Thursday, January 31, 2013

Looking for Links


Another session of Tingle, another little bit of farming. Though, this time, the 2,250 rupees I tossed into the fountain atop the tower were enough to send it up to 57m in height.

Apparently, that height compares with a sail ship, according to the computer in Tingle's house. Maybe a little dubious, but so be it. What's really dubious, though, is how Uncle Rupee really does keep looking classier and classier. I mean, nothing says classy like a powdered wig, right?

Now that the tower's taller, a new continent's been opened up. Hopefully this means that the shovel can finally be found. That maybe some kind of fishing line can be found, and that more valuable items can be obtained.

At first glance, this doesn't seem like a long game, but given all the farming you've got to do if you don't know just how much to charge for an item, or for a service, it can be pretty time consuming. Also, aside from the Zora head in Treasure Cove, I'm still waiting on more of a reference to mainstream Zelda. Maybe later on Tingle will meet a fairy? Maybe that's how he gets into the hunt for a fairy that we see him on in Majora's Mask?

Or maybe when he first appeared in Majora's Mask Tingle was just supposed to be Termina's Link...

Hopefully not though.

Moments of Crisis


Okay, so the shit's really hit the fan at this point in Neuropath.

Thomas' son Frankie's been taken by Neil and as a nice little "fuck you" Neil killed the dog on his way out (or so I believe, since it's not yet been confirmed). Also, Nora's told Sam that she and Tom fucked a week earlier, and so Tom's relationship with Sam has been thrown up in the air as well. When asked by Atta and Gerard (the other two agents on the Neil case), Tom has described Neil's motive as going through and methodically showing how the brain constructs those concepts that people consider essential to and characteristic of humanity: pleasure, will/responsibility, spirituality, and love (so far, I've yet to find out if Neil gets around to any more).

Just as when any madman is figured out - or, when the one doing the figuring has figured said madman out as much as his capacity allows him to - it causes the figurer to break down. Thomas is no exception, as things begin to very quickly accumulate for him.

Plus, chapter 12 is the first and only one to be presented without a date and time attached. It stands alone in a crowd, a halo of emptiness around it, making it different, yet limited. Thomas' mental breakdown in this chapter reminds me of Harry Truman's in Twin Peaks, after the death of Josie.

Of course, Thomas is the grief stricken parent rather than the grief stricken lover, but for me the comparison stands. These two positions are comparable in my mind because they are both reactions to a deep loss, and in the terms that the book itself sets out, both are related to reproduction and the carrying on of genes, the mourning and grieving that go on in both situations are all about conditioned responses and impulses in the brain.

Still, I wonder if we'll get anything else from Frankie's perspective. He's been taken and Neil apparently put something in his brain that has his fear responses on loop. After this gets cleared up (assuming, of course, that it does) I'll be curious to see if Frankie's perspective on life has changed, or if Bakker reveals what I suspect - that Frankie is in fact Neil's own son.

While thinking about why Nora cheated on him even before their marriage, all I could think of was Jon Arryn's dying words: "The seed is strong." I'm waiting on the twist that all the book's blurbs rave about with great anticipation, and here I was worried that I'd see it coming!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A Lost Woods of a Game


Utterly befuddled and slightly perplexed, I might just have to turn to a guide. Or maybe I'll just tackle the extra dungeon.

I feel like I got cheated by the Moblin on the shore, trading my shovel for the boomerang. It's not a bad item, but having just come to a big open emptiness on the mountain, it seems kind of like there's something to dig for there. Something I'll now have to trek back for.

At any rate, the rooster's been found at least. A bit of Occam's razor cleared that right up; all I had to do was push upwards on the statue in Mabe Village. Of course.

But now I need to explore around to try to find the next dungeon. I think I'm getting closer, but it's all a matter of finding just where next to go. The mountains must be scoured, and one - one! - more secret seashell needs to be found before I can get something cool. Hopefully a stronger sword.

What else is there to say? I'm lost in between dungeons. It's an old game that's nostalgic for me, but that familiarity that I have with A Link to the Past is wanting here, making it difficult to pry apart the grasping claws keeping the rest of the game from me. I might even have to...consult a walkthrough!

A Fresh Perspective

All I have to say about what happens next in Neuropath is that sometimes you win some, and sometimes you lose some.

The book actually has two perspective characters: Thomas, and his son Frankie.

But Frankie's part (so far) has only been to get us readers into the world of Thomas' kids. They're definitely an important part of his life, and very much a major part of his normalizing method in his time of crisis (finding out that his ex-wife was cheating on him with his best friend, that said best friend is a psychopath among psychopaths), but I'm not sure what Bakker could hope to achieve by letting us into their eyes except to show us how much of a construction Thomas' idea of what his kids are really is.

Yet that would require more from the perspective of his kids, and not just a scene that's kind of a tension release valve since the kids go through a perceived crisis moment while camping in the backyard (Frankie worries about "sick-sickos" coming for them out of the night, and when one seems to be approaching it's just Thomas, their dad, pretending to be a bear).

Though, at the same time, Frankie's thoughts about the world outside the tent (really outside the home, since these thoughts are accompanied by thoughts of starting pre-school) being "dark, big, and hollow, filled with great nothings and terrible anythings" seems awfully sophisticated to be merely part of a simple relief passage.

Anyway, after we get this other perspective we're brought right back to Thomas' as he sits and watches over the kids, eventually being joined by Mia. Their conversation is a neat recap of and addition to the goings on of the book so far, and the mentions of the killer known as "The Chiropractor" make me wonder if Thomas or Neil or even Mia is somehow involved in that. Only time, and more reading, will tell, though.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Maybe a Conch?


Mystery upon mystery!

When I first played through Link's Awakening, I must've been in a rush to complete it, because I don't remember meeting the Zora in the Animal Village. As such, I don't know where along the shore that I'm supposed to meet another Zora, though hopefully it's a meeting that will end with a secret seashell.

Based on 17's scoring so high in the Seashell Mansion, you must need only 20 for the better sword.

That's the hope right now, anyway.

True to adventure game form, I'm now hitting the cobblestones, trying to dig up dirt on the "Flying Rooster" supposedly in Mabe village. The key word being "trying."

I must not have the right song with which to wake him. Unlike the flying mechanic's appearance in A Link to the Past, though, this same sort of thing isn't optional. Here I need to find out this flying rooster to progress.

Where in the land of Koholint could there be a way to wake such a creature?

Showing through Telling


Chapters 7 and 8 see my prediction from yesterday's entry come true. After about 37 pages, the two have had sex, and chapter 9 ends off with the two hooking up again. And, as with the rest of his writing, Bakker writes these scenes sparsely.

In fact, what I've come to conclude is that Bakker's style is to show through telling. However, I don't think this works against him or makes him a less engaging writer to read.

Instead, I think showing through telling sets Bakker up for some very imagistic lines that can be incredibly effective, interesting, and perfectly placed.

