I noticed that when you are in the title selection screen, there is an entire illustration between Ico and SotC.
So I decided to quickly hit left and right while zooming from one to the other. Right in the middle of the two is a lonely castle.
It could be the castle from Ico, but Ico and Yorda are depicted at the castle.
It could be the temple in SotC, but the temple (and bridge) are very clearly on the SotC side.
It could be tied to The Last Guardian. Who knows? (Ueda does, of course)
To the left of the lonely castle is an ocean with a boat in it, curiously facing the Ico side (as in; going TOWARDS the Ico castle.
To the right of the lonely castle is a sparse, almost desert like land not unlike the forbidden land in SotC.
It's really hard to get good details though, because it goes so fast and switching between left and right to get details can be a bit difficult. I have been looking for a still image of the entire picture, but I can't seem to.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Best Movie Ever
What is the best movie ever?
The Godfather? No.
Citizen Cane? No.
No no no, wrong country.
The answer is Spirited Killer 3.
Yes, the link is to a trilogy. The movie itself is so damned obscure that it has no profile for itself that I can find. Also, don't get excited at the shot of Tony Jaa on the cover. He was in the first movie for about 10 minutes and the Spirited Killer movies were released in America after Ong Bak so they decided to capitalize.
Why? Why is this movie the best movie ever?
Because in history of movies that are so bad that they are awesome, this is by far the most entertaining.
As far as story goes, it is pretty basic "mystical martial arts" fare. Ghosts, demons, magical animals, etc etc etc. A group of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai magicians go into a Thai forest to find an egg of a black crane (I could be wrong about it being a crane). They do, and before they can extract the ultra super powerful magic out of it, they are interrupted by an unnamed demon, played by writer and directer of the movies, Panna Rittikrai. He kills a couple of the people and the rest run away. He then does some kind of ritual amongst a bunch of bones that blows up the black egg and he disappears.
20 years later, a group of Japanese people and a group of Chinese people (separately) come to Thailand to get the egg. The villagers don't like what they are doing and decided to get the egg first.
Some idiot finds the site of the ritual 20 years prior and decided to piss on a skull. This wakes up the demon and he decided "ALL THESE FUCKERS MUST DIE!" He doesn't say that, but that's the idea. He summons 3 other demons; a skinny guy in blue robes, a psychobitch in red robes, and a ninja in black. The 3 lesser demons start attacking the villagers. Turns out the lesser demons can summon a 4th lesser demon, a ninja clad in white.
Sometime during a fight, the first demon summons another demon who is a man dressed only in a diaper-ish thing...for some reason.
There's more fighting, the daughter of the original Thai magician gets the power of everyone sucked into her and she just starts blowing the bad guys up.
That's the movie. Done.
Doesn't sound that great, does it?
Fuck you, it's amazing. From the very beginning the acting is hilarious. Not Oscar worthy, but all the actors seem to realize thankfully that they are in a campy martial arts movie about demons and ninjas. From distorted faces to silly body movements, it's easy to tell this movie is not serious.
But the reason it is so amazing is the small things, like the name of the last demon to be summoned.
I AM NOT AT ALL MAKING THIS UP, IT SAYS THIS IN THE OFFICIAL MOVIE DUB
The Ass Demon!
THE ASS DEMON!
Shit just got real! I lost it when he appeared. I can't help but love this movie now.
But there's more!
The white ninja says "NIN NIN NIN NIN NIN NIN" whenever he does anything. Trust me when I say it is a lot funnier than it sounds.
There is a fight scene where some of the combatants get lazy and lay down to fight or even fall asleep. Again, funnier than it sounds.
The best part of the movie though, is this little old lady you see at the beginning of the movie stalking through town. When we first saw her, we declared "look at sexy grandma, strutting her stuff!" Indeed, she was throwing her hips side to side like a saucy 20-something.
Later on, she gets possessed and starts killing people. However, the entire time her face makes it look like she is trying to seduce people, not kill them. The last stretch of the movie with her in it is one of the funniest things I ever seen because of her.
Critically now, it is a pretty bad movie. The fights can be impressively choreographed but it got to a point where I could accurately call out when someone would do a kick. It either became that predictable, or I am just awesome.
The acting is understandably silly. Sometimes it works (sexy grandma!) sometimes it doesn't. Some characters are just there to be there. One in particular is played by the cutey in Ong Bak. I am pretty sure her role in the movie came down to "look cute, get knocked down." Other than that, when she is in frame, she is just kinda there.
The music is a surprise. We watched Spirited Killer 2 before this (of course) and were surprised to hear covers of The Final Countdown and Cliffs Of Dover in it. Spirited Killer 3 uses Cliffs of Dover about 6 times. No Final Countdown unfortunately, but they did use a cover of Jungle Love a few times. Also, I am pretty sure they used Love Is A Battlefield once or twice.
That said, the music never matched the movie.
Overall, everyone should watch this movie once just to see how horrible movies can be amazing.
