Diminutive Diatribes: First Look at Dark Souls 2

Okay, so...don't usually do this, but I have a busy week, in particular Saturday, so I won't have time for my regular creator spotlight or article.  So, I thought I'd share a sort of first look at Dark Souls 2, give my critiques, and try to say how it stacks up to the original.  Probably less editing and pictures and more discussion for this one.  There will be minor spoilers, but nothing too specific, so relax.

The Good: Dark Souls 2 has fantastic game mechanics.  They copy much from the original, with the tight controls based around wielding an item in each hand, shield or weapon, and having spells and regular tools for use in specific slots.  The enemies follow similar rules, with varying degrees of speed and power, all with their proper tells and weaknesses, if you're willing to be patient and look.  It's a system that rewards patience and persistence, as well as a bit of mastery.  If you learn your weapon or spell or attack style and its use, then you can overcome almost anything, with the right amount of practice.

Alongside the game mechanics, there have been additions throughout the game.  The ability to duel wield adds new combos to an already established weapon at the risk of extra damage, and there is now an option to two hand items in either hand instead of just the one in your right.  There are more item and weapon slots, more ring slots, and a much more diverse range of weapons and spells in the game.  This includes twin blades that, while weak when wielded with one hand, are very powerful if wielded with two hands.

Yes, there is dual wielding.  It's pretty cool.

The graphics are beautiful and the design of everything from the buildings to the enemies is superb.  One enemy was literally a giant mass of corpses made to look like a person and the corpses wriggled about, while one vista had a tree that was the corpse of a giant, complete with a fruit I could harvest.  Everything here is worth taking a second to stop and examine, because the world is truly much more beautiful than the original Dark Souls.  It's a wonder to behold.

The game really is beautiful

Music is competent.  Regular music is ambient, while boss music is exciting, and the sound effects are nice and meaty, giving your weapons a powerful and satisfying feel.  Speaking of music, it really contributes to the atmosphere.  While not as lonely as the original Dark Souls, it has a very distinctive feel...in darkness, things are quiet, but also hectic, frightening, and will keep you on edge for fear of the blade in your back.  In day time, even when facing huge monsters, you have a feeling of ease and calm that is different from previous games...the disparity here really helps make the game a rollercoaster of experience.

Surprises.  The game is full of unexpected twists and turns that you won't really be expecting.  I don't just mean traps, either, like the mimic chests which will eat you.  I'm referring to anything from walls you can blow up on accident or which enemies can smash through, to hidden doors and areas, to NPCs who do the most unusual of things.  In one instance, I used a torch to help navigate a darkened area near the seaside and while it didn't do damage, some of the bestial enemies were visibly frightened by it, preferring to hide rather than fight.  In that same area, an enemy threw something at me that exploded in black tar...it didn't damage or even slow me down, but if I was hit with a flaming arrow or if I had my torch out, I'd explode.  In another area, if you douse yourself with water, you take reduced fire damage, while others have traps activated with certain key items.  It's an interesting mix of things you wouldn't expect, offering surprising complexity and richness of things to explore.

Yeah, walls can be destroyed, you can be jumped, and there are a lot of surprises waiting for you.

Side Stories:  The game has a few interesting side stories.  Talking to NPCs can get you items for listening, but sometimes the best stories are ones told by the world or that you see for yourself.  One area has a farm that is full of peasants and pigs, wielding farm equipment.  They are working until they see you, at which point they go feral and attack, rolling boulders at you and generally acting crazy.  Then, further on, you see a cultish ceremony and above them is a jovial pardoner, surrounded by corpses.  What happened here?  That is for us to piece together and it's delightfully creepy.  Very Resident Evil 4.  In another area, you hear tell of a mystic queen who bathed herself in poison to try and keep herself young...and if you're not careful, you'll have to battle here in a pit of poison, as she tries to reclaim her youth.  My personal favorite has to be a chapel surrounded by decaying knights where an old friend from a previous game waits.  If you go looking, the game has plenty of fascinating little stories to tell you.

Hey, here's a familiar face! ^_^

The Bad: The main story is just tosh.  It's pretty uninvolving and kinda lame.  This does encourage players to make up their own reasons for fighting, but...I wanted more.

The enemy design may be pretty, but it's painfully uninspired.  While a precious few bosses are actually interesting looking, most enemies are guys in suits of armor.  Hell, even the bosses feel lame.  One is basically a giant slug that is almost impossible to die to, while another is a rat with a mohawk.  Some bosses get re-used later in the game as enemies and as major boss fights...it's disappointing that we didn't have a gaping dragon or a four kings...I hated those bastards, but I have to admit, they didn't look like regular enemies.  I've seen some interesting designs, but not enough, at least not after 40 hours.  Little depressing.