Like when Sam leaves the morning after she and Tom have fucked, as she drives away Bakker writes that "The sound of her car had teeth." Up until that point we're bombarded with Tom trying to see how Sam works with his kids and how they work with them. In his own words, Tom tries to give Sam a sense of how he is in his natural habitat, and from his actions, thoughts, and ultimate last few words to Sam it seems like this goes awkwardly, and almost badly. And then we get that image after a lot of direct, telly writing.

Really, the only things that Bakker seems to dwell on - that is, on which he provides us with more than a few sentences strung into a runty paragraph - are his character's thoughts. Since this is a third person limited novel with - so far - just one viewpoint character, that means we spend a lot of time in Tom's head. Bakker spends a lot of words in there, and he walks us through the various neurological/psychological concepts that he wants to get across.

This presentation makes it a little bit like a pared down textbook narrated by a psychologist, but since most thrillers push some agenda or other on the reader, it's refreshing to see that this book's agenda is to challenge notions of consciousness and to get readers wondering about thought and the brain themselves.

More on the story next time.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Not quite Hallway-Hallway-Hallway-Boss, but still...


All right! Face Shrine down, two more dungeons to go!

Actually, that particular dungeon has made something clear. The top-down viewpoint lends itself to more complex puzzles and orienteering.

Now, I haven't played much of the handheld Zelda games beyond Minish Cap, but all of the console Zelda games to date have had fairly straightforward dungeons. That is, rather than delaying your getting the map and/or the compass, most of the dungeons in Zelda games since Ocarina of Time have lead you to one or the other (or both) fairly early on.

On the other hand, in the Face Shrine, I only found the compass and map shortly before getting the big key. Part of this might be some rust on my gaming skills, but I also think that the 3D Zelda games have much more linear dungeons. That is, you're much more hamstrung into going in one set direction (more often than not because other rooms branching off of the first couple of rooms are only accessible only with the dungeon's special item).

Skyward Sword's dungeons are huge and impressive, but even they are designed in a similar way. You go in, early on you get the map or compass (or both) and then find the dungeon's item, and finally the boss key.

Sometimes the pattern is broken up with a late compass or early item, but the boss key is almost always the last thing you come across. This pattern makes sense in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, where the full freedom of 3D motion coupled with a third-person perspective might have been overwhelming in dungeons that can be almost freely wandered around. But, that the same linearity is still detectable in Skyward Sword is disappointing.

Perhaps we'll finally see something mirroring the difficulty of the top-down Zelda games' dungeons' designs in WiiU Zelda, where the gamepad (even if only used as a map) opens up some excellent possibilities.

On R. Scott Bakker's Style

Okay, so pretty deep into Neuropath things roll onward irretrievably. Thomas has just been asked by Sam to go in with her to question one of Neil's victims. All in the hopes of learning more about Neil's motive and method, of course.

After the first 20 pages of the book I was pretty much convinced that this was the same R. Scott Bakker that I had become intrigued and amazed by in the Judging Eye (a scientific fart joke notwithstanding). But, now that I'm another 100 pages into it, I can say that it definitely is that same Bakker. His style is minimalistic in that he really doesn't describe much of anything aside from the bare minimum. The make of a car, the colour of a house's siding. That's it.

However, I also find that he uses this minimalism to great use in his imagery - particularly things like his describing sunlight as light "glinting from a thousand windshields. His is a style that I think is closest to my own ideal style - sleek, minimalist, and striking.

Since act 1 has long since finished, I've already met the miscellaneous name-dropping of Neil's victims.

The latest two, a blonde girl and some sort of religious politician, are named as necessary, and both are noted as having previously been missing in the same breath. This bothers me for two reasons.

One: it's what every thriller, mystery, police procedural does. Agent x: "Oh my god, that's Senator Y, who's been missing since three days ago;" Agent w: "Yes. Yes, it is.".

Two: Bakker drops all sorts of tidbits about the near-future world in which his story is set. Yet he makes not one mention of either of these victims in passing. Still, from his brief and tidy sidebars we know that the world is in turmoil, wetware is on the rise, and terrorists burned a large portion of the southern US' forests, along with many other details that seem like they're from a proper dystopian future, while also being similar in tone to most modern news tickers.

This shortcoming notwithstanding, I'm interested in seeing what sort of twist awaits at the end of the book, and how long it takes Thomas and Sam to hook up. I'll likely learn about the latter before the former, but my theory about the twist is that Thomas has somehow engineered Neil's actions and all of his clinging to his kids and what not is just his method of insulating himself from the truth.

But such a twist is very predictable, especially since Bakker has underlined Thomas' struggle with the Argument (that all experience, emotion, and choice, is based on chemical impulses rather than 'will') and pointed out several times that though everything else in his life is currently in turmoil, his kids offer solace, solidity, and safety.

We'll see, I suppose. We'll see.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Facing Difficulty


There are a lot of Game Boy era adventure games where a single misstep in a dungeon can leave you completely screwed. Those are the games where such missteps aren't forgiven, and the only options you're left with are to restart the game from the beginning, or to just give up.

Thankfully, Link's Awakening isn't one of those games. But the Face Shrine is troublesome. It's like the Water Temple of its time -- if you don't know where you're going, then you'll be doing a lot of backtracking and wandering. Why? Mostly because of those switches that raise or lower floor blocks.

In A Link to the Past, these blocks were orange and blue, but in Link's Awakening (even the DX, colour version) they're just a sort of brown.

Nonetheless, the challenge of the binary system remains, since you have to keep straight which position you've hit the switch into as you wander off only to find another set of blocks in your path that make it impossible to progress. Man. Not to mention the layout design of this dungeon; there are a lot of screens that have a lower and upper part to them, and this can become pretty disorienting.

Plus, I don't have the boomerang yet (which has to be in this game, just as it's in nearly all the Zelda games), so my only options when fighting this dungeon's wizzrobes are bombs or arrows. Bombs have to be set so that they go off while the wizzrobes are opaque, and it takes four arrows to fell one wizzrobe.

Well, to quote a possible alternate universe action hero: "I came here to set bombs and shoot arrows...and I'm all outta arrows."

Stepping onto the Neuropath

Some 20 pages into R. Scott Bakker's Neuropath, I've already found his characteristic grit.

Of course, the nature of the story - a brutal killer who forces people to do whatever he wants them to via brain manipulation before offing them - lends itself to this grit.

Also on display is the same minimalistic quality found in Bakker's the Judging Eye. On my way through that tome what struck me most is that its prose was very pared down. Compared to G.R.R. Martin, Bakker's writing just has some of the fat cut away.

As a direct comparison of the two styles, Bakker's description tends more towards the internal, whereas Martin's focus is more on the external. It's been just 20 pages, but proportionately, there isn't nearly as much description of characters' clothes in Bakker as there is in Martin. It's a curious thing to notice, but I really do think that it's a major marker of Bakker's style. External details are sacrificed for the sake of internal ones.