ASS DEMON!
The Godfather? No.
Citizen Cane? No.
No no no, wrong country.
The answer is Spirited Killer 3.
Yes, the link is to a trilogy. The movie itself is so damned obscure that it has no profile for itself that I can find. Also, don't get excited at the shot of Tony Jaa on the cover. He was in the first movie for about 10 minutes and the Spirited Killer movies were released in America after Ong Bak so they decided to capitalize.
Why? Why is this movie the best movie ever?
Because in history of movies that are so bad that they are awesome, this is by far the most entertaining.
As far as story goes, it is pretty basic "mystical martial arts" fare. Ghosts, demons, magical animals, etc etc etc. A group of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai magicians go into a Thai forest to find an egg of a black crane (I could be wrong about it being a crane). They do, and before they can extract the ultra super powerful magic out of it, they are interrupted by an unnamed demon, played by writer and directer of the movies, Panna Rittikrai. He kills a couple of the people and the rest run away. He then does some kind of ritual amongst a bunch of bones that blows up the black egg and he disappears.
20 years later, a group of Japanese people and a group of Chinese people (separately) come to Thailand to get the egg. The villagers don't like what they are doing and decided to get the egg first.
Some idiot finds the site of the ritual 20 years prior and decided to piss on a skull. This wakes up the demon and he decided "ALL THESE FUCKERS MUST DIE!" He doesn't say that, but that's the idea. He summons 3 other demons; a skinny guy in blue robes, a psychobitch in red robes, and a ninja in black. The 3 lesser demons start attacking the villagers. Turns out the lesser demons can summon a 4th lesser demon, a ninja clad in white.
Sometime during a fight, the first demon summons another demon who is a man dressed only in a diaper-ish thing...for some reason.
There's more fighting, the daughter of the original Thai magician gets the power of everyone sucked into her and she just starts blowing the bad guys up.
That's the movie. Done.
Doesn't sound that great, does it?
Fuck you, it's amazing. From the very beginning the acting is hilarious. Not Oscar worthy, but all the actors seem to realize thankfully that they are in a campy martial arts movie about demons and ninjas. From distorted faces to silly body movements, it's easy to tell this movie is not serious.
But the reason it is so amazing is the small things, like the name of the last demon to be summoned.
I AM NOT AT ALL MAKING THIS UP, IT SAYS THIS IN THE OFFICIAL MOVIE DUB
The Ass Demon!
THE ASS DEMON!
Shit just got real! I lost it when he appeared. I can't help but love this movie now.
But there's more!
The white ninja says "NIN NIN NIN NIN NIN NIN" whenever he does anything. Trust me when I say it is a lot funnier than it sounds.
There is a fight scene where some of the combatants get lazy and lay down to fight or even fall asleep. Again, funnier than it sounds.
The best part of the movie though, is this little old lady you see at the beginning of the movie stalking through town. When we first saw her, we declared "look at sexy grandma, strutting her stuff!" Indeed, she was throwing her hips side to side like a saucy 20-something.
Later on, she gets possessed and starts killing people. However, the entire time her face makes it look like she is trying to seduce people, not kill them. The last stretch of the movie with her in it is one of the funniest things I ever seen because of her.
Critically now, it is a pretty bad movie. The fights can be impressively choreographed but it got to a point where I could accurately call out when someone would do a kick. It either became that predictable, or I am just awesome.
The acting is understandably silly. Sometimes it works (sexy grandma!) sometimes it doesn't. Some characters are just there to be there. One in particular is played by the cutey in Ong Bak. I am pretty sure her role in the movie came down to "look cute, get knocked down." Other than that, when she is in frame, she is just kinda there.
The music is a surprise. We watched Spirited Killer 2 before this (of course) and were surprised to hear covers of The Final Countdown and Cliffs Of Dover in it. Spirited Killer 3 uses Cliffs of Dover about 6 times. No Final Countdown unfortunately, but they did use a cover of Jungle Love a few times. Also, I am pretty sure they used Love Is A Battlefield once or twice.
That said, the music never matched the movie.
Overall, everyone should watch this movie once just to see how horrible movies can be amazing.
ASS DEMON!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Micro review: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World (Hours 0 - 2)
FIRST OFF: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
What happens when you take a classic jRPG, add a completely emo protagonist, include a barely-still-a-loli cutie who wants nothing more to impale herself on said emo protagonist's dong, throw in some Pokemon style monster growing, then put it all on the Wii?
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World! That's what you get.
I have had this game for all of a day and have played it about 2 hours. With 2 hours of experience, here is my micro review:
Characters: Unsure protagonists are kind of a trend in jRPGs but the good guy in this one, Emil, takes the cake. Unsure to the point that everyone yells at him. It is actually kind of refreashing to be honest. They even show him as a coward during the first few battles (instead of the old stand buy: give random person random weapon and he will know exactly how to use it without any doubt).