Hey...here's a familiar face -_-u

The new stat allocation system makes things a lot more complicated than I think it needed to be.  It also makes the game a helluva lot harder, with equip load and general speed being made into two stats unto themselves rather than being folded into other stats.  It's a little annoying, having to level up both vitality and endurance to be able to wield a sword, but also have the stamina to use it more than once.

Voice acting is just terrible.  Granted, it's not like people care, I tend to just read the dialogue and skip it, because we're here for the gameplay, but the characters seldom really emote and the script doesn't really give them the leeway too.  We get more character out of the environment than the NPCs.

Lack of gimmicks.  This one might seem a bit strange, but stick with me.  In Dark Souls, you could often do weird things to enemies, gimmicks, that would change the way a battle progressed, like cutting off a beast's tail, or using a Lloyd talisman to prevent them from using estus to heal, or nullifying a poisonous enemy with pyromancy.  And while there are some new wrinkles to combat and enemies with tricks in Dark Souls 2, several gimmicks were taken out...and that makes me sad, because I liked cutting off enemy tails or trying to outwit my opponents.

Know what you could do in Dark Souls?  Cut off tails and wield them as weapons.  Know what you can't do in Dark Souls 2?  Cut off tails and wield them as weapons...

Lack of explanation.  This has always bugged me a little in both Dark Souls games.  See, this is kind of a hallmark of the series.  It's part of the exploration...but god, is it frustrating at some points.  I have no idea how to even switch arrows.  Sometimes, this can be an interesting twist.  You don't always understand the controls, so you experiment.  You try and see what each item does or what each weapon's moveset is and, by comparison, this game does offer more explanation than Dark Souls did.  However, I still feel frustrated by a lack of explanation on certain controls.  Not just with how to switch arrows in the middle of combat, either.  Duel wielding is never explained.  You have to have two weapons of the same type, 1.5 times the stats of the highest stats required for the weapon, and hold triangle...that wasn't explained anywhere and I just discovered it while farting around with my weapons.  I get that that might be the point, but it limits the abilities of a player to progress and enjoy the game and I think that, even if you don't want to include it in the game, at least give us an instruction manual outlining all the controls.  Dark Souls 2 doesn't have an instruction manual.  It has a warranty slip...I am not kidding at all.

Lack of interconnectivity in the world is probably what makes me the saddest about this game.  Rather than a large, interconnected world where you could warp, but which you could actually scale from one end to the other, you have a hub area, a few basic areas attached to the hub, and warps to others areas.  They all go off in straight lines and never intersect and that's lame, to me.  I liked being able to go from the forest, to the city, to the shrine all in a few minutes of hectic sprinting in the original Dark Souls.  The reason for this is also something I hate.  Load walls.  Most of the starting areas are hidden behind doors that lock behind you, but which you can still open, and they do this to hide the areas loading.  The original Dark Souls never needed time to load.  It was all seamless.  Here though...while the separate areas are seamless, there are plenty of seams in between them and the hub and it feels awkward.  I wish more thought had been given to the world's layout.

The Mixed:  The hub town.  While this could have been an interesting idea, Majula, the main city, bothers me for how reminiscent it is of Demons Souls, the game I hate most in the Souls Series.  You HAVE to go back there a lot, because the only way to level up is there.  You can't do it by bonfire.  And really, plenty of NPCs may come there to live, but others don't, so you still have to warp around.  However, why is this mixed and not bad?  Well, two reasons.  It gives you some down time...a place to collect your thoughts and breathe and in Dark Souls 2, that's important.  And two, because I think it may have been an interesting psychological experiment.  This is only speculation, but I think that what with the load times and what not, they took away the ability to level up at the bonfire to wage a psychological battle with the player.  It's easier to horde souls now, rather than going to Majula to spend them, since you have to warp, and wait for the load, and talk to the NPC who levels you up...so it's easy to get overconfident and lose big.  If this was intentional, it is a stroke of genius in game design.  I'll be talking more about that in next week's article.

Get used to being here...you'll be coming back ALOT

Questionable design choices.  This mostly comes down to putting a bonfire so close to enemies that you can't use it once you get up, cause the enemies respawn.  This happened to me where a bonfire was right next to three archers who would start to snipe me as soon as I got up.  It forces you to kill them a dozen times to stop them respawning and...this happens in more than one place.  I don't know if this was intentional or not...it could go either way.