As per the story so far, I'm intrigued by the premise, and all of the hype to be found in the blurbs all over the back, the front, and the inside. It sounds like a perception changing story, and I'm excited to read such a thing for myself.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

What Happens After A Zelda "Game Over" Screen?

Although Link's Awakening occupies a place in the middle of one of the official Zelda timeline's branches, what you find in the Face Shrine suggests otherwise. It's a small detail, sure, but the inscription on the wall suggests that Link's dead. Or at the least, somehow in or on the Wind Fish.

The inscription reads, in full: 

“TO THE FINDER… THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT , IS BUT AN ILLUSION… HUMAN, MONSTER, SEA, SKY… A SCENE ON THE LID OF A SLEEPER’S EYE… AWAKE THE DREAMER, AND KOHOLINT WILL VANISH MUCH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE… CASTAWAY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH!”
(As quoted in Zelda Dungeon's walkthrough) 

This inscription confirms that Koholint island is just an illusion. In fact, it goes so far as to imply that it's just the Wind Fish's dream. Just to the North of the Face Shrine, though, is an owl statue. 

In Link's Awakening these statues work kind of like the Gossip Stones in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. They share in-world information, although the owl statues are a fair bit more cryptic. Especially the one in question, which says: 

“THE WIND FISH SLUMBERS LONG… THE HERO’S LIFE GONE…”

Definitely making a connection between the illusory island and Link's being dead. Though it's ambiguous about whether Link's dead only while the Wind Fish sleeps, or if Link is dead and the Wind Fish's dream is some kind of afterlife. 

Since most of the games are supposed to star a different Link and Zelda, the hero's being dead isn't out of the question, but it would be absolutely wild to know for sure. 

A Quick Rinse for the Emptied Jar


Alright! I've finished Jam and am, for the most part satisfied.

The characters are what brings it through for me. And I think that a large part of that is the first person perspective. Looked at as a whole, the story isn't overly intricate, and just as there are hordes of zombie scripts pouring into the remaining characters' laps at the end of the book, the book's overall plot is really nothing special. It follows a standard three act structure, and involves the general range of character types that are often found in survival horror movies.

However, those characters have unique motivations, and that's what makes them interesting. Even from the first person perspective of Travis, we still get a very strong sense of just who and what Angela, Don, Tim, and X are, along with the ancillary characters Deirdre, et cetera.

Plus, though sparse, Croshaw really writes action sequences well. There's no faffing about with single line paragraphs or shorter sentences. The way he writes his fights is kind of like a written form of bullet time, wherein each action is detailed in a sleek and direct form, giving readers a very clear delineation of what's going on while also being quick about it.

So, overall, is this a book that I'd recommend? Is it a book I'd advise to a friend? Yes. Yes it is. The strength of the writing wanes near the end, and the analogies wear on you if you try to tackle the book in fewer than five sessions, but the characters carry it through.

In a world inundated by a multitude of very similar plots, having an expected, yet diverse cast is essential, and Jam delivers on this end.

Friday, January 25, 2013

A Brief Reminiscence

It's been a while since I played it, but so seldom has an RPG left such a strong impression on me. Radiant Historia is without a doubt the best RPG on the DS that I've played to date - though I've only just nibbled at the sweet sweet biscuit that is this title.

Of course, it is an Atlus game, and so greatness is to be expected. It's just that Radiant Historia's greatness seems to be more of the wide appeal variety.

In a way, the game's time travelling mechanic is like Chrono Trigger's, but dialled all the way up.

Instead of being able to travel to periods in time, you travel between events in time. So far, in the few hours I've put into the game, you don't travel very far into the past or future, but the game's idea is to play more with destiny and cause and effect on a smaller scale than that of Chrono Trigger.

And yet, presented as it is, it's an adventure that seems as grand - hopefully not too grand though, since I still have a lot of backlog to get through.

I Know Strawberry Jam when I smell it!


So, who can call it? This guy can!

Well, sort of.

My theory about the jam climbing the Hibatsu building because it's attracted to the processes of growth and decay is sort of right. As it turns out, the jam's drawn to all organic matter, but can only really sense that matter when it's gathered together. So, since the Hibatsu building is really hopping right now and it has a rooftop garden, the jam is being drawn there.

At this point in the book I am starting to get a little bit weary of Croshaw's narrative voice with its frequent analogies and mild zaniness, but that's to be expected when marathoning a book.

Yet, at the same time, this fatigue does speak to a lack of variety in the book over all. I recently find myself wondering if I can go on as a fiction author after reading this, partially because it's been published and picked up by a brick and mortar publisher, and partially just because reading anything that's interesting and captivating makes me wonder about my ability to manage to do the same.

The plot's been moving along steadily - like, of course, the flow of non-sentient jam down a non-apocalyptic highway - but at this point the contours are showing.

It's clear that Jam was written more as a means of working within a genre than really shaking things up plot wise. Of course, there are another 60+ pages of the book left, and all of my encounters with first person have lead to one turn after another, so I may yet be surprised by something truly unexpected.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Wherein the Author is not quite yet Awakened


I completely forgot that the stone statues that come to life in Link's Awakening are weak to the bow. Of course, that makes sense since they have a tendency to drop arrows. Of course, blowing them up is also quite effective.

Having come to the end of the trading game, I found the magnifying lens under the mermaid statue, but what makes it so special remains a mystery to me. You likely use it to uncover the extra dungeon or to complete  part of said dungeon. Unless there was something that I missed in my first play through of the game years ago.

Since I'm entering into the Face Shrine hopefully I'll find something face related. At least, that's what's expected.

Anyway, heading into this are and not knowing about the statues' weakness made for some dicey running a few times. Thankfully, tapping into Kohonolit's heart-rich soil was enough to keep me going.

Actually, within the Face Shrine there's quite a maze that you've got to go around to get to the end. This is where the discovery power of the game kicks in since the statues don't just chase after you, but are sometimes on top of hidden stairs. Useful stuff.

As Silent a Protagonist as a Book can Have?

After another 100 pages of Jam, the story has gotten much more interesting.

I have noticed, over these last 100 pages, however, that Croshaw starts to either get lazy or just a little lax and begins to mix in the third person omniscient perspective. It's only a paragraph here and there, but it's noticeable when you come to it, and a little jarring if you stop to think about it. After all, he's got the character of Travis to work with, and that's been enough so far.

Though, it must be said that Travis doesn't seem to have much character or personality. We're only infrequently treated to his deep thoughts and see much more of his actions. Though keeping the Goliath bird eater with him does say something - even more is said by his naming it "Mary."

It also needs to be mentioned that Croshaw's background in/vast experience with video games could be showing through in his main character.

Travis' apparent lack of any colourful or powerful personality might just be a reflection of so many video game heroes that have the minimum allowable personality so that players can relate to them and use them as a proxy in the world of the game. Though, speaking personally, I can also relate to Travis' indecision and tendency to drift from one situation to the next in the same way that most Millennials are likely to be able to.