The main female protagonist, Marta, randomly starts begging for Emil to declare his love for her. He, of course, can't because his balls haven't dropped or something. Seriously, when I say that she probably rapes him in his sleep when they stay at an inn, trust me when I say I mean it. Turns out she has the hibernating god of monsters embedded in her forehead and Emil grains that god's power (which is what makes him less of a coward in battle).
The other main protagonist is a magical dark wolf thing named something I can never pronounce. He's a black wolf that floats around and talks. That's about it so far.
Other than that, the original cast from Tales of Symphonia (on the GameCube) return and one of them is oddly evil. There are also Marta's ex comrades which so far has included random soldiers, a liutenant named Hawk, and a sadistic super-loli named Alice. She even has a riding crop for a weapon. I'm not making that up.
Story: Boy meets girl. Boy pisses pants. Girl needs help. Boy pisses pants then saves girl. Girl wants to fuck boy. Boy pisses pants. Something about a squirrel and natural disasters. Boy pisses pants.
Gameplay: Battles are pretty fun. They are done in real time (though managing characters can be a hassle if you do not know what exactly you are doing). The only thing I do not like about the gameplay in general are cutscenes.
Seriously, when I was playing the game for the first time, I decided to update my Facebook status with my thoughts on the game:
There was one part where walking from one side of the screen to the other, I hit THREE GOD DAMNED CUTSCENES.
THREE.
Ugh!
Fun: Despite the over abundance of cutscenes, so far this game has been pretty fun. The charactes are actually unsusual for the genre and that is nice. The character interactions can be pretty funny too. Overal, if I were to rate this game on a scale of 1 to 10 so far, it would get a 7. I can tell by the game so far, and it's prequel, that it will get really heavy later on but for now there is just a lot of Marta wanting to get boned by Emil.
What happens when you take a classic jRPG, add a completely emo protagonist, include a barely-still-a-loli cutie who wants nothing more to impale herself on said emo protagonist's dong, throw in some Pokemon style monster growing, then put it all on the Wii?
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World! That's what you get.
I have had this game for all of a day and have played it about 2 hours. With 2 hours of experience, here is my micro review:
Characters: Unsure protagonists are kind of a trend in jRPGs but the good guy in this one, Emil, takes the cake. Unsure to the point that everyone yells at him. It is actually kind of refreashing to be honest. They even show him as a coward during the first few battles (instead of the old stand buy: give random person random weapon and he will know exactly how to use it without any doubt).
The main female protagonist, Marta, randomly starts begging for Emil to declare his love for her. He, of course, can't because his balls haven't dropped or something. Seriously, when I say that she probably rapes him in his sleep when they stay at an inn, trust me when I say I mean it. Turns out she has the hibernating god of monsters embedded in her forehead and Emil grains that god's power (which is what makes him less of a coward in battle).
The other main protagonist is a magical dark wolf thing named something I can never pronounce. He's a black wolf that floats around and talks. That's about it so far.
Other than that, the original cast from Tales of Symphonia (on the GameCube) return and one of them is oddly evil. There are also Marta's ex comrades which so far has included random soldiers, a liutenant named Hawk, and a sadistic super-loli named Alice. She even has a riding crop for a weapon. I'm not making that up.
Story: Boy meets girl. Boy pisses pants. Girl needs help. Boy pisses pants then saves girl. Girl wants to fuck boy. Boy pisses pants. Something about a squirrel and natural disasters. Boy pisses pants.
Gameplay: Battles are pretty fun. They are done in real time (though managing characters can be a hassle if you do not know what exactly you are doing). The only thing I do not like about the gameplay in general are cutscenes.
Seriously, when I was playing the game for the first time, I decided to update my Facebook status with my thoughts on the game:
Matt Grob 6 feet cutecene, 6 feet, cutscene, 6 feet, fight, cutscene, disc stops working, 6 feet, cutscene. FFS!
Yesterday at 9:33pmMatt Grob DRAMATIC SUDDEN VOICE CHANGE! Becoming a knight of a squirrel that lives in the world tree will do that.
Yesterday at 9:41pmMatt Grob SERIOUSLY, THE CUTSCENES.
Yesterday at 9:45pmMatt Grob Um...wasn't this city....literally just on fire?...
Yesterday at 10:32pmMatt Grob Damn, this game should be called "Cutscenes, The Game."
Yesterday at 10:47pm
There was one part where walking from one side of the screen to the other, I hit THREE GOD DAMNED CUTSCENES.
THREE.
Ugh!
Fun: Despite the over abundance of cutscenes, so far this game has been pretty fun. The charactes are actually unsusual for the genre and that is nice. The character interactions can be pretty funny too. Overal, if I were to rate this game on a scale of 1 to 10 so far, it would get a 7. I can tell by the game so far, and it's prequel, that it will get really heavy later on but for now there is just a lot of Marta wanting to get boned by Emil.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Wayward Review: Mario and Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story
This may be a bit of a surprise considering I have yet to review Father Of Death, which will eventually happen I assure you, but today I shall review a game for the first time.