Enemy despawning.  So, in this game, you can actually farm an area of enemies until they no longer spawn.  This is an interesting idea because it forces you to move on, rather than grind.  And the game is balanced, for the most part, so that you don't need to grind.  You can sell items, you get souls, you can go to other areas, if you need souls, usually, you can get them.  However, this also means that if people mess up too much and despawn the only area they can handle, they could be in a real no win scenario...and have to restart the game.  It's a mixed bag, actually.  It adds to difficulty, but can also be convenient, if you just wanna run to the boss.  However, it can also be detrimental.

Secrets.  Yes, I love the surprises the game throws at you, but some secrets are so hard to find, like the hidden doors which you cannot tell from other areas of wall, that it makes the game stupid hard or annoyingly tedious when you wanna search for new items.  Just...frustrating.

Lack of starting options.  In the first Dark Souls, if you knew where to go, because of the connected world, you could be rolling in weapons, armor, and items right from the start.  However, in Dark Souls 2, you can't go everywhere right away...so you have to make do with your starting character's items.  What's more, lots of services like smiths or item vendors who buy your unused equipment are unlocked much later in the game...so you can't improve or get a quick boost of souls to help you out.  This is both good and bad.  Good in that it gives weight to your character choice early on and affects how you will play, since you won't have many other options, but bad because...you can't easily cover your weaknesses.  The starting merchants do make this less of an issue, but it's an interesting balancing act between starting in an interconnected world with lots of options, but making your starting choice meaningless or starting in a more divided world and making you really think about your class.

Choose wisely, cause this is all you'll get for a while.

Change in tone.  I enjoyed the solitary journey that was Dark Souls, but the change in tone puts more of an emphasis on the multiplayer and the NPCs.  You are not alone in this world, the game seems to say, and so you have to interact with either the NPCs or your fellow players.  While I'm not overly fond of this, it is going for a different feel than the original Dark Souls and it's not bad, just...different.  However, it is head scratching.  Many rewards for covenants can only be gotten through multiplayer in Dark Souls 2 and this is a stark contrast to the original, where even the multiplayer focused covenants had rewards that anyone and everyone could get.

This is a less lonely Dark Souls...more NPCs, more multiplayer, less solitude

How it stacks up:  Compared to the original Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 is a definite improvement mechanically and graphically.  I think that Dark Souls was more polished and diverse than Dark Souls 2, probably because it was the first we'd seen anything like it, and I miss the open world and unique monster designs.  On the whole though, I wouldn't say that one is better than the other.  Part of Dark Souls charm was that the combat, while not perfect, was so tight and in so little need of improvement.  The improvements in Dark Souls 2 are nice, but some of the changes are annoying.  Dark Souls 2 has prettier worlds than Dark Souls.  Dark Souls has a more satisfying journey because of the interconnected worlds and characters.  You could make comparisons till you're blue in the face.  But I think Yahtzee Croshaw said it best.  It's like trying to decide which is better between Portal and Portal 2.  It's kinda pointless.  More of Dark Souls is never a bad thing.

Prepare to die...and love every second of it.

Dark Souls 2 is different from Dark Souls.  That's not better or worse, it's different.  Standing on it's own, it's a damn fine, very enjoyable, very HARD game.  I'd recommend both to anyone, because Dark Souls 2 is more fun to look at and explore, but I love the world of Dark Souls.  So far, they're on an even keel, I think, with me liking Dark Souls just slightly more than Dark Souls 2 because of the convenience of leveling up at the bonfire.

Before anyone asks, no, I don't have a problem with the system of death.  Losing incremental health actually feels like a nice balance to me between Demons Souls and Dark Souls.  It makes you want to get better, without making death consequenceless or too punishing.  It kind of encourages growth, but without actually making it too unfair, unless you screw up just way way too much.  I may not really like it or be jumping for joy about it, but it's okay.

And that's a basic first impression of Dark Souls 2.  I have beaten it, I died 330 times(thank you for the death counter by the way, From Software) and it was DAMNED hard.  As hard as the original?  Dunno...there are changes that make the game easier and changes that make the game much much tougher.  Regardless, it's a good game, even if it is different from what I was expecting.

Don't expect this to be easy.  The players claiming this is easier than the original...yeah, no.

An Incomplete Story: Annoying Ambiguities

            Welcome.  I'd like to start off by saying that there will be HEAVY spoilers in this particular article for Silent Hill 2, Our Darker Purpose, Binding of Isaac, Braid, and Dark Souls.  This is your ONLY warning.  We are going to be talking story in this section and if you don't want anything spoiled, I'd say give this article a pass.