The plot continues onwards with very little stoppage, and the characters interact in such a way that is, for the most part, natural.

Travis and Don are currently at the Hibatsu building, where they've just been assigned to work as reconnaissance agents for the people there, their job being infiltrating the mall and letting Hibatsu know what's going on over there.

The way that the jam sought out the apple when Travis was wading through it earlier, and how it seemed to ignore him while doing so, along with the note about the jam crawling higher up the Hibatsu building than any other suggests that it doesn't just feed on organic matter, but it's also drawn towards it as it grows or decays (as was the case with the apple). Blocking rooftop gardening as a prospective survival method because of this attraction to growth would throw the story for a real twist, but I'm not going to find out about that for another 100 pages, I'm sure.

Also, X and Y seem to have some sort of agreement with someone, possibly the people at Hibatsu. We'll soon see.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Feeling a little Tingly


Aside from Link's Awakening, I've been playing Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland of late. This is a DS game that's technically part of the Zelda franchise, though, up to the end of the second dungeon I've yet to meet any direct cameos from more mainstream Zelda games.

But, Nick, I hear you say, Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland was never released in North America.

Well. You're right.

But the European edition of the game works just as well. You can find it through a quick eBay search.

Now, anyone (and everyone whom I've told I'm playing this game) is rightfully wonders what you even do in Tingle's very own game.

As the title suggests, it's very rupee-centric. You play as a young man who wants to escape from the daily grind. He's approached by the mysterious Uncle Rupee who promises a land of ease, women, and relaxation for the paltry sum of many many rupees. For you see, this game's central mechanic is that almost every interaction (with the exception of fights, for now) requires you to guess at how much someone wants for information, an item, or the time of day, or at how much you deserve for bringing someone an item or rendering them a service.

This completely capitalist mechanic is far less terrible than it sounds, since rupees can be found just about anywhere, and it's possible to make valuable items from item drops. Back in your house you've got what you need to mix ingredients and to create more valuable items. Of course, showing its connections to the Zelda franchise, you need bottles to move these potions and these bottles aren't easy to come by at first.

The reason I've gotten as far as I have in the game is that I find it fun. Some items found in certain locales grow back or return, and coming back to harvest them reminds me more of Harvest Moon than of some game where you tediously toil away for an unknown reward.

Though, having seen Uncle Rupee go from pauper to fop makes me feel pretty confident about where this game's going.

Getting into a Jam

I've started to read Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's Jam.

I'm currently just over 100 pages in, and it's been a fine read thus far. The most notable thing however, is that he uses the first person perspective. Normally this would only be worth a minor note, but Croshaw handles the perspective gingerly enough to keep it from getting exhausted.

His analogies however, are somewhat scatter shot. And maybe this is only because I'm not from Australia, but some of the references and slang just don't click with me. Hell, if I wasn't an avid Doctor Who viewer, I'd probably not have automatically known what bin liners are.

So far the story's been more than what I had expected.

It starts in media res, like you do, and develops not because of plot alone but because of various of the characters' desires and the apparent needs required to survive. Though, to be fair, whether or not these characters' survival is important or not has yet to be seen.

Mary, the Goliath bird eating spider, is a curious cast member, but since the jam was repelled by Travis' mouth, I'm guessing that the spider's saliva or some such is going to be important down the line. Or maybe the spider will just be let loose in the shopping mall so as to terrify the people masquerading as "plastic men."

The introduction of the "plastic men" was very effective, though. And honestly, for a book about semi-sentient carnivorous jam destroying at least one Australian city, the story hasn't gone over the top yet. Travis seems to just be drifting, Tim is desperate to be the survivalist, Don only wants the build of the game he was working on, and Angela merely wants to chronicle things as they happen to launch her journalism career (I guess). The ancillary characters, X and Y, seem like your standard military types throughout the first 100 and some pages, but I'm not really expecting that to change any time soon.

Croshaw's writing style is all right so far. Nothing's really jumped out at me just yet, aside from the scatter shot analogies. Though, to be fair, he makes frequent use of similes, and this seriously contributes to my feeling that they're a little unfocused. Not unlike the character of Travis, who just so happens to be our humble narrator.

I'm waiting for an awesome twist, and glad that the Mogworld reference has come and gone, but unless there's a major upset down the line, Croshaw's writing style alone isn't going to win any accolades from me. The first 100 pages are just competent, with a few good sprints thrown in.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

"It extends! And contracts! And...BOING!"

All I have to say is this: the Zelda team should bring back the sheer destructive power of the hookshot.

Yeah, it's the weapon that goes "BOING!" and that can grab stuff from far away in the new, 3D Zelda games, but it doesn't seem to pack the same punch.

In Link's Awakening, though, you can use it one-hit KO just about any regular enemy that can be damaged with a conventional weapon. Now that's empowering!

Through the Feast, Now waiting for the Dance


Though memory may not serve truly, this is the first time that a book in A Song of Ice and Fire has come full circle.

A Feast for Crows began in Oldtown, with matters of the novices (particularly Pate), and it ends there, with the selfsame character introducing himself to Sam.

That the archmaesters don't want to have the prophecy spoken of and such suggests that my theory about Valyria could hold some water. But the presence of a dragon glass candle suggests that it really is all magic. Though, why couldn't magic create something like an atomic explosion - which is what I think "The Doom" is. The ancient Greeks had steam, so why couldn't a fantasy civilization have something like nuclear power?

As with Jaime, Samwell's greatest characteristic is his growth. Yet, despite all of his deeds and accomplishments, he remains the same at the core, which is interesting. Though, unsurprising. Jaime changes so drastically because his life has gone from one that looked outwards to one that looks inwards. On the other hand, Samwell's life remains largely inward-looking, since he's still very much self-conscious.

Needless to say, I'm definitely ready for book five - A Dance with Dragons - and waiting for the paperback might be harder than I ever expected.

Monday, January 21, 2013

A Brief Soiree


Well, I played a Mario Party game for the first time recently.

It definitely had the same feel as a Smash Brothers game in that anything could happen. DK was the PC character in a 3/1 game, and he definitely seemed to be cheating in some way or other.

Anyway, though there were moments as madcap as any round of Smash Brothers (among them DK, already way ahead in coin count, getting another coin for placing fourth in a minigame where before that honour had been mine as the true third placer), it was a much more organized mini game experience.

Also, finally having played one of the many Mario Party games, I can see why the franchise has been successful throughout all of its iterations. The game has all of the strange humourousness of a modern Mario title, combined with a set of easy to learn, difficult to master mini games.

Plus framing the game experience with a bunch of game boards lends itself well to propagating sequels, as more and more boards can be introduced. I haven't kept up with the franchise, but it would not surprise me if Mario Party 9 has some sort of character customization/levelling system in place, maybe to help shake things up in the minigames requiring movement, or in dice rolls or some other lately added aspect of the games.

All in all, it's pretty ingenious, and makes for a grandly fun multiplayer experience. But, I don't think it'd be that great as a single-player endeavour, something that I don't expect myself to get into any time soon.