And that game shall be Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS.
Let me start this out by saying that I have been in a bit of a video game lull as of late. The only game I have spent any more than a moment or two of playtime in recently was Scribblenauts which loses its charm way to damned fast.
But I am not reviewing Scribblenauts, am I? No no no, I am reviewing Mario and Luigi 3.
One of my favorite games for the SNES was Super Mario RPG. It had the right mix of rpg, action, platformer, humor, and seriousness. So too does this game.
Action is split up between the Brothers and Bowser. After consuming a mysterious mushroom from a strange vendor, Bowser sucks up everyone inside Princess Peach's castle, including the mustachio'd duo. While Bowser is out and about trying to get his castle back or kidnap the princess, Mario and Luigi are inside him beating up whatever is invading Bowser and even helping Bowser do certain tasks. For example, if Bowser needs arm strength for a certain part of the game, the Bros engage in a mingame in which they more or less massage his arms from within.
The overworld is navigated in classic 2d RPG style (top down camera) while the segments played in Bowser's body are strictly 2d platformer style.
Battles are much more action oriented than most RPGs. Instead of just picking something from a menu, waiting for to happen, then waiting for your enemies to do take their turn, you are actively participating in every part of the battle. All of your own attacks can be enhanced with proper timing and most if not all of enemy attacks can be avoided or countered with good timing too. As a matter of fact, if you DON'T dodge enemy attacks, you will probably get owned really really fast.
Along with the regular attacks (Bowser can breath fire and punch, the Bros can jump on enemies and hit them with a hammer) there are special attacks which are really fun. Bowser's specials involve his minions (goombas, koobas, bo-bombs etc etc) and are controlled with the stylus. The Bro special attacks don't use the styus but typically have you moving in some way. For example for one attack a picnic basket appears and a bunch of food flies into the air. Luigi then has to catch the food in his mouth as it falls, then he blows up like a balloon, then Mario throws him up into the air. He falls and does damage to the enemies. Some of the attacks are very spectacular and creative.
Along with these "conventional" attacks there are "giant battles." After being invigorated by the Bros (in his crotch no less...) Bowser becomes huge and fights large enemies. There are only 4 giant battles and are fairly unique. It was really nice, as a nerd, to see castles turn into giant robots to fight a giant dragon'ish thing.
Reading through this now, I am surprised I haven't noticed this yet, but the game is hilarious. It seriously has one of the funniest scripts ever. Whether it is Luigi's scardycat goofyness, Bowser's stubborn need to kidnap the princess at all costs, or the main antagonish Fawful's.....well just Fawful is awesome. Fawful's lines are freaking funny.
Thanks to this damn game I have begun saying to myself "I HAVE CHORTLES" whenever I am amused and "I HAVE FURY" whenever I get angry.
By the way, I have only had this game for 5 days. Just throwing that out there.
There are negatives, of course. This game isn't perfect. Here is the run down:
Pros:
+ Very engaging gameplay. There is very little down time in this game, not very much back tracking. Battles are never boring.
+ Nice animation. Characters move with a liquid grace and the ambient animations for characters are oddly detailed.
+ Good graphics. Everything in the game is lovingly rendered and detailed.
+ Hilarious script. Fawful. That is all I have to say.
Cons:
- Way too many minigames. The minigames are fun the first 2 times you do them. But after blasting stamina back into Bowser's crotch for the 4th time, it was boring. And the nose minigame is just a hassle in general.
- Seems to be over really short. I beat this game with 3 days of gameplay. Granted, I played it for 16 hours in those 3 days, but I didn't expect to take a family trip with a fresh game and come home with a beaten one.
- Lack of replay value. Now that I have beaten this game, I probably won't play it again. That's a shame, it really is, but I really have no reason to play it again now.
- The enemy difficulty is a bit uneven. Some monsters I could simply walk over, but there were some that if I didn't dodge one of their attacks, I would be completely defenseless. That is fine for a boss or even a rare miniboss, but not for regular enemies.
Recommendation: Rent it if you can, buy it if you must. Either way, you will enjoy it.
I HAVE CHORTLES!
And that game shall be Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the Nintendo DS.
Let me start this out by saying that I have been in a bit of a video game lull as of late. The only game I have spent any more than a moment or two of playtime in recently was Scribblenauts which loses its charm way to damned fast.
But I am not reviewing Scribblenauts, am I? No no no, I am reviewing Mario and Luigi 3.
One of my favorite games for the SNES was Super Mario RPG. It had the right mix of rpg, action, platformer, humor, and seriousness. So too does this game.
Action is split up between the Brothers and Bowser. After consuming a mysterious mushroom from a strange vendor, Bowser sucks up everyone inside Princess Peach's castle, including the mustachio'd duo. While Bowser is out and about trying to get his castle back or kidnap the princess, Mario and Luigi are inside him beating up whatever is invading Bowser and even helping Bowser do certain tasks. For example, if Bowser needs arm strength for a certain part of the game, the Bros engage in a mingame in which they more or less massage his arms from within.
