?

As action-packed as the description sounds, most of the series involves the relationships between the two main characters and their friends. The series has a fan-servicey vibe with extremely heavy lesbian undertones, and while it was funny, I felt like a dirty old man watching these supposedly teenage girls engage in that kind of ‘horseplay.’ It was fun, but I won’t be looking for it on DVD.

“Hanasaku Iroha-Blossoms For Tomorrow” This is another slice-of-life show revolving around a teenage girl, but this one was much more grounded in reality. When a 16-year-old’s mother runs off with her boyfriend, she moves from Tokyo to her grandmother’s distant onsen. But in addition to dealing with her mother’s abandonment and moving to the small town, her grandmother, who she has never met before, expects her to work for her room and board.

This is a cute series that was far less maudlin than I had expected. The animation is high-quality, and the depiction of life at a Japanese inn was very interesting, as I stayed in one while teaching in Japan myself. I believe this is also on Crunchy Roll, and I will probably watch more of it later.

“Evangelion 3.0: You Can (NOT) Redo” Perhaps I should have rewatched the second Evangelion movie before coming to see this one, because I was a bit lost for some of the movie, but if you’ve seen any of the previous incarnations, you should be alright. The thing I liked about the first two movies is that as a necessity of run time, they cut out a lot of Shinji’s reluctance and depression. This movie, well, it’s mostly that, actually. Set 14 years after the second movie, Shinji unwittingly triggered 3rd Impact after trying to save Rei Ayanami, and now he is caught between NERV and anti-NERV organization WILLE. If he pilots an EVA again, he might be able to restore the world, or make a new one, but he could also trigger a devastating FOURTH Impact which would fully destroy the world.

So Shinji is still a terrible character, followed by worst father of all-time Gendo Ikari, but this movie had a space-ship made out of EVAs captained by Misato, (in the requisite amazing hat and giant sunglasses) so it still evens out at ‘pretty cool,’ although the movie series has finally caught up to the ‘makes no damn sense’ arc of the original TV series.

“Space Adventure Cobra” More “Star Wars” than “Star Wars” is possibly the best way to describe this early-80’s space opera movie. A lost cousin of Kirk and Solo, the main character, who’s arm turns into the dreaded “Psycho-Gun” macks on telepathic alien princesses, fights his way through a flying prison, and joins up with a platoon of female revolutionaries on rocket-powered snowboards called “Snow Gorilla.” It’s awesome, while never taking itself too seriously. The movie is also a clear influence on later anime heroes like “Vash the Stampede.”

And that’s all I did on day one of the convention. Stay tuned for Wuxia Detective films, anime music videos, and the surprising popularity of cereal-themed video games.

Fiction: The Least Unicorn, A Freelance Hunters Adventure

August 7, 2013

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The Freelance Hunters came to the village of Corn Hall looking for a unicorn. Rumors of the beast had flooded every tavern in Elanterra, it seemed, and all three of them were hunting the beast for a different reason.

“I’ve heard unicorns have razor-sharp hooves, and their horns can rend the strongest armor!” Joachim said, brandishing his fearsome spear Incisor. “they will battle anyone unworthy of them to the death!”

“Just don’t go busting its forehead lance too much. It’s worth mad loot on the slack,” said Bingo, their tracker.

“You two are not going to kill that noble and beautiful creature!” said Glory the magician. “Unicorns are one of the rarest cryptids on the island. If I can study one, or better yet, capture it alive, I’ll be the toast of the Academy!”

“I’ve heard only a fair maiden can capture one. What are our chances, Glory?” Joachim asked. She thumped him on the back of the leg with her staff in reply. When they finally reached the town, they found a festival atmosphere, complete with pantomime unicorns, booths selling every kind of food with corn in it imaginable, and all manner of charms and tokens for sale, each one ‘guaranteed’ to help catch the beast. Joachim gleefully consumed a prodigious amount of the local corn whiskey, and the other two hired a local fellow by the name of Finnegan to act as guide. They left the fair well alone, and headed out into the fields the next morning.