No complaining after this point.

            There.  With that out of the way, I want to talk a little about Our Darker Purpose.  It's an interesting rogue-like shooter in the vein of The Binding of Isaac that follows a character who can move in a top down perspective and shoot in any of the four cardinal directions.  I backed it on kickstarter and only recently got to playing and finishing it.  Well, I say finished it, but it's super hard, so I took a peak at the ending.  And...I like Our Darker Purpose.  I do.  It's creepy, it's fun, and save for some hitbox issues, the mechanics are rock solid.  However, I'm highly disappointed with the story.  Mainly because the ending kind of...comes out of left field and doesn't leave any closure.

Creepy and disturbing, but without a definite conclusion.  So close to the finish line, Our Darker Purpose.  So close.

            Our Darker Purpose follows the story of a boarding school called Edgewood that is basically Silent Hill.  One day, one of the teachers leaves three students in control of his class as he goes to talk to the shadowy administrators of the school.  Suddenly, all the teachers in the school vanish and the Lord of the Flies scenario commences.  Students divide up amongst respective leaders, but the powerful and the popular work together to destroy the outcasts.  The leader of the outcasts, Cordelia, is crushed under a book case...only to awaken with the school now in full on feral mode.  Monsters roam the halls, students have turned insane, and her betrayers wait for her at higher levels.  It's an interesting setup with great atmosphere.  The story starts out with a bang, there's lots of hidden lore to discover, and Cordelia, Cordy, seems to be searching for an answer as to what the hell happened.  However, as you progress in the game, the story becomes less coherent, hinting that there is some meta-plot underneath the surface.  And...that's kind of the problem.

The game's story is a little off the wall from the start, but when we start to lose focus on Cordy's story and turn focus on the meta-narrative...we kind of lose a piece of what makes the game endearing.

            See, Our Darker Purpose relies a bit too heavily on the meta-narrative and the ambiguity that accompanies this hidden part of the game.  After the first few bosses, the hidden part takes center stage and things become less coherent.  Cordy's battles constantly loop and the stories recognize this, saying things like "What is a memory of a memory?" or "It will all start again."  The administrators talk about Cordy like some kind of monster or curse.  And the final boss is called "His Natural Defense."  After beating it, Cordelia seems to lose control, multiply, and there is some weird cackling and talk about things that don't make sense, and then the game ends...quite unsatisfactorily, I must say.  It leaves players scratching their heads, but not in the contemplative way.  I ends in the "What the hell just happened?" way.  Steam forum users put together the theory that Edgewood represents a human mind of a character referenced in the lore and that everything in Edgewood is a reflection on his past, when he was in an orphanage and tormented by girls like Cordy and her former friends.  That Cordy is actually a virus, infecting this guy's brain and that the school is trying to shut her down, but she keeps multiplying.  Now, this is a fascinating idea.  It's a well thought out meta plot that could have been a lot of fun for people to discover.  However, it leaves the plot we started with, about a quiet girl, betrayed and left for dead, in the dust when...really, it shouldn't.

Rather than the journey ending with a satisfying conclusion, Our Darker Purpose shows us Cordy splitting into a thousand other Cordys, heading towards some dark goal.  Perhaps truth in advertising, but not a fulfilling or even coherent ending.

            I saw Edgewood as a place of punishment, like Silent Hill in Silent Hill 2.  It's got reflections of humanity, meant to test Cordy so that she can come out stronger.  Delightfully creepy, but with something grounded, so to speak.  However, we never get an answer as to whether the above theory, or my own interpretation is right.  The developers leave it open.  And that's very annoying.  Some ambiguity in a game is great, in my opinion.  It can help make people think about the world of the game, it can make them contemplative on messages within it, and it can leave room for further explanation in a sequel.  However, you have to have a concrete ending in order for the game to feel satisfying.  Even if the ending isn't that great, we need closure on the character we've carried this far.  Even if that closure is death, like in Outlast or Amnesia.

            Case in point, Dark Souls.  You are told from the start that you are the chosen undead and that it is your goal to rekindle the dying flames of the first fire to restore light and warmth to the world and end the curse of the undead.  Now, you don't have to do this.  There are several interesting ambiguities hidden in the world, like plot lines that are only available if you go to certain places in the right order.  You can learn of the corruption of New Londo and Oolacile, or about the Dark Soul itself, or even see that the quest you have been given was rigged from the start, but no matter how or what you discover, the game ends with you making a choice.  A concrete choice that will either burn you in the first fire to revive it or make you the new dark lord of the undead, ending your personal saga with a satisfying conclusion.  It is your story...choose to end it your way.