The overworld is navigated in classic 2d RPG style (top down camera) while the segments played in Bowser's body are strictly 2d platformer style.
Battles are much more action oriented than most RPGs. Instead of just picking something from a menu, waiting for to happen, then waiting for your enemies to do take their turn, you are actively participating in every part of the battle. All of your own attacks can be enhanced with proper timing and most if not all of enemy attacks can be avoided or countered with good timing too. As a matter of fact, if you DON'T dodge enemy attacks, you will probably get owned really really fast.
Along with the regular attacks (Bowser can breath fire and punch, the Bros can jump on enemies and hit them with a hammer) there are special attacks which are really fun. Bowser's specials involve his minions (goombas, koobas, bo-bombs etc etc) and are controlled with the stylus. The Bro special attacks don't use the styus but typically have you moving in some way. For example for one attack a picnic basket appears and a bunch of food flies into the air. Luigi then has to catch the food in his mouth as it falls, then he blows up like a balloon, then Mario throws him up into the air. He falls and does damage to the enemies. Some of the attacks are very spectacular and creative.
Along with these "conventional" attacks there are "giant battles." After being invigorated by the Bros (in his crotch no less...) Bowser becomes huge and fights large enemies. There are only 4 giant battles and are fairly unique. It was really nice, as a nerd, to see castles turn into giant robots to fight a giant dragon'ish thing.
Reading through this now, I am surprised I haven't noticed this yet, but the game is hilarious. It seriously has one of the funniest scripts ever. Whether it is Luigi's scardycat goofyness, Bowser's stubborn need to kidnap the princess at all costs, or the main antagonish Fawful's.....well just Fawful is awesome. Fawful's lines are freaking funny.
Thanks to this damn game I have begun saying to myself "I HAVE CHORTLES" whenever I am amused and "I HAVE FURY" whenever I get angry.
By the way, I have only had this game for 5 days. Just throwing that out there.
There are negatives, of course. This game isn't perfect. Here is the run down:
Pros:
+ Very engaging gameplay. There is very little down time in this game, not very much back tracking. Battles are never boring.
+ Nice animation. Characters move with a liquid grace and the ambient animations for characters are oddly detailed.
+ Good graphics. Everything in the game is lovingly rendered and detailed.
+ Hilarious script. Fawful. That is all I have to say.
Cons:
- Way too many minigames. The minigames are fun the first 2 times you do them. But after blasting stamina back into Bowser's crotch for the 4th time, it was boring. And the nose minigame is just a hassle in general.
- Seems to be over really short. I beat this game with 3 days of gameplay. Granted, I played it for 16 hours in those 3 days, but I didn't expect to take a family trip with a fresh game and come home with a beaten one.
- Lack of replay value. Now that I have beaten this game, I probably won't play it again. That's a shame, it really is, but I really have no reason to play it again now.
- The enemy difficulty is a bit uneven. Some monsters I could simply walk over, but there were some that if I didn't dodge one of their attacks, I would be completely defenseless. That is fine for a boss or even a rare miniboss, but not for regular enemies.
Recommendation: Rent it if you can, buy it if you must. Either way, you will enjoy it.
I HAVE CHORTLES!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wayward Review: The Protomen self titled
Those of you who know me know that I love The Protomen. They are amazing and awesome and sexy...
But they are also an astounding band and just earlier today they released their second album, Act II: The Father Of Death. I preordered it as soon as I could but I still couldn't help myself. At 1 AM this morning I paid for it a second time to download it from Amazon. Yes, I paid twice to get the same album except the one I preordered has a booklet coming with it.
I just had to have it ASAP.
Well, I promised I would do a review of Act II they same day I got it. I figured I would elaborate and I meant the day I got the physical copy of Act II, which will happen sometime this week hopefully.
For now, I shall review their first album, the self titled "The Protomen."
I have an interesting problem here though.
See, since there is a story along with the songs, I do not want to spoil it. I want you to help support this amazing band by buying their album and getting the liner notes to follow the story yourself. However, I HAVE to spoil some aspects of the songs in order to review it so if you don't fancy spoilers, stop reading now and just buy the damned album.
Review time!
As I have mentioned before in another post, the story of The Protomen is based off off of the Mega Man games. The band have crafted a very interesting dystopian story out of the video game idol and turned it into a rock opera, with onstage battles and all. The songs have a refreshingly epic feel to them that I feel is missing from the modern music scene. The band jumps back and forth between extreme musicianship and extreme energy (while taking a hit to musicianship) with each song. Some songs are so frantic that understanding the lyrics is hard, and that my friends is literally the only problem with this album.
Some time before the beginning of the album, the evil Dr Wily has enslaved humanity using armies of robots. One brilliant man has an answer to Wily's control; a living, breathing fighting machine.