At first, signs of the beast were slim. Finnegan knew the area well, but he was a corn farmer, not a tracker, and it was difficult for Bingo to pick up much of anything, until they found the track. It was deep, and not more than two hours old. The hunt was on.

They went two more days, always frustratingly close to the creature, but it was tireless, and seemed to slip away every time they got close. They caught a glimpse of it when they stopped to rest on the second night, just a shadow against the stars. It had to have been the largest equine any of them had ever seen, and the horn poked straight from the top of its head. They renewed their efforts. Bingo set some traps and breaks in the forest. The unicorn could avoid them, but before long, they had it cornered in a little glade in the woods, sheltered by rises on all sides.

The Freelance Hunters descended into the valley. The beast was there, drinking from a brook that trickled between two boulders. Late afternoon sunlight drifted through the high branches, filling the glade with majesty and awe. And then the creature looked up and stared at them. The hunters stared back. Neither moved for a long time.

“Glory,” Joachim said at last. “There isn’t any magic here, right? This isn’t an illusion or anything?”

“Nope.”

“And you all see it too, it’s not just me?”

“Nope.”

“So it’s really…” He trailed off.

“A huge white horse,” Glory began

“With an ear of corn fixed to his head,” Bingo finished. All three of them turned to look at their guide. He grinned sheepishly.

“The village had a bumper crop, last year,” He said, as though this explained everything.

“So? Joachim asked, adjusting the grip on his spear.

“So we sold so much corn, the price went through the floor! Corn’s just about the only thing we grow out here, and with corn being almost worthless, the village needed money. The town elder came up with a plan, though. When he was a boy, the Corn Hall was threatened by a manticore that came down from the mountains. Monster slayers came from all over to slay it. So…”

“So you invented another monster.” Glory said.

“The elder thought the whole thing up! Bronco down there is the fastest horse for miles around. We didn’t think anyone would be able to catch him.” The Freelance Hunters returned to the village of Corn Hall that evening. They did not stop at the fair or playhouse. They made a brief visit to the Elder’s house, so that they could show him a few more uses for an ear of corn. The story of that visit is occasionally recounted by a few of the more risque troubadours in the area. After that, there were no more monster sightings in Corn Hall for many, many years.

Why is Hugh skipping “Ender’s Game?” The reasons may surprise you.

July 15, 2013

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Last week there was renewed talk of the upcoming “Ender’s Game” film. Specifically, there was a renewed call to boycott the film by Queer SF fans and their allies. This is because the author of the original novel, Mr. Orson Scott Card, is most decidedly NOT a friend to the LGBT community. Mr. Card, using his religion as reasoning, has often made absolutely horrific statements, both in interviews and on his blog, concerning LGBT people. He has advocated for their arrest, and advocated for armed insurrection against any governments that sanction marriage equality. He wrote a novella based on ‘Hamlet’ smearing gay people and equating homosexuality with incest and pederasty. He sits on the board of NOM, a group with lobbies against marriage equality and spreads misinformation about LGBT people.

But of course Card has the right to say what he wishes. He made his bed, and well and good for him. The problem is, he doesn’t much feel like sleeping in it. Last week, Card gave an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Therein, he hoped that supporters of marriage equality would ‘show tolerance’ and go and see his movie.

Tolerance. You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.

This petty little swipe, maybe meant to bolster his reactionary religious base into getting the word out, maybe an accurate portrayal of his thoughts on not boycotting his film vs. being thrown in jail for being with the person you love, certainly had an effect, just maybe not the one he wanted.

Card’s comments had the effect of pouring gasoline on a pile of embers. When trailers for the film first came out, SF fans had a generally quiet and civil discussion about the movie. On the one hand, it looked cool, and was the work of a whole team of people, many of whom were strong allies of the LGBT community. In any case, the novel is much beloved, and was it possible to separate the work from the creator? This had all simmered down when Card threw his dunce cap into the ring with his comment. Some people weren’t going to see it, other people were. Some people were going to see it but assuage their guilt by donating the ticket price to a charitable organization, because darn it, the trailer did look cool. Most people behaved like adults. They considered the options, and they decided on the one that was best for them. All was well.

