Deleted content- Gotham by Gaslight

Well, more like deleted game.  Very little is known about this game - which was revealed through concept art on Julie Farrell's blog- but was is known is interesting.
The game was created by Day One studios and would have been a game adaptation of a "Elseworlds" comic that consisted of Batman in a Steampunk Gotham. According to Wikipedia, the basic story (of the comic) involves Bruce Wayne being accused of the crimes of Jack the Ripper.  Bruce Wayne must escape jail, clear his name, and track down the real culprit.

The game was, obviously, cancelled. So far the buzz for the cancelled game has been positive.  It is really curious to see what would have happened if it was allowed to continue. 

Musical Monday - We All Are One (Medieval II: Total War)

Another game that I haven't played but fell in love with some music from it anyway.  This is the credits theme to Medieval II: Total War.  Since it's Lent, we should probably think about those around us. 

Nier dialogue

There's some great lines in this game.  This is just part of them.

Anyway, yes, I love NieR.  To the best of my knowledge, these lines aren't really spoilery.  One is a collection of random lines, the other takes place about an hour into the game. I WISH I could find Kaine lines but they can be spoilery.  Sorry.

Anyway, the writing was awesome.  For a game this depressing, it has some really funny lines. 

Character Analysis - Kyle Hyde

"Nice name, isn't it?"

Kyle  Hyde is the main character of Hotel Dusk, Room 215 and it's sequel The Last Window.  (Spoilers ahead.  I have not completed Last Window so I will only talk up to the point I completed) Both were DS games released by the now defunct company Cing.  The games are animated via water color backgrounds and rotoscoped characters.  The gameplay is very similar to Ace Attorney.  There is a lot of reading, deducing, and a good amount of problem solving.  However, while Ace Attorney takes place in a particularly zany court of law in the future, Kyle Hyde lives in a noirish 1970's Los Angeles.  (The eponymous "Hotel Dusk" is a roadside Hotel.)

Kyle Hyde is a retired New York Police Detective. Several years ago, his partner, a man named Bradley, began to do some undercover work against a criminal organization called Nile. Bradley beings to act weird and Kyle finds out that Bradley is actually a dirty cop.  Kyle chases Bradley down to the docks and then shoots him when  Bradley wouldn't surrender.  Bradley fell into the water and disappeared. Kyle was fired from the force and got a job working at Red Crown Delivery Services.  It's a door to door salesman job with a side business of finding things that may not want to be found.  It's not specifically illegal, but it's not promoted in their fliers either.  

Years go by, and Kyle finds himself at Hotel Dusk.  In one of those coincidences that only work in pieces of media, every single person in the Hotel has something to do with at least one other person.  Some of those people deal with Bradley, others do not.  

In the course of one night at Hotel Dusk, Kyle finally manages to find out what happened to Bradley.  Nile had found out Bradley was an undercover cop and kidnapped his sister. If he didn't do what they said, then his sister would die.  They killed her anyway.  However, Bradley survived being shot at by Kyle and made his way around the US and eventually lures Kyle to Hotel Dusk in order for him to solve pretty much everything.

Which he does.  In the space of one night, he reunites families, solves almost everything with Bradley (All Kyle knew when he entered was that Bradley was dirty, not why or what happened after) takes care of little girls who can't talk, and solves the mystery of an old painter that isn't really that old.

Then we get to Last Window.  While Kyle has stopped searching for Bradley, he is in a complete funk.  A forgotten job leads to Kyle yelling at his boss and Kyle being fired.    He mopes, distrusts his neighbors, finds out his apartment is being sold in the upcoming weeks and someone personally gives him an order for something to find.  Oh, and someone is snooping into his past.  

Also, in the process of doing this, I realized exactly how much I forgot about Hotel Dusk.  

What do we know about Kyle? 

1) He needs a reason.  Once Kyle lost his reason for living (searching for Bradley) he turned into a laze about.  He was much more focused in Hotel Dusk then Last Window. When he has no reason to do anything, he falls apart.  He just simply doesn't know what to do with himself.

2) He's clever.  The puzzles he solves are an extension of the player themselves.  And make  no mistake, the puzzles can get tricky.  And Kyle solves them.  He also solves the plot focused puzzles.  The ones about Bradley, Mila, his mysterious neighbors, all of them.  He was also a detective before that.  He knows how to solve problems.

3) He actually does care about the people around him.  While he may not seem like the ideal candidate, he IS the person who solved several other people's problems and reunited families.  Then there are the side incidents.  He made a Christmas Tree for Melissa and Mila in Hotel Dusk.  He got Helen and Martin to meet up (While not family, they did share a past)  and he got Melissa's father to actually connect with her.  And that's not mentioning him reuniting Dunner and his daughter. 

Kyle Hyde is one of my favorite protagonists.  Unfortunately, I can not do him justice. He can be a huge jerk, but underneath that facade is a very frustrated and very caring detective. 

Musical Monday - No More Heroes 2 (Philisitine)

I have no idea why I like this song so much.  The singer is crude and talking about how she murders people.  REALLY not what I like.

And I just have to sing along whenever I hear it. 