Song run down (spoilers ahoy):
Hope Rides Alone
The opener of the album starts like an ancient film you would watch in history class. It recounts the creation, fight, and fall of Protoman. Of particular importance is the lack of support that Protoman gets from the humans he fought for.
Funeral For A Son
A very somber instrumental that perfectly illustrates the feelings of Dr Light after Protoman's death. Light considered Protoman his son, and Protoman's fall was devastating to Light. It is not said in the song, but in the liner notes it is during the span of time this song represents that Light creates Mega Man, his second son and the younger brother of Protoman.
Unrest In The House Of Light
Mega Man has come of age and Light reveals to him that a bed time tale Light has been telling him was based off the fight of Protoman. Light reveals that he sees humanity as a lost cause and that though he may want to, Mega Man should not fight for the humans as the death of Protoman broke Light's will to be free.
The Will Of One
After being told the story of his older brother, Mega Man starts to doubt Light's convictions. Why should those with the power to save humanity not use it. He sees his father at the lowly level of those who will not fight for their freedom. In a fit, he leaves his father's home and finds his brother's grave. Inspired by graffiti his finds, he is resolved to fight for the humans, to finish his brother's fight. He rushes home, gathers a helmet and a gun, then rushes off to destroy the evil robots, much to Light's dismay.
Vengeance
After finding the army of robots "rallying" the humans around, Mega Man begins to massacre the robots mercilessly, all the while taunting them and their leader. He even tells those robots he didn't completely destroy to go back and get more robots for him to decimate. Of very important note is the fact that not once does Mega Man say he is there to fight for the humans, rather he is there to fight for his brother. Near the end of the song, he directly taunts the robot general but gets no response.
The Stand (Man Or Machine)
The robot general then steps out into the opening, revealing himself to be Protoman, shocking the humans and Mega Man. Light, however, knew what had happened to his first son and was hoping Mega Man would not find out. Light steps out from the crowd, lets Mega Man know that his fight was hopeless to begin with, then walks off. Protoman then challenges the humans to fight alongside his younger brother, knowing they won't. He then turns his attention to his brother, forcing Mega Man to realize that he truly stands alone, that the humans will condemn his name as soon as he falls, just as they had done for Protoman. The brothers have a tense standoff with their weapons trained on eachother, but since Mega Man was inspired to fight because of Protoman, he can't bring himself to shoot his older brother and drops his weapon to his side.
The Sons Of Fate
However, Mega Man still has hope. During Protoman's rant, he picked up that Protoman was more jaded than evil. Maybe Protoman could be swayed back to the side of good. The brothers have a quick argument during which it is revealed (subtly) that Protoman is indeed not evil, but after Mega Man confessing that he knows the humans won't fight, Protoman is resolved to fight alongside Wily. The humans chant to Mega Man to destroy Protoman as he is helping Wily enslave humanity. The brothers reluctantly fire at eachother, but only Protoman is wounded. After hearing his brother's last words and holding Protoman as he died, Mega Man begins to openly weep. He had just destroyed his cause for fighting. The humans attempt to show him that he is truly their hero now but instead, Mega Man abandons the humans and leaves them to their fate.
Due Vendetta
Not a part of the story, but still a good song. If the rest of the album were a movie, this song would play during the credits.
As I said before, sometimes the music overshadows the lyrics as far as hearabiltiy goes, especially during The Sons Of Fate. Despite that one discrepancy, this is an extremely solid album that any person should be able to enjoy.
I deem this album a pure win, and so should you.
Standout Song: There is this one part of the album that happens when Hope Rides Alone begins and Due Vendetta ends. That's the best part of it.
But they are also an astounding band and just earlier today they released their second album, Act II: The Father Of Death. I preordered it as soon as I could but I still couldn't help myself. At 1 AM this morning I paid for it a second time to download it from Amazon. Yes, I paid twice to get the same album except the one I preordered has a booklet coming with it.
I just had to have it ASAP.
Well, I promised I would do a review of Act II they same day I got it. I figured I would elaborate and I meant the day I got the physical copy of Act II, which will happen sometime this week hopefully.
For now, I shall review their first album, the self titled "The Protomen."
I have an interesting problem here though.
See, since there is a story along with the songs, I do not want to spoil it. I want you to help support this amazing band by buying their album and getting the liner notes to follow the story yourself. However, I HAVE to spoil some aspects of the songs in order to review it so if you don't fancy spoilers, stop reading now and just buy the damned album.
Review time!
As I have mentioned before in another post, the story of The Protomen is based off off of the Mega Man games. The band have crafted a very interesting dystopian story out of the video game idol and turned it into a rock opera, with onstage battles and all. The songs have a refreshingly epic feel to them that I feel is missing from the modern music scene. The band jumps back and forth between extreme musicianship and extreme energy (while taking a hit to musicianship) with each song. Some songs are so frantic that understanding the lyrics is hard, and that my friends is literally the only problem with this album.
Some time before the beginning of the album, the evil Dr Wily has enslaved humanity using armies of robots. One brilliant man has an answer to Wily's control; a living, breathing fighting machine.