Card’s comments set off a new round of anger in his adversaries. New calls, much louder this time, came for a boycott, with the clear evidence of his snide little remarks to back them up. Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, went into crisis mode, demonstrating their solidarity with the LGBT community with PR statements, celebrity supporters, and even promising a special LGBT-friendly premier of the film.

I’m still not going to see it, and my reasons have more to do with Card’s foolish interview comments than his politics. He is entitled to his opinions, but an author should know better. Card acted in an abominably unprofessional manner. Here is what he did wrong:

1. Never, never, EVER feed the troll. Even if you think you’re right. Even if you are right. Even if your opponents are godless commie mutant traitors, ALL HAIL FRIEND COMPUTER! Don’t do it. Don’t get that last word in. A troll pokes the bear. A professional cuts their losses and moves on. Don’t get that last punch in. Because it won’t be the last punch.

2. Accept that you have haters and you have fans. Engage the fans and ignore the haters. Dude is a New York Times best-selling author. He has been for decades. The SF community has seen example after example of authors trying to directly challenge their critics. In some cases, literal critics writing bad reviews. SF has never been the darling of the publishing industry anyway. We’ve long been considered literary fiction’s dorky little brother, hanging around where he isn’t wanted, swinging toy swords and making lightsabre noises with his mouth. You get the audience you get, and you cherish it, feed and water it, make it grow like a money tree. Don’t shout at the brambles. They aren’t going to do anything for you.

3. To quote another recent SF flick, “It’s not about obedience, it’s about respect.” Audiences go to your film, or buy your latest book in hard cover because… drumroll please… they want to be entertained. They see what you have to offer, and decide that it’s worth their money. Maybe they go because they’re fans, and they like you. But they don’t owe you a thing. This is the great secret I’ve learned about being a writer, slinging words out into the dark aether and hoping they land on the desk of someone who wants to read them. Nobody owes you shit. Not the industry, not your fans, and certainly not your detractors. It is the height of arrogance to expect otherwise.

Tolerance means accepting your film exists. The boycott isn’t about picketing the theaters or shutting down the studio. It’s about not paying twenty dollars to watch an earnest white boy kill buggers. And that’s fine. The film might have needed to reach a wider audience to be profitable. The negative attention might convince potential theater goers to wait for the blue ray. But that money wasn’t promised the film, and it certainly isn’t owed. Any shred of attention, anything cent spent on merchandise, or any tiny fraction of a ticket price, is the goodwill and respect of your audience. To imply that people outside your audience are being intolerant by withholding their dollars is not merely unprofessional, it’s disrespectful to them, and to your fans.

We Can Be Heroes….

June 29, 2013

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This is a difficult post for me to write, but I have to write something. I’ve been starting and stopping it all morning. Some friends of mine have been talking lately about writing outside your comfort zone, and now I’m taking a deep breath and stepping out of mine. But this isn’t about me. This is about something else.

I have never been comfortable talking about my sexuality. And I’ve been even less comfortable writing about it. Which is to say that I don’t. I mean, I’ve always had ideas for stories with gay themes or characters, and my notes are filled with the sort of secret histories that I never expected to share until after the last book in a best-selling series was released. I chose to write differently. I chose to write to the market. I didn’t want to muck up. I kept my head down.

“Gay Fiction” is an odd sort of genre because it is about being gay. About being different. About all the ways the world has to hurt you. And sometimes the protagonists rise above, and sometimes, they don’t. Of course, there is also gay romantic fiction, but there isn’t a lot of data that gay men read romance novels, and straight women do. So, good luck finding a story for YOU, gay male reader. This is the principle of yaoi, two beautiful men for women to objectify. And if you’re a man and that’s what you’re into? Bonus. This is the kind of deep and real same-sex relationship you find after midnight between two female prison inmates on Cinemax. These are the sorts of covers featuring a nude 120 lb blond model, his frame coquettishly twisted at a three quarters view, holding a football helmet and looking whistful. But romance is not a genre I’m interested. I like fantasy. I like science fiction. I kept quiet. I kept my head down.