Jaime as a Living Chronicle


The character of Jaime continues to impress me.

Stripped down to the basics, it's simple enough. Badass tough guy, who's cruised through life based on his excellence, is stripped of that excellence, but not of the responsibilities that he had as a result of it. And, so lacking, he must find a way to forge onwards without that which made him great. It's a curious thing, but used to great effect here. But why? What makes this application so special? It's hard to put into words, I think. But I may as well try, right?

It's the history that comes out of it, for the most part. Jaime is a receptacle of the chivalry and knighthood of Westeros' past 20 or so years. As such he's like a living monument to those days. A sort of veteran who is still active, still making the history that he began before he was maimed and lost his skill with the sword.

And that makes him interesting to me, particularly.

A large part of this interest is certainly the fact that the history of the knights of Westeros really interests me, not the least of which being the Sword of the Morning, though I think that his role in the story has nearly played out.

As far as Jon's parentage goes, I'm firmly in the "he's Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryean's" camp. If such a thing exists.

Jaime's psychology is also something with which I'm rapt. I look forward to working further with it as I read through the rest of the series. However, I've got to admit that, aside from Jaime's personality and changing character, there wasn't anything that stood out about this chapter. There's a dream sequence that's curious if compared to Brienne's, but, without a fever, Jaime's dreams are apt to make more sense than those of the Maid of Tarth.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Discovering What's Missing from Modern Zelda


I've been playing quite a bit more Link's Awakening lately, and something struck me the other day. One of the big complaints about recent Zelda games is that they don't highlight discovery nearly as much as earlier iterations of the series. I think that part of the reason for this is graphical.

Let me explain.

Link's Awakening (even in it's excellent technicolor update, Link's Awakening DX) is not a graphically impressive game. It uses simple sprites and easy animations, that are just a notch or two above the flash of the NES.

However, one thing (aside from the obvious graphical difference) that sets it apart from the modern Zelda games is that it scrolls from screen to screen. That is, as you step from one room or area to the next, the entire screen moves with you.

Okay. This might not seem like a big deal. But think about that in terms of the feeling of discovery so often associated with The Legend of Zelda in its early days.

In The Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening, and A Link to the Past especially, the very way in which you move through the world obstructs your view and your perspective of that world as a whole. Rather than conceiving of the world as one singularity intuitively (because the graphics tell you to, as they do in a 3D world, seen in third person), I think players more readily think of those earlier games' worlds as a series of screens that may or may not be directly connected.

Therefore, when something new is discovered, it's not so much a feeling of "oh wow, that rock just totally had a cave in it!" but instead, "oh snap! That little individual mini-world had so much more hidden in it! I wonder if this sort of thing happens anywhere else in the game?" This sort of intensification of discovery is definitely manifold when you discover an underground passage that takes you from one side of the overworld to the other.

Since the game world opened up into the 3D venue, this excitement of exploration simply hasn't been as potent.

Yes, there are things to discover in Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword, but they aren't as super charged with a sense of wonder as their earlier counterparts. Sure, you still move from one locale to the other (between which there are some minor load times) but rather than the sense of a limited perspective that the top-down, eagle-eye view provides, we're placed firmly behind Link, and see everything before us quite clearly - even things that are quite far away.

Now, two special cases need to be mentioned here. Skyward Sword, I think, actually takes a step towards re-creating the sense of discovery that comes from having a limited perspective. You can still see things off in the distance, but they're blurred, and indefinite. This distance blurring (rather than just not showing far off things at all, or showing them clearly but in perspective) sets up vague expectations.

With such vague expectations set up, the discovery of what's actually in the distance becomes more complex than just experiencing that place as a locale or setting for an event, it becomes possible to meet with the unexpected - just as you might if you only see the world one screen at a time. Wind Waker does something similar with its sailing mechanic.

And I think that's what's really missing from modern Zelda games (handheld titles aside, since they still retain that top-down look): a sense of limitations. After all, it's breaking these limitations or finding loop holes around them (secret connecting passages), that made past Zelda games exciting, discovery-filled experiences. And getting back to that with the modern size of games and hardware capabilities would make for an incredible Zelda experience.

Cersei Doomed by Jaime?

Well, it had to be during this book that Cersei's plans went tits up, and such is definitely the case. Though, whenever a ruler, in fiction or in history, has armed or re-armed their church, it's rarely gone well. Thus, since Martin's series has been inspired by certain historical figures and events, it only makes sense that re-arming the servants of the Seven has proven entirely fatal for her power.

Though, I must admit that Tyrion's absence from this book only drove me to concoct some ad hoc, hypothetical fan-fic where he appears simply to call Cersei a fool for doing what she's done policy wise.

Otherwise, I don't have much to say here. It's certainly satisfying to see someone so deserving of justice on the cusp of getting it. And, it's also satisfying to be able to see further than Cersei herself can, so that one of the few predictable things within these books is pretty plain.

Martin's set himself up for a Macbeth sort of thing, in that Cersei's valonqar in Maegi's prophecy isn't Tyrion but is Jaime because he was born seconds after her or some such.

And of course, Margeary's popularity with the people will help her to push forward as queen, while Cersei is left dangling until the very end when she gets swallowed up - unless she can jump out of the gaping maw of justice.

All the same, I wonder if this section of the book has been the most (or almost the most) predictable because all of the pieces on the metaphorical board are in view. In every other bit of Martin's intrigue what's been happening has been under much different circumstances. However, our familiarity with King's Landing and its major players, even after Cersei changes the council, makes it easier to see the playable moves and to figure out which is the most likely.

Of course, this could all end differently - if Jaime's golden hand gets replaced by a light sword made of Valyrian steel that he can mount on his stump, that is.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

A Surprising Natural Resource


Recently setting up the wireless connection to the Nintendo Wii has opened up all new avenues of gaming to me, however, I've still been mostly playing Link's Awakening. These forays into the Game Boy classic have been characterized by fairly quick runs through the game's dungeons, and an increased level of ease since I now have the pegasus boots.

However, one thing that continually throws me for a loop (other than dying while I'm distracted by trying to edit a podcast while I play) is that so many of the places that look like they'll hide buried treasure (some sweet, sweet seashells!) don't have anything at all.

What I'm referring to are patches of ground on the map that are of a different colour than the rest of the ground, or patches of land underneath rocks (or between them) that are somewhat out of the way. All of these yield nothing - but an errant rupee or heart.

On that note, are hearts the oil of Kohonolit Island? I guess the same could be asked of rupees, but rupees could just as easily be dropped and then buried by dust stirred by the wind. But the only place that hearts can logically come from is from fallen enemies (or pots...but who would bury pots?).

So, are the hearts that you dig up on the island the fossilized remains of long-dead pre-historic octoroks and moblins?

Maybe I'm just overthinking this, and they're just there because of convenience. Rupees, and hearts are the standard power ups of the game, and so rupees and hearts are what the ground hides.