Song run down (spoilers ahoy):
Hope Rides Alone
The opener of the album starts like an ancient film you would watch in history class. It recounts the creation, fight, and fall of Protoman. Of particular importance is the lack of support that Protoman gets from the humans he fought for.
Funeral For A Son
A very somber instrumental that perfectly illustrates the feelings of Dr Light after Protoman's death. Light considered Protoman his son, and Protoman's fall was devastating to Light. It is not said in the song, but in the liner notes it is during the span of time this song represents that Light creates Mega Man, his second son and the younger brother of Protoman.
Unrest In The House Of Light
Mega Man has come of age and Light reveals to him that a bed time tale Light has been telling him was based off the fight of Protoman. Light reveals that he sees humanity as a lost cause and that though he may want to, Mega Man should not fight for the humans as the death of Protoman broke Light's will to be free.
The Will Of One
After being told the story of his older brother, Mega Man starts to doubt Light's convictions. Why should those with the power to save humanity not use it. He sees his father at the lowly level of those who will not fight for their freedom. In a fit, he leaves his father's home and finds his brother's grave. Inspired by graffiti his finds, he is resolved to fight for the humans, to finish his brother's fight. He rushes home, gathers a helmet and a gun, then rushes off to destroy the evil robots, much to Light's dismay.
Vengeance
After finding the army of robots "rallying" the humans around, Mega Man begins to massacre the robots mercilessly, all the while taunting them and their leader. He even tells those robots he didn't completely destroy to go back and get more robots for him to decimate. Of very important note is the fact that not once does Mega Man say he is there to fight for the humans, rather he is there to fight for his brother. Near the end of the song, he directly taunts the robot general but gets no response.
The Stand (Man Or Machine)
The robot general then steps out into the opening, revealing himself to be Protoman, shocking the humans and Mega Man. Light, however, knew what had happened to his first son and was hoping Mega Man would not find out. Light steps out from the crowd, lets Mega Man know that his fight was hopeless to begin with, then walks off. Protoman then challenges the humans to fight alongside his younger brother, knowing they won't. He then turns his attention to his brother, forcing Mega Man to realize that he truly stands alone, that the humans will condemn his name as soon as he falls, just as they had done for Protoman. The brothers have a tense standoff with their weapons trained on eachother, but since Mega Man was inspired to fight because of Protoman, he can't bring himself to shoot his older brother and drops his weapon to his side.
The Sons Of Fate
However, Mega Man still has hope. During Protoman's rant, he picked up that Protoman was more jaded than evil. Maybe Protoman could be swayed back to the side of good. The brothers have a quick argument during which it is revealed (subtly) that Protoman is indeed not evil, but after Mega Man confessing that he knows the humans won't fight, Protoman is resolved to fight alongside Wily. The humans chant to Mega Man to destroy Protoman as he is helping Wily enslave humanity. The brothers reluctantly fire at eachother, but only Protoman is wounded. After hearing his brother's last words and holding Protoman as he died, Mega Man begins to openly weep. He had just destroyed his cause for fighting. The humans attempt to show him that he is truly their hero now but instead, Mega Man abandons the humans and leaves them to their fate.
Due Vendetta
Not a part of the story, but still a good song. If the rest of the album were a movie, this song would play during the credits.
As I said before, sometimes the music overshadows the lyrics as far as hearabiltiy goes, especially during The Sons Of Fate. Despite that one discrepancy, this is an extremely solid album that any person should be able to enjoy.
I deem this album a pure win, and so should you.
Standout Song: There is this one part of the album that happens when Hope Rides Alone begins and Due Vendetta ends. That's the best part of it.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Wayward Thought: Of Classes and Complacency
So there isn't much going on the my lil ole wayward life.
I guess I ain't being so wayward.
There are few events worth mentioning. I may be getting a CA job at Parkland which is good and all. It pretty much means I will be getting paid to be at Parkland 2 more days a week. It may seem I am looking down on it a bit, but I doubt it won't be fun. I actually get to help people with Maya yay.
My other classes are...well they are classes. 3d modeling, 3d texturing, using Word (wow), and cutting up paper.
At least a few of my fellow modellers/texturers/Word...ers/paper-cutter-uppers are cute. >> <<
A cute face is hardly enough to make a routine class too fun to handle unfortunately.
Class is class.
My toes still hurt, I have back pains, I ABHOR texturing (but I need to do it anyway), and the first thing I did with my Xacto knife in my art class was stab myself with it.
I guess that's better than stabbing someone else with it.
Well that depends on the person.
I bet all none of you caring about this are wondering "MATT MATT! You said you would do Wayward Reviews often!"
Well, review 2 is coming up soon. The DAY I get The Protomen's new album I will have review it for you. Just for you.
Because I adore you enough to think you will read what I will say about something.
After all, that's a blog in a nutshell, right?
I guess I ain't being so wayward.