And in my genre of choice, there are some GLBT characters. Sometimes they even have romances. Sometimes they even live to see the end of the book. But what conflicts do these characters wrestle with? Discrimination in the magical kingdom. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in Star Fleet. Coming out to their father the King. Space-AIDS. Their struggles are the same struggles. That is, assuming they’re the good guys. Want to steam up your villain? Give him a sexy lesbian dominatrix for a minion. Want to show how virile and masculine your hero is? Why not have the super-villain make a pass at him while they’re duking it out. Bonus points if he says he ‘likes it rough.’ Slow bit in the plot? Maybe the scheming queen could be bicurious for a couple chapters. But publishers are risk averse, and getting more so all the time. I don’t even have a novel out yet. Don’t make waves, I thought. Don’t get known as a ‘gay’ writer, I thought. I kept my head down.

I’ve always kept my head down. It has been my survival strategy for as long as I can remember. I didn’t come out until college, and even that was a long and difficult process, helped immensely by the love and support of my boyfriend, now my husband. I was quiet and shy in high school. I kept my head down.

In 2011, Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself. He was a student at Williamsville North High School, just like I was. And he died because he was bullied, because he was gay. And no one stopped it from happening. It was the kind of thing that I never expected to happen in a place like North. Some distant school in the bible belt somewhere, sure. But those were the same halls I walked through. Where I kept my head down.

I realized that we don’t change the world by observing it. We change the world by getting up and fucking changing it. It is an easy thing to say, ‘hey, it get’s better.’ And then turn our attention back to our real lives and the real problems we face as adults. The mortgage, the job, this short story that just isn’t working, the podcast deadline. It’s easy to forget that you’re still keeping your head down.

But you can’t whisper ‘yes’ when the world shouts ‘no.’ You can’t hope a You-tube video will carry the same weight as the bully, or the teacher that doesn’t see the problem. You can’t hope a 30 second story on the news will be heard over a 2.5 hour movie that says you’re better off staying in the closet.

I recently spoke with a colleague about her ‘New Adult’ novel. And I’m taking the opportunity of the next month to write one of my own. Because I feel like I can address my sexuality without framing it as a problem. I can have a main character be gay and have it not be the overriding focus of his life, to say nothing of the book. He can be the hero of his own story. He can fight off monsters and save the (other) guy. He can save the ship and not lose everything else.  The YES has to be louder than then no. I can’t wait for the world to be ready for a three-dimensional gay male lead in speculative fiction. I can’t keep my head down anymore.

Fiction: The Decision

June 20, 2013

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This story was written for NPR’s Three Minute Fiction Contest round nine.  The prompt was to write a story about a real or fictional US President.  I didn’t place, but I hope you enjoy it.

I looked up. “How sure are we?” My eyes swept the room. The whole cabinet was exhausted. Everyone here already knew the answer. I wouldn’t have woken them up at 2AM for a hoax, nor would I have them sleep through history. But the question had to be asked. The director of NASA cleared his throat.

“Well, 95% certain, Mr. President. We confirmed as well as we could, but would have had to contact teams in other nations.” A 5% chance that these images were fakes, that the data was not what it indicated. A wide enough margin to make me a laughing-stock if I choose wrong.

“I see. And you’re certain the data is contained?”

“It is for now, Mr. President. No one else in the hemisphere has the tech to find it, but we have a rapidly closing window before the sun sets in Asia and Europe. We have maybe a six hour head start on China.”

“Alright. What are your opinions?” I looked around the room again. The Secretary of Defense, in her prim blue uniformed skirt spoke first.

