richardco

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Posts posted by richardco

  2. Posted

    Re: Persona 4, I think reading Kanji as gay and Naoto as trans only make sense until you complete their storylines. Kanji works better as a critique of toxic masculinity, and Naoto as institutional sexism. They simply happen to converge on some of the same themes that a gay / trans character would.

     

    I interpreted Rise's arc to be less about sexualization per se, and more about agency and having control over her own identity.

     

     

    Yeah, Catherine is a fairly straightforward adolescent dude-bro doesn't want to grow up story, which is a well worn archetype. It doesn't have a lot of interest in the women other than as props.

     

    That's a take that I like, because I really want it to be that they just didn't completely fumble. I'll keep it in mind the next time I play through the game.

  3. Posted

    The length of Star Fox will dictate how much I care. I picked up Star Fox 64 3D, finished it in a day and was incredibly disappointed. 

    I basically want a Rogue Squadron 3.

     

    I wonder how much my interest in the new game has to do with nostalgia. I played 64 a crap load, took every different path through the planets that I could.

    But it turns out, I really just wanted Rogue Squadron the whole time--which I think came out...I want to say 2-3 years later. Those games really were a blast. I never touched any of the prequel trilogy flying shootey games because the prequel trilogy did a garbage job with vehicles and space battles. And I'm one of the few that actually liked the prequel trilogy.

  5. Posted

    Smart Jason, on 17 Jun 2015 - 19:36, said:

    Brianna Wu made a salient point (although accompanied by apologist replies interpreting the end of her S-Link arc as permissively reconciling with her sexualization) by saying that this flies in the face of Rise's character, whose struggle in Persona 4 consists of her abandoning fame because she wasn't comfortable with how she was being portrayed as a teen idol.

    Same as when newer Persona materials display Naoto embracing her femininity in super bombastic ways just because Japanese producers think she's ripe when (while interpreting her as trans, same as interpreting Kanji as gay, is likely a misread) she was still a more nuanced study of gender than games do.

    I'm never quite sure of the consensus on Rise's arc in Persona 4. If I'm reading what you're saying correctly, Bri and the apologists both have it backwards. I certainly had a different take on it before I read the wikipedia article on Japanese idols.

    Idols in Japan are supposed to be these virginal creatures that aren't even allowed to have significant others, and Rise's shadow self was born because her job made her feel ashamed of her sexuality. (As an aside, I find Rise's accepting of her shadow to be one of the most emotional moments in the game, and I cry a little every time.) Rise's entire arc is about her being uncomfortable with how she's portrayed, but it's the purity aspect that she's uncomfortable with.

    So from a character standpoint, it's not weird that Rise would want to dress provocatively, it's weird that she'd want to go back to a profession that would paint her as a symbol of purity. I can't remember how they reconcile this in the game. I think she wants to become an idol again for her fans.

    The Naoto stuff on the other hand really does feel out of character. By the end of Persona 4, Rise has said that she wants to go back to being an idol. Naoto is really never comfortable being viewed as a woman. But the way that Naoto's gender identity and Kanji's sexuality (respectively) are so strangely portrayed that I really have no idea what the writers were going for. It sounds like maybe they had an idea of homosexuality and what it means to be transgender, but they didn't know as much as they should to write a gay character and a trans character.

    The Kanji stuff is particularly egregious because they couch being a gay man in fear of women. Like oh, Kanji's not gay, he's just scared of girls! That's really fucked up. 

    Still it was really nice to at least see a game try to broach those subjects, and especially with such lovable characters. Especially in the PS2 era!

  6. Posted

    Great news! Cara Ellison got a job at Arkane and is totally working on Dishonored 2, I just found out! 

     

    Oh shiiiiiiiit, really?

    Suddenly a lot more interested in DIshonored 2.

  7. Posted

    I think I feel about First Person Shooters the way that lots of people seem to feel about JRPGs. My eyes just kind of glazed over for that Doom 4 stuff. Would probably be pretty excited if I grew up with those games, I suppose.

  8. Posted

    I finished episode 2 and a very bad thing happened. I thought that I'd taken all the steps to see that it didn't because I'd listened to the spoilers in the most recent Thumbs episode. But I botched it and felt awful. I thought that the bad thing must be unavoidable, but the stats screen at the end revealed that I was in the minority of people (40%) who had the bad thing happen. :(

  10. Posted

    Nice!! Will fill the hole left in my life by the loss of the Twin Peaks Rewatch.