But, on that note, another issue: why aren't there multi-coloured rupees in this game? I mean, yes, the whole multicoloured thing wouldn't be easy for the original version, but a black rupee and a white one, maybe? Having different denominations appear from enemy drops or dig-ups would make farming enough to finally buy the bow so much easier. Though I suppose that's what the monkey and his nuts (down on the beach) are for, right?

At any rate, with the pegasus boots in my bag of infinite holding, I struck out for the dream shrine and collected the ocarina. It's definitely not much compared to the instrument we see in the Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, but it's still a great little item.

What's really the best about it though, is that Link has no proficiency with it out of the gate, if you try to use it without having learned any songs you just get a short animation of him playing some flat notes. This is a mechanic that should be featured in the next Zelda game that features an instrument.

It's kind of what happens with the harp in Skyward Sword simply by virtue of that instrument's having a pretty gentle learning curve to begin with, but whatever instrument Link gets next should be so powerful/useful that you need to actually learn the basics before stringing together known and maybe even original songs to various ends.

Brienne the Bumped Off?

I get the impression that this Brienne chapter, the previous one, and the next one, were written consecutively and then spread throughout the book.

They each follow on each other far too closely - at least, the first two do. She's at the mercy of Biter, and then she's up again and presented to Stoneheart, who condemns her to hang. But the trilogy is not yet finished.

Or at least, it may not be - perhaps the word that she screams as she hangs leads to mercy. Though that seems unlikely - but, if there's one thing to learn from Martin it's that the unlikely can't be discounted. How many times was Beric revived? Maybe that's how many feints Brienne will have in her fight with death. Maybe.

Otherwise, this chapter was pretty consistent with the others, though beyond the close following, this and the previous Brienne chapter have a similar feel to them. They both seem like their suffused with the dreamlike - though, that begins when Brienne starts her fight with Rorge and Biter, and continues to the point where she's hung.

Yet, the big thing here is that the sense of dreaminess is brought out so fully that the mention of dreams only serves to confirm it rather than create it. What creates it in the first place is the lack of logical connections between paragraphs as Brienne passes from consciousness to unconsciousness. And the reason why they manage to do so is that Martin follows a consistent pattern of paragraphing, not necessarily using topic sentences and that level of organization, but one that is very sequential.

Thus, when that sequence is broken it suggests that there's a little more going on than usual.

Friday, January 18, 2013

On Link's Weapon of Choice


Link's Awakening continues, and I continue forward. My pace has been steady, and things are going really nicely. But. I have met with a few hiccups.

As with any Zelda game (except for maybe Zelda II), I've found myself distracted by exploration. This didn't last too long, of course, but it, along with my subsequent dungeon crawling, did bring something to my attention.

Link's Awakening offers very little in the way of guaranteed basic equipment upgrades.

Obviously it's possible to get a better shield or two, and there is the hidden sword that you can get if you get enough of the Secret Seashells. But none of these things are as intricately tied into the story as they were in Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, or Skyward Sword. What I can't decide is whether or not this makes the game harder or easier.

It definitely makes them more manageable, as the sword's progress mirrors your own progress, but at the same time, being forced to use a weaker weapon is something that also forces you to strategize - to use your environment so as to best fight your foes while taking as little damage as possible.

So, perhaps tying these upgrades into points along the story (as has been the case since A Link to the Past) make it easier to progress and give the same sort of levelling feel to the later Zelda games that's common to RPGs (in both cases monsters from early areas of the game are rendered impotent by your power near the end of the game).

But along with this comes the lack of challenge, the lack of depth these earlier Zelda games still offer to this day. They'll always be video games, but there's something more visceral about learning how to get Link to use the sword well than about just having Link use a better sword.

Twilight Princess sort of remedied this with the sword techs, but even then, they aren't all essential, and so many are just, in reality, shortcuts. Not really power boosts.

A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time are similar - sword power-ups are part of the story, but even more power is given to those players who seek it out (these games' best weapons, the Golden Sword and Biggoron Sword are hidden away). There's a reason why these two games are still on a lot of top game lists over a decade (almost two in A Link to the Past's case) after their release.

So how does Link's Awakening manage the sword power up problem? With item drops. Acorns give defense for a short time, and pieces of what look like the triforce boost offense.

These items are effective since more often than not they'll help you mow through enemies when you most need to. But are they as good as a solid armour or sword upgrade?

To figure that out I'll just have to keep playing.

Getting More Mya

So, the stuff with Sansa. It's been alright, but I've not really been that moved by it.

It's more of the Dornish intrigue, but with one of the original "main characters" - the Starks - thrown in. Of course, there's also Littlefinger, but my impression is that this plot arc is still in its infancy.

Nothing seems to work quite right for anyone in Martin's world, so even Baelish's schemes are sure to be upended one way or another. But even if they aren't, there's still no sense of urgency about this plot arc. Perhaps that's a credit to the characterization of Baelish as such a weaselly schemer, or to the overall atmosphere of the chapters as things told from the perspective of someone out of her element.

However, I definitely appreciate Mya Stone's playing a bit more of a role in things, though the way that Martin's characters in this series seem to have nothing but a revolving door between them and death, it's hard to say whether or not she'll play some further role in the series or simply be the one who ferries people around the mountain.

This chapter also does do something that every other chapter fails to - it reminds us all that winter is slowly beginning. It's not the focus of this chapter by any means, but it's definitely a large part of it, even if it's only mentioned in passing and indirectly. It works as an undercurrent sort of reminder that the natural world is as much a foe as a rival house or claimant to the iron throne.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Video Game Potpourri


I recently traded for some games from K.W.'s Games Exchange. Since they've got a three-day, no-questions-asked return policy, I figured that I should actually try out what I bought so that it could be returned if they didn't turn out.

Now, into the specifics. I traded Final Fantasy V (GBA), Final Fantasy Adventures III (GB), and Tales of Phantasia (GBA) for Dragon Ball: Origins, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, and Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (all three of which are for the Nintendo DS).

All of these games checked out, and even Dragon Ball: Origins was decent. Not much more than what I expected, but if the game's as long as its pre-start screen intro suggests, it was quite a steal at 5$.

The other two titles are solid RPGs. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is the third in the oft-forgotten Golden Sun trilogy, and though it's already introduced two features which set it apart from most other RPGs that I've played, its intro is prohibitively long. It's not as bad as Twilight Princess - but 20 solid minutes of exposition and set up without any break for wandering around or non-scripted interaction is a bit much. Especially if your game has a disclaimer about needing basic reading ability to enjoy it.

All the same, even the game's exposition heavy intro had some elements of interactivity which helped to buoy its experience among the sea of dialogue and name dropping. One of these is the encyclopedia feature, that allows you to tap on certain nouns in dialogue for more information; and the other is the ability to choose your character's emotional responses to various situations. These choices might not resonate very seriously in terms of plot or relationships, but at the very least it's a distraction from all of the exposition going on. That the intro needed this sort of thing to keep it interesting is something of a bad sign. I'll soldier on in the game later though.