“If this is genuine, we cannot be assured of peaceful contact,” she said. The Secretary of State scowled under his bushy mustache.

“But we cannot assume they are hostile. We may only provoke a war,” he said. “We may also insult our allies if we aren’t careful.” He was right of course. We had front row seats to this show, and every other world power would complain they weren’t consulted. I would, if the situation were reversed. Now all the Secretaries were talking at once. The Secretary of the Interior was concerned about possible resource contamination, and the Homeland Security Chief was insisting that there would be riots, at least across the Bible Belt and most major cities. He was probably right, too. I thought of a thousand dominoes. Each one a problem, potentially a catastrophe. And each of them would fall based on what happened in this room in the next five minutes. This was the defining moment of my administration, and everyone in the room knew it.

“It’s a hoax,” said the Vice President. “You move forward with this, and you are going to make Carter look like Lincoln. Let it go, John. Let some other world leader make an ass of themselves on the morning news.” I could, of course. I could step back, and by doing nothing, let the cup pass from my lips. I could let history happen somewhere else, and say, ‘I wasn’t sure.’ And history would forgive me for it.

But I already knew that I couldn’t. This was America. Americans were the first men on the Moon, the first people on Mars. We were explorers. It was our duty, my duty, to lead. I shook my head.

“How soon can you get an Orion prepped?” I asked the NASA chief.

“Uh, it’s incredibly complicated, Mr. President. Setting the safety systems alone…”

“You have five hours. Pick a team of your three best people. Vince, I want your pick of a diplomat to go with them, just in case. Georgette, name a military advisor, too. Have their names on my desk in an hour, and get them to Houston by 10AM. I don’t think this is a fake, and I don’t think it’s hostile, but I’m not going to take chances. Press conference at 6AM. The rest of you, get reports to me on the potential fallout. None of us expected this, but we’ll be making first contact with that ship, wherever it came from.”

Final Fantasy IV, Part two: The Fifth Man

June 14, 2013

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Being the first Final Fantasy game for the Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy IV featured several technical advancements over the previous incarnations.  The graphical tile set shares some similarity with FF III, but 16-bit graphics and an expanded color palate give the objects more depth.  Everything feels a bit more real.  The added power of the hardware also allowed for two key graphical improvements.  The first is layering, which created better visual effects, filling the screen with fog or smoke, and lending atmosphere to the dungeons and other locations.  The second is Mode 7 graphics.  Mode 7 was an ability that the Super Nintendo had which allowed the background plane to be rotated against another object in a variety of ways.  This was used by the Super Nintendo to create the illusion of a 3D environment with 2D backgrounds.  FF IV uses the effect for airship sequences in the game.  As the airship takes off, the ground literally tilts and shrinks away, creating an appearance of altitude.  Square continued to refine and experiment with these effects in later games for the Super Nintendo.
The real thing that makes FF IV stand out in the series, however, is the battle system.  Final Fantasy IV is the origin of the Active Time Battle System.  In previous games, your characters would line up on one side of the screen, the monsters would take the other side, and you’d take turns hitting each other with swords and magic.  IV introduced a system where the speed at which your characters acted was actually based on their speed stats.  So faster characters wouldn’t just land more blows on their opponents, they acted more often.  This was another break-out moment for the series, and was a key part of the game for years, although players could still set the controls so that monsters would politely wait if you were called away during a fight.
The other unique feature was a five-person party over the previous games’ four.  This is the largest they ever got, and challenged the player with a difficult choice. Like in II and III, players could set characters in the front row to do more physical damage, or the back to boost defense.  But in IV, some slots were reserved for the front, and others for the back, letting the players choose, but preventing them from putting everyone up front or in back.  Again, the player had to familiarize themselves with the characters, and learn their strengths and weaknesses.  Usually this wasn’t particularly difficult with knights up front and wizards in the back.  However, some sections of the game gave you a party that favored one style over the the other, and left you with more vulnerable characters, or with choosing who to stick in the back for a while.
Final Fantasy IV is a game that focused on delivering one story, and challenging players to master it with very little of the customization offered by previous and later installments.  Still, it delivers it so well, and the mechanics are so deep, that it still remains one of my favorites in the series.