    Really looking forward to season 2 of True Detective, but I am nervous about it.  I read a bunch of the short stories and the novel that Nic Pizzolatto wrote and he really tends to tell the same story over and over again. Troubled rugged protagonist tries to fill the hole left by absent family member. True Detective is definitely the best iteration of that story, but after reading a bunch of Pizzolatto, I really don't have a high opinion of him as a writer.  

    Season One had some masterful directing too, but that director won't be back for season 2.

    Oh well, whatever happens in season 2 won't affect how much I enjoyed the first.

  13. Posted

    What a fun episode.

    I bought the Life is Strange season pass after hearing it and I'm really really enjoying it.  Just finished up episode 1.

    The dialogue can definitely be off sometimes...a lot of times, but it feels like it fits in with the world they've built.  Kind of like a less extreme SWERY game. There's kind of a subtle Twin Peaksy vibe complete with a Laura Palmer stand-in. Chloe's license plate also says "Twin Peaks."

    I love Max as a protagonist.

    The art direction is really nice too.

    I'm kind of blown away by how much I'm enjoying it and how little the cringe-dialogue is wearing on me. Easily one of my favorite releases this year. Top 3 even.

  16. Posted

    d0ng81Q.png?1

    Thanks to Tegan for the fantastic art!

     

    The inspiration

    In Idle Thumbs episode 207, Danielle aired a beef that she had with Bloodborne.  A bloodbeef, if you will. The bloodbeef was about getting backed into a corner and not feeling able to escape.  Danielle mentioned that in real life she knows how to get out of a corner in a fight.  I imagined Danielle boxing Father Gascogine in a graveyard and the Bloodbeef run was born.

     

    The build

    Character name:

    Bloodbeef RI

    Apparently there's a character limit to character names in Bloodborne.  So Bloodbeef Riendeau didn't fit.  Therefore, I went with RI.  I believe on some podcast or another, Danielle mentioned that the RI in her twitter handle is a reference to Rhode Island as well as her last name.

    Messages:

    The only messages I've left for other players are some variation of "Don't give up!"  Even in the oppressive Yharnam hellscape, Bloodbeef Riendeau remains a force of positivity and encouragement.

    The Weapons:

    Gun:  No guns.  You can’t p90x a gun.

    Main hand:  Danielle is a boxer, therefore I've decided to do the entire run using only the Beast Claws weapon.  In a transformed state, this weapon is the closest approximation of hand-to-hand brawling (aside from not equipping a weapon at all—I'm sure someone will beat the game barehanded, but I'm just not that patient or skilled.)

    Gear:  I'm going to be using the Ashen Hunter set as it increases the Beasthood stat.  It also—handily—covers part of the character's face so that we can all pretend I'm very talented at character creation and that I've made a perfect rendering of Danielle.

    Items:  I'll have tons of bullets to spare since I won't be shooting them.  Bloodborne allows bullets to be spent to activate Hunter Tools.  Some of these tools buff the player character, some of them do direct damage to enemies.  I'm only going to use the ones that buff.

     

    The Run

    -All bosses.

    -All hunters (except Eileen because anyone who attacks Eileen is a monster and I don't want to know them).  Fighting them as close to their full effectiveness as possible.  No cheese.

    -Keep track of deaths versus bosses and other hunters.

    -Upload videos of every successful boss and hunter kill.

     

    Challenges

    -Since the Beast Claws can only be obtained about halfway through the game, I've decided to do this run on New Game+.  Every enemy hits harder and has more health.

    -This will be my 5th time through the game, and I rely HEAVILY on the gun to parry certain bosses.

    -The transformed state in which I'll be wielding the Beast Claws allows the wielder to gain a Beasthood status effect when attacking enemies.  This status is represented on the screen as a slowly filling bar.  The bar will begin depleting once the hunter stops hitting an enemy.  The more that bar is filled, the more damage the hunter will deal.  The damage that the hunter receives from attacks is also increased dramatically.  To be at peak effectiveness, I’ll probably have to press attacks when I normally wouldn’t.  I can definitely see this getting me into trouble. 