Shadow Dragon is by far the best of the bunch. Its simple use of the dual screens really makes it appealing, and even though it's been a while since I played a Fire Emblem game, its interface makes it as easily played as if I had recently finished The Sacred Stones or Path of Radiance.

However, I don't remember how Fire Emblem handles the balance of the weapons. I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly once I actually start my play through of this one.

Speaking of games I'm actually playing through, the second dungeon of Link's Awakening has been beaten. It took some doing since I needed to grab some bombs (huzzah for no hand-holding!), but all the same, it was done.

However, in my travels I came across Crazy Tracy, and since I had the rupees I let her rub her medicine on Link. So, when the boss of the second dungeon singed away my last heart with a fire ball I was instantly revived.

All the same, my save file still shows that I've died three times. Is this really fair? I went to the extra trouble of getting what's basically a fairy in a bottle, and I still "died"? I suppose the system's right, on a technicality. Plus, it's also the way that A Link to the Past counts deaths. Nonetheless, hopefully my death count stays in the single digits at least.

Describing Dorne

Arianne's latest chapter in A Feast for Crows was typical of the chapters in Dorne. There's a kind of thin quality to them, the same sort of quality that a painting of a desert landscape has. There are some settlements here and there and some vegetation here and there, but the whole comes together to represent sparsity.

Yet, Martin uses this sparsity to get across the atmosphere of secrets under which Arianne lives, especially during her time in the tower after she and her band were found out while playing out their plot with Myrcella.

Of course, it's also crazy that Viserys was promised to Arianne, and that would have driven the last of the Targaryeans back into Westeros. But even Viserys didn't know about the match, apparently - which suggests to me that Martin might have been discovery writing earlier books. Hell, maybe he still is discovery writing the series, using what's come before as a sort of scaffolding for what comes next. 

Whatever the case with Martin's writing process, the outcome is definitely something to observe. Plus, it's refreshing to go through a chapter in which there aren't too many "handsome women" - every author has a phrase or two that they overuse, and this seems to be Martin's. At least, in Jaime's chapters. Though that phrase's overuse could also just be a matter of Jaime's disposition at this point in the series.

At any rate, the atmosphere of secrets with which Martin covers Dorne in this book is perfect. It makes it clear that there are things, important things, happening there, and it really does a lot to bring out a sense of the truth of these secrets.

Plus, this atmosphere makes the reveal at the end of the chapter really effective.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

From out of Old Fields Comes New Corn


So tonight I played more of Link's Awakening. Along with getting on with the game, I actually had the first few of no doubt many incongruent experiences tonight. Let me explain.

Because this was one of the first Zelda games that I ever played, it felt absolutely massive to me when I first picked it up around 13 years ago. The map was expansive, the dungeons were all so harrowingly long that it felt like hours were spent in each one. At least - so I remember it.

But the shocking reality is, just like the original Zelda on the NES, th dungeons are just a series of rooms connected together in various ways - being limited to 2 dimensions also means that things are fairly straightforward and there haven't really been many puzzles just yet. Of course, I've only been in two dungeons so far, so I still have quite a ways to go.

The other big surprise was Goponga Swamp. I remember this swamp being massive - but it's just four in-game screens big. That's it. And there's a chest in there, too, that you need to have the chain chomp to get, but still. Just four squares? My memories of Goponga Swamp must've crossed over with those of Misery Mire from A Link to the Past and the Southern Swamp from Majora's Mask - because it feels rightfully tiny.

What's strange as I think about this, though, is that Minish Cap's map is very similar in its scale to that of Link's Awakening. Perhaps the greatest difference is just that Minish Cap had scrolling screens as well as the sliding ones. Perhaps, with good reason, the fact that Link's Awakening has only screens that slide as you walk through from one to the next, it feels like more ground is being covered and therefore, it feels bigger.

Anyway, I had my second death in tonight's session as well. At the hands of the Moldorm - yeah, the boss of the first dungeon. It's kind of embarassing in that sense, but that guy just shows no mercy and comes barelling into you as soon as you start the stage. The sidescrolling bits of this first dungeon were a welcome sight though. But, their Mario theme (pirhana plants, goombas (that, by the way, always seem to give you a heart if you jump on them)) really makes me wonder about Koholint Island - the game's ending notwithstanding. I mean, where would Link have encountered goombas before?

Two things though, that modern Zelda games should bring back are the doors that you just need to step into to move between rooms and something like the Roc's feather. I know that Minish Cap had the Roc's Cape, and [] has [], but I'm talking the 3-D console Zeldas. If you could actually jump in those it would make sword fighting so much cooler.

Plus, if there were doors that you had to get Link perfectly in position to slip through that would add a potentially interesting challenge. It wouldn't need to involve motion control, either, certain button presses when wearing a certain accessory or something could make Link strike a pose - kind of like Crono and the gang in that mini game at the Millennia Fair in Chrono Trigger.

Also, even though it's better adapted to the 2-D adventures, enemies that literally mirror your moves might be an interesting one-off reference in a 3-D Zelda. Or going down stairs and wildly changing the gameplay mechanics.

I know that a first person Zelda has been toyed with now and again (Ocarina of Time was originally going to be in the first person), so maybe that could be the perspective when you enter certain stretches of corridor. If it's narrow enough you switch viewpoints to make it more of a sword-fighting-intensive gameplay mode.

Cersei and Taena

So I've just finished reading the Cersei chapter in which she tries to be Robert to Lady Merryweather. 

Damn, is it effective in bringing out the bitch in Cersei, but also in bringing out her desperation to defeat and un-man all of the...well, men, of her past.

I mean, when Martin compares her finger banging Taena to a boar goring her when she screams during orgasm, it's incredibly effective. Not because he goes into graphic detail, but, because like sex itself, he builds up to it and makes it possible to view that single sentence about the boar (its own paragraph) as the scene's own final climax.

How does he do this? With some simple foreshadowing earlier in the chapter, and then the gradual easing into it when Cersei lightly cups Taena's breast before toying with her nipple. That's all it takes. He plants the idea, waters it, and then lets it grow into the line about the boar and Taena's scream of pleasure.

Of course, there's also the matter of Cersei's reflecting on Robert's own wine-soaked adventures in bed that builds the psychological impact of the line and the final scene of the chapter in general. And that's something that's been brewing for a while along Cersei's character arc.

Plus, the way she reflects on how easy it was to get Robert off puts a really creepy spin on the bonus of swallowing. Just saying.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

A Non-Linear Entry on Linearity (-ish)


I did it! I managed to beat the crane game and get the bom...oh...it was just magic powder. I noticed a spot down on the beach where there's a weak wall, and was eager to get in there and start some minor demolition. Ah well.

This session was brief (and so to is the writing of this), but it really brought back to me the prevalence of farming in these adventure games. It's kind of annoying, but it's also an ingenious way to keep things open-ended to some extent while keeping things linear.