Final Fantasy IV: Part One: Marrying the Personal and the Epic

June 13, 2013

hughjodonnell Gaming, Uncategorized , , 1 Comment

Picking back up in my look at the Final Fantasy series, let’s take a look at the first entry into the Super Nintendo era, Final Fantasy IV.  Leaving aside the technical and nerdy depths of the game’s various versions and releases, today I want to talk about the game’s plot, and the huge step forward it represented for the series.

Final Fantasy IV is the story of Cecil, a Dark Knight of Baron, and the commander of the kingdom’s dreaded airship corps, the Red Wings.  The game opens with a lengthy cut scene of Cecil flying to the country of Mysidia, attacking, and stealing their crystal.  This is a unique opening for the series, as there is almost no game-play as the player is introduced to Cecil, his friends and subordinates, and his inner turmoil.  Cecil is caught between his loyalty to the king and his desire to do what is right.

When he questions why the kingdom is committing such horrible crimes, the king strips him of his rank and demands he deliver a message to a nearby village, alone and on foot.  Cecil’s best friend and Dragoon Kain stands with him.  This is where the adventure, and the game, really begin.  The first few hours of the game chronicle Cecil’s journey as he gains and loses allies, and fights to make sense of the world and his place in it.  Finally, he washes up alone and broken on the shores of Mysidia, coming face to face with the horror of what he did at the start of the narrative.

The only way for Cecil to atone for his crime is to climb Mt. Ordeals and become a Paladin, shedding the darkness of his past.  And in doing so, the greater motion of the plot is revealed, as he is opposed by fiends serving Golbez, a powerful, shadowy figure gathering crystals to himself for some purpose.  And in becoming a Paladin, he transcends his quest to save himself, and takes on a mission to save the world.

Final Fantasy IV marked a turning point for the series.  The quartet of tabula rasas with blank spaces for names were replaced by more fully formed characters that had a place and stake in the world.  They had their own drive and agency, and drew the story forward as they wove in and out of the adventure tale’s intricate story.  IV didn’t give the player any choice as to who was in the party at any given time.  It was dictated by the story and the actions of the characters rather than the player.  And all the characters had a reason to be there, be it a sense of obligation, a desire for revenge, or just a desire to keep the other characters safe.  Square eased up on the narrative drive in later games, giving the player a bit more control, but this is the game when the party really became characters.  It was a remarkable step forward, and it had a lasting impression on the series.

Next time:  The technical innovations of the 16 bit era, and the five person party.

Shogi

June 11, 2013

hughjodonnell Gaming , , 1 Comment

Last night my husband and I played shogi for the first time in a long while.  We did fairly well, although we did have to look up the wiki to double-check all the piece starting positions and movements.  I picked up the board as a gift for Jeremy when I was living in Japan, and we used to spend afternoons playing in the park behind the house.  Breaking the board out again was a pleasant end to our anniversary weekend.

Shogi is a Japanese chess variant, and I prefer it over the European game.  In Shogi, captured pieces are retained “In Hand.”  That is to say instead of being dead once they are taken off the board, your opponent can place captured pieces in their army and use them against you.  I’ve always really liked this mechanic.  It makes me a lot less willing to rush ahead and sacrifice a piece for an attack.  I play more defensively.  Defense is really the name of the game.  Shogi doesn’t have a queen piece, but rather two pairs of generals, gold and silver.  These pieces can move one space in any direction forward, as well as a few other spaces.  Gold generals move one space orthogonally.  Silvers move diagonally.  They basically serve as a set of guards for the king.

The writer in me really likes the thematic elements of shogi.  The defensive game, and the idea that nothing really ends when a piece is cleared of the game board is intriguing to me.  The game is a bit difficult to find in the US, but if you are a fan of chess and other strategy games. you should try and find a set.

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