    -I've never managed to kill the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst without cheesing him.  I imagine that I'll die more to him than any boss.  Retired Hunter Djura has a small arena with lethal drops on every side—I don't want to accidently knock him over before I can whittle down his hp.  The battles with multiple hunters at the same time are going to be very, very hard.  Especially without parries.

     

     

    Bosses Videos!!!

     

    Cleric Beast: 1 attempt

     

     

    Father Gascoigne: 3 attempts

     

     

     

     

     

     

    (I'll continue to update this post as Bloodbeef Riendeau wreaks havoc.)

     

    (And a question to more experienced forum users: Is there any limit to the amount of stuff that I can embed in a single post? I could link 2 videos but not 3.)

     

  17. Posted

    Danielewski released a new book yesterday! Volume one of, what, 27? I'm probably going to pick it up after work today and read it immediately.

    Anyway, here's a nice little profile piece with him http://lithub.com/did-mark-z-danielewski-just-reinvent-the-novel/

    Hmmm.  I never got through Only Revolutions, but I really liked The Fifty Year Sword.

     

     

    It's so interesting to see this response to this book. I bought it because I saw it recommended to designers several places. I didn't even realize until I got it that it was kind of a horror story, and after getting a little spooked out early on I haven't picked it up since. It's pretty disappointing to learn that all the madness doesn't have a payoff in the end. What's the point of creating some crazy thing if there's nothing to get a the end of the craziness? I mean, I guess some people like that, and I'd be more willing to wade through it just to find out for myself, but I get crazy anxiety with scary stuff and don't want to subject myself to that?

     

    Have you taken a dive into some of the fan theories surrounding the book?  The question of the actual narrator is pretty illuminating.  I have a particular headcanon theory about the nature of the text and the house that I think fits pretty well.

     

    But you could also look at the book as a deconstructionist piece.  Deconstruction like in the critical theory sense where words and objects/ideas are just this endless loop of unconnected signifiers and signifieds.  

  19. Posted

    The screen not getting so dark when picking up dropped echoes is so nice!

     

    Per the trophy list, I should now have 2 bosses left. So close to the end!

     

    Is doing co-op runs of Chalice dungeons something people are into doing?

     

    There's one particular chalice dungeon on the path to fighting Yharnam that is pretty heinous.  It's a cursed dungeon so your HP is cut in half.  And since your co-op partner automatically is at 70-80% their normal health, they are most certainly going to get one-shotted by bosses.  And when you enter a boss room with a partner, the boss gains a buff to their hp.  So it's pretty risky bringing a partner into this particular set of chalice bosses.

    The cursed defiled chalice is definitely the hardest part of the game.  The 2nd boss in there took me 6-8 hours to beat.  

  22. Posted

    Pre-order site went up today!  But most of the links--aside from a Canadian one--are currently inactive.  BUUUUUUUUT that retailer lists a release date! September 29th!  Three months after the Japanese date.

    Kinda doubting we'll see Persona 5 this year, but I'm still excited about this game.  I'll definitely buy the most expensive thing they'll sell me because I'm just too enamored with that series :(

     

    http://www.atlus.com/p4dan/purchase.html# 

  24. Posted

    I don't understand the Meninist twitter account. It's a parody, right? They broadcast themselves as a parody, anyway, in their bio.

     

    But I've also been told that it's a totally serious account and a bad thing. And doesn't the parody go over a lot of folks' heads or something? I remember when the account was first created, it seemed like such an obvious parody of MRAs to me...but everyone took it so seriously.

     

    I'm also pretty bad at reading tone on the internet though, so maybe that was me.

     

    There's little difference between bad parody and the subject they mean to parody.  And they should probably be treated the same.  

  25. Posted

    Ah-ha, that's what Sunset is about.  I saw a lot of people excited about it when it came out but I'm still too Bloodborne-obsessed to look into most other games right now -_-

    Feel better, Chris!

     

    Edit: Whoa!  Sunset's logo is amazing.  

     

    Edit2: Regarding the email about the impairment mid-game thing.  Fear Effect for the PS One.  One of your playable characters loses an arm.  No more dual wielding pistols for him! New reloading animations.  Other things I can't remember.  I do recall very much feeling the loss of that arm.