There are few events worth mentioning. I may be getting a CA job at Parkland which is good and all. It pretty much means I will be getting paid to be at Parkland 2 more days a week. It may seem I am looking down on it a bit, but I doubt it won't be fun. I actually get to help people with Maya yay.
My other classes are...well they are classes. 3d modeling, 3d texturing, using Word (wow), and cutting up paper.
At least a few of my fellow modellers/texturers/Word...ers/paper-cutter-uppers are cute. >> <<
A cute face is hardly enough to make a routine class too fun to handle unfortunately.
Class is class.
My toes still hurt, I have back pains, I ABHOR texturing (but I need to do it anyway), and the first thing I did with my Xacto knife in my art class was stab myself with it.
I guess that's better than stabbing someone else with it.
Well that depends on the person.
I bet all none of you caring about this are wondering "MATT MATT! You said you would do Wayward Reviews often!"
Well, review 2 is coming up soon. The DAY I get The Protomen's new album I will have review it for you. Just for you.
Because I adore you enough to think you will read what I will say about something.
After all, that's a blog in a nutshell, right?
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wayward Thought: Of Unreleased Albums and School
If you know me, then you know I love music. And if you know I love music you know I love Streetlight Manifesto. They are, bar none, my favorite band. Their hyperactive music combined with somewhat dark lyrics is a thrill to my soul.
I wish I was as talented as Tomas Kalnocky is. If I ever become a musician (which I doubt) it will either be because of him or Tommy Emmanuel.
I just noticed they are both Toms...
Wow.
Oh well.
Anyway, Streetlight Manifesto has a new album coming out "soon" called 99 Songs Of Revolution. They said they have it done and it is nearing release, but they haven't released any more info than that.
Supposedly it is going to be a cover album. Which will rock.
Because that means their version of Hell will be on it and the original is one of my favorite songs ever. If only they would do a cover of The Ghost Of Stephen Foster...
God I want them to hurry up. I doubt it isn't going to happen until the Warped Tour ends though.
Bummer.
Though I plan to see them up in Chicago because why not?
I know what you are thinking: "tacos." But besides that, why make a post about 1 album that isn't out yet? How about another?
The Protomen.
One of the most unique bands ever.
They took the story of Mega Man, warped it into something dark and dismal, then made a rock opera about it.
And friends, it is AMAZING.
Their first album detailed the rise and fall of Protoman, then the inspired battle of Megaman.
Their second album, "Act II" is going to be FUCKING EPIC.
Because for their second album they are splicing some good ole 80's music into the formula (for some of the songs. Father Of Death is an exception).
And I'll be damned if it isn't an orgasm of music.
Unlike SM's album, a few songs from "Act II" have been revealed.
Father Of Death
Breaking Out
The Hounds (live)
Light Up The Night
Release date is September 8, 2009. The war begins then my friends.
That's 2 weeks from today.
Epic album is epic.
So yep there's the post in a nutshe...
Oh yea, school.
My last semester (maybe ever, hopefully ever) starts today. Wish me luck.
My on campus classes don't start until tomorrow (3 classes, back to back to back, 9 to 4) but I started doing my online class today.
Woot...
I wish I was as talented as Tomas Kalnocky is. If I ever become a musician (which I doubt) it will either be because of him or Tommy Emmanuel.
I just noticed they are both Toms...
Wow.
Oh well.
Anyway, Streetlight Manifesto has a new album coming out "soon" called 99 Songs Of Revolution. They said they have it done and it is nearing release, but they haven't released any more info than that.
Supposedly it is going to be a cover album. Which will rock.
Because that means their version of Hell will be on it and the original is one of my favorite songs ever. If only they would do a cover of The Ghost Of Stephen Foster...
God I want them to hurry up. I doubt it isn't going to happen until the Warped Tour ends though.
Bummer.
Though I plan to see them up in Chicago because why not?
I know what you are thinking: "tacos." But besides that, why make a post about 1 album that isn't out yet? How about another?
The Protomen.
One of the most unique bands ever.
They took the story of Mega Man, warped it into something dark and dismal, then made a rock opera about it.
And friends, it is AMAZING.
Their first album detailed the rise and fall of Protoman, then the inspired battle of Megaman.
Their second album, "Act II" is going to be FUCKING EPIC.
Because for their second album they are splicing some good ole 80's music into the formula (for some of the songs. Father Of Death is an exception).
And I'll be damned if it isn't an orgasm of music.
Unlike SM's album, a few songs from "Act II" have been revealed.
Father Of Death
Breaking Out
The Hounds (live)
Light Up The Night
Release date is September 8, 2009. The war begins then my friends.
That's 2 weeks from today.
Epic album is epic.
So yep there's the post in a nutshe...
Wayward Thought: Of Unreleased Albums and School
Oh yea, school.
My last semester (maybe ever, hopefully ever) starts today. Wish me luck.
My on campus classes don't start until tomorrow (3 classes, back to back to back, 9 to 4) but I started doing my online class today.
Woot...
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