At early points in a game like this, usually you just want to barrel onwards and upwards, but those who stick around and try to explore everything they can will often be rewarded. That's what getting this magic powder was really all about, and rather than carrying on and finding a chest full of rupees so that I could have more than one play of the game at a time, I stayed put.

I farmed out rupees in the grass around the crane game, and in the field just to the north. Every time I spent all of my hard-earned cash, I went back out and I rounded up more. Ultimately, the whole exercise probably cost me about 15 minutes of play time, but that's 15 minutes that I could be deeper into the story.

Hence, the difficulty curve of these sorts of distractions are what deter most players from them. And hence developers are able to keep players on the straight and narrow until an easier way opens up. In this case it might've been a chest, but in others it will be a single directly related item used in the place of a McGyver-esque combination of items for effects that don't seem to be planned for.

Now that the distraction's over, I'm off to the Mysterious Woods to meet with the owl once more.

Food For Thought

So, I was reading while waiting for lunch at a take out place the other day. I managed to get in about five pages in the fifteen minutes it took for my fish and chips to come up. And, although it's something that I came up with a little later in the day, reading during that wait shook something loose.

The epic fantasy series that I read before "A Song of Ice and Fire" - "The Sword of Truth" - was really big on dialogue.

I mean, all epic fantasy stories are big on dialogue, but unless I'm remembering those books in an off way (watching Legend of the Seeker perhaps has thrown me), much of the character, plot, and thematic exposition was had in dialogue. In "A Song of Ice and Fire," these things are treated much differently. 

Rather than using dialogue, much of Martin's exposition is done through characters' reflection and the narrative bits and bites that expand upon characters' dialogue. This might just be a small thing to notice, and something quite inconsequential, but let's see what such a difference could mean.

"The Sword of Truth" series was super popular in the around the turn of the millennium.

It topped the charts, it (eventually) got its own TV series, it was the fantasy series that everyone was reading.

Now the same can be said about "A Song of Ice and Fire."

Setting aside these series' other differences, I wonder if the different ways in which these two series tell their stories and build their worlds is reflective of a shift in tastes or in world view in general.

Are readers today more interested in people as their connections to others in their own lives become more and more shallow? Are we just not interested in talking as much as we once were, and now prefer to think? Or has "A Song of Ice and Fire" only taken off in recent years (despite having started in the 1990s) because its TV show has much higher production values than The Legend of the Seeker did?

Of course, the simple answer to all this could be that "A Song of Ice and Fire" is just a better series, but that's the easy way out. What do you think accounts for this difference in what's popular in fantasy lit? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Monday, January 14, 2013

An Awakening Link

Finally, after having a true bout of nostalgic cravings for reliving the Link's Awakening experience that made me the Zelda fan I am today, I got back into the Game Boy spectacular.

Since I played this about 10 years ago, a lot of the minor details seem to have changed from how I remember them. The biggest thing that I remember from the beginning of the game is that you had to go through swarms of enemies with just your shield. Maybe they made it easier for the DX version, but it was pretty breezy running down to the beach and grabbing the sword.

Though, in true Zelda fashion, getting it made me a little too cocky, and the old octorok turn and shoot took out my last half heart. So there's death number one: definitely among the least dignified among ways to go in Zelda games.

I also started up the trading game by winning the Yoshi doll at the crane game, giving it to the woman with the baby, getting a bow that I then gave to the chomp in the doghouse who gave me a can of dog food which Sales the crocodile truly adored before giving me some bananas.

As far as I can remember the monkey just to the east of Sales' house is only good for a steady stream of things to destroy that could turn into rupees (and a need for hearts, if you stop paying attention and swat one of his bombs). So as of right now I don't really know what to do with the bananas.

The other thing that I remember from this game is playing through the hacked version that sexualized everything. I guess at the time, without consoles to hack and soft-mod, upstart programmers preferred to make old games into sexy times. Final Fantasy III/VI got similar treatment, though playing through that to note all the script changes and such would've been pretty tiresome.

Anyway, according to Did You Know Gaming, the sexualization of Link's Awakening was also present in a German translation. In this version the Buzz Blob monsters, when sprinkled with fairy dust, say "Not without a condom" and/or "Give me your juice, I'll give you mine."

All in all it was a good opening run for Link's Awakening DX, though it was also maddening since that crane game's already proven to be unforgiving. All I want is the bomb bag, but it keeps slipping through the claw's grasp!

At least I've figured out that you need the conveyor belt to make a full circle to get what you're after. So - you need to start the crane just as whatever you're after is getting onto the upwards conveyor belt at the screen's far right. Then, bring the crane down the the spot in the downward conveyor belt where the line of the rightward conveyor belt intersects it. Since I kept getting closer and closer, using this, it should work. But we'll need to wait until next time to see if it's just so.

What are some of the games that started you into gaming as a serious hobby, or as an avid fan of a franchise? Leave your own picks in the comments!

Off to a Feast of a Start

Originally, I saw this book, A Feast for Crows, in a Chapters well before I was back on the fantasy-reading wagon. This sighting places it before my time teaching abroad, since I was able to find a copy of A Clash of Kings in the ever-excellent "What the Book" in the Itaewon neighbourhood of Seoul. 

After having read the first three books and about 1/3 of the fourth, one of the things that strikes me about Martin's writing style is the way in which he describes things. People's features, and the physical features of locales are often described with the sketchiest of notes. The composition of a room is mentioned, or the colour of a person's hair or eyes, but little else comes up. I find this interesting because it follows quite nicely the advice of Canadian author Thomas King: trust your reader.

Unlike other major works (Tolkien springs to mind immediately), Martin spares us long explanations of his settings' finer details or the features of a character's body or face. Unless they're important to the person's character.

It's probably fairly obvious, but that's what the engine in Martin's Ferrari of a series is: character. And, unsurprisingly then, everything he writes is in service of the characters.

Yes, his is an intricate plot involving many different simultaneous threads. But any level of plot complexity can just be expressed in a few sentences in an outline (or at least boiled down to such from an author's rambling notes; hence the possibility of creating "plot summaries").

But in the car that is "A Song of Ice and Fire," plot is at best the wheels. Almost all of the books' energy is devoted to their characters, making them as real as is possible for fictional characters. And Martin's not shy about exploiting his way with character: especially since so many more are used as perspective characters in A Feast for Crows.

Plus, when you care about characters as much as you care about Martin's characters their inevitable deaths are all the more potent.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Prologue

So, welcome to my video game and book blog. Since I've been a long time fan of both forms of entertainment, I decided I might as well start up a new blog with video games and books as the focus. Plus, I have a considerable backlog of games and books to catch up on (watch for that section of this blog), so why not write about doing so?

The format of this blog is simplicity itself: I'll play some video game or other and read part of a book every day, and then write my reactions to each in 10 minute sessions. After some quick editing/proof-reading, those two entries will get scheduled, and then be posted. That's it.

Watch for the first two entries tomorrow, Monday January 14, 2013!