Blog changes

I'm worried that the quality of my posts is getting diminished (and my bad posts pushing down posts that I rather like) I am changing how often I write for this blog.

From now on, I will only write two or three times a week. One of those posts will be Musical Monday, but the other one or two posts will be analysis or commentary.

Thank you for being patient.  Have some music

Character Design - Mewtwo

Mewtwo is my favorite character of all time.  My love of him was heavily influenced by the movie, but even without the movie, his unique design inspires interest.
Here's his Red/Blue (US) sprite:

And here's his Black/White Sprite

So, just looking at him, what do we know?

Unlike the rest of the pokemon, he's not natural.  He has no basis on things we would see in everyday life (or that we could be reasonably assumed to have seen at least once)  Bulbasaurs are clearly plant based, the legendary birds have enough resemblance to birds we can get it, but Mewtwo?

If anything, he looks like some bizarre, skinless, cat.  But cats don't have a tail, ears, or neck thing like that.

We know from in game materials that Mewtwo is a genetic experiment. His genetic code is a form of Mew's.

(This is Mew)

Mew is... well, I think Mew is cosmic.  At the very least Mew was never supposed to be explained.  It was just some coding put into the game as a joke since they had some space left.  (That being said, Mew was mentioned briefly in the journals found on Cinnabar Island, but that is the only reference in normal game play.)

Now we can see some similarities to Mew, but there are many differences that mark Mewtwo apart.



1) The "breastplate" Mewtwo  appears to have breast plate grown into his chest.  It makes him come off as a bit aggressive, since he has ingrown human armor.

2) The tube that connects his head to his body.  It in no way looks natural.   Again, marks him as different and a genetic experiment.

3) The tail looks too much like a weapon.  I have also never seen a tail like that in real life.

4) Color Scheme.  He's colored in very muted grays and purples (except for his piercing eyes) All of the official art for the rest of the Pokemon have the sufficiently vibrant colors.  He doesn't. That being said, we do find him in a cave and it could camouflage him there.

5) The feet. They look ungainly, but powerful.  If it wasn't for the fact he doesn't have knees and floats everywhere then it would look like the feet of some sort of fast cat.

6) His hand!  Yeah, there is no way those hands are natural or can be used for picking anything up. Even if he is telekinetic, his hands are still one of the most obvious ways he appears unnatural.

That being said, he was not unprecedented.  Many people who worked on Pokemon previously worked on Mother 1. Gigyas, the final boss, possesses a final form in Mother 1 that has a strong resemblance to Mewtwo.  They also have an affinity for being "final bosses" (Mewtwo is the last Pokemon you can find.  He lives in Cerulean Cave which can only be accessed once you beat the Elite 4 and Gary.)  And they both use powerful psychic attacks. 

Atlus is an awesome troll

Last night, Atlus sent an e-mail out.  It was titled "_____"  and the only thing in the e-mail was the picture on the left.  Someone did some contrast manipulating and we ended up with the image on the right.

Yeah, we have no idea what it means. Some people are speculating that it's for the Persona 4 fighting game (Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena ) but there is no proof at this point.  This speculation is based on the fact Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena is one of Atlus' most recent releases and because the shattering in the logo matches up to the adjusted image in the e-mail.

(Sorry, I couldn't find an English subbed version)

That being said, Atlus lives for announcements like this.  A significant chunk of their announcements are trollish.

Take, for example, Catherine.  Catherine was released in Japan, did astonishingly well, and then Atlus announced it was not coming to the West.  Immediately after they made that announcement, they released this picture:

A short time later, they announced a Western release.


 And then there's when they announced Persona 2 for the PSP. It was a remake. Atlus released the original on June 24th, 1999.

Yes, they made an entire mock e-mail just so they could write about how there were no games releasing this week at the top... and mock Phantom Menace... and pretty much everything else from the turn of the century.

So, the end result of all of this is Atlus has some great e-mails. They can be frustrating, but in the end not only does it reveal more then we think but it can be quite fun.

... even if they have admitted to feasting on the tears of the fans.

Gameplay -Alan Wake

(spoilers)

Alan Wake is an author.  This would normally be something mentioned casually as background in any other video game, but not Alan Wake.

The story of Alan Wake only works because he is a writer.   Another version of him is narrating the events of the game and leaving the pages around for Alan to find.  These pages tell of future events or of events that happen while Alan is in a different area.  As a result, Alan (and the player) can predict what will happen. 

It certainly heightens any tension that the player can feel. Quite a bit before we meet a chainsaw wielder, we read about him.  Agent Nightingale is introduced a chapter before he actually appears via a manuscript page.  It's also deliberately a piece of McGuffum. Alan is sent looking for the manuscript by several people as a way to rescue his kidnapped wife. Alan himself notes it makes little sense.

Many other series do have notes from the past - If you don't listen to the audio logs in Bioshock then you'll be very confused at some points of the plot- but because they are written by the literal author of the story of Alan Wake, the pages take on a new meaning.  One that makes you sit up and pay attention.

We can ignore some of the audio ramblings in Bioshock.  We can not ignore these pages.

I can't think of anything today

So I'm going to post a NieR remix.  Since it's great and I really can't think of anything. (video has spoiler images)

Here's the original