To rule the world or to save it, whatever your choice, you get an ending.  A satisfying one.

            And this is what I want to ask of developers.  Please, I know you want to be clever.  To do some interesting things with the plot that others haven't.  I encourage you to do so wholeheartedly, because while I was annoyed with Our Darker Purpose's ending, I can't say I wasn't impressed with the care put into making it the way it was through the lore...once I pieced things together.  But I shouldn't have to piece things together if I don't want to.  It's great to have that ambiguity and those hidden elements, but give us a concrete ending as well.  Here, let me show you how it could have worked. 

Cordelia defeats Edgewood's final defenses and the school crumbles around her.  Instead of restoring order, she has destroyed the only home she has ever known and is now alone.  She must venture forward into the wastes surrounding the school and see if she can find her way. 

            Still fits in well with the theme of Cordy being a disease, as she's eroded her host's mind and now she's got nothing really left to do.  He's lost it and now he's crazy, so what is left for her?  It works on both levels.  And more importantly, it brings Cordy's character arc to a close.

This game started with Cordy.  Even if this is all one big meta-narrative about disease and childhood trauma, I think it should end with Cordy too.  Her story, her game.  Everything else is for us to speculate on.  Just my opinion, but still...

            That's really what I'm asking for with this.  I want it to work on both levels.  Binding of Isaac, for example, is all about grotesque imagery and a rather macabre take on the religious story of the same name, where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac because of god.  Isaac's religious fanatic mother goes crazy, strips him of his clothes and worldly possessions, and then tries to kill him.  Isaac has to scurry away into the basement, finding his deformed brethren and coming face to face with inner demons before an act of god saves him from his mother, while still leaving room open for Isaac to come to terms with his own human weakness and corruption.  It's got plenty of grey area on what the hell is happening, but it gives us at least a complete story.  Isaac's story.

I may not like Binding of Isaac, but it at least keeps the story focused on Isaac and gives us a decent conclusion to his character arc.

            Silent Hill 2 is probably the king of symbolism and is steeped with ambiguity.  James Sunderland finds himself in a town covered in mist and inhabited by monsters.  On the surface, these are just faceless abominations, but the more you know about the game, the more they reflect a different part of James' psyche and how they explain more subtle parts of the story.  Even without understanding the symbolism behind them, they still make for an interesting attention grabber and work towards the player understanding that James feels guilty and is an unreliable narrator.  He killed his wife out of pity and grief, because she was dying and the town of Silent Hill is punishing him for that, making him come face to face with Pyramid Head, an executioner, to symbolically face his sins as a killer, before finally making peace with his wife and either choosing to overcome grief or choosing to be subsumed by it.  There's lots of areas that are never properly explained in the game, but they don't get in the way of the story because the ambiguity enhances it in a subtle way, rather than in a direct, immediate way.

James Sunderland.  Murderer.  Mercy Killer.  After a grueling battle with his own inner demons, he finally comes to terms with his past.  Though the ending can change based on his struggle, they still bring his story and his arc to a close.

            If you want to have a twist or an allegory or a metaphor running throughout your game, feel free, developers.  Braid did this with lots of quotes and lines about the nuclear age and how the hero's quest for the damsel, which it turned out was actually him chasing her like a stalker, only in reverse due to the game's time manipulation mechanic, mirrors our own dangerous fascination about nuclear power and how it can destroy or corrupt.  How our forcing the use of nuclear power and calling it justice, under a pretense of idealism, could ultimately turn us into the real monsters.  However, Braid, without even using words or what have you, was able to visually tell a compelling little story that had an ending.  It may not have been the ending we wanted, as we were now revealed to be the bad guy, but it made things clear and we had a concrete finish.

This is from Braid.  It is part of the story, but also part of the metaphor.  Have your message or your ambiguity, but your story must come first.  Braid at least understood that much.

            Ambiguity can really work with a game if the developers know what they're doing and clearly Avidly Wild Games did, as they were able to do a huge amount with Our Darker Purpose's lore.  However, if a game is trying to tell a story, but fails, it matters little how in depth the lore is, because we won't feel invested in revisiting it because we don't care for the story.  Our Darker Purpose avoids this, if only because it's so damned confusing at points.  However, it's something to be aware of.

            This isn't a hard problem to fix.  I think that most people never do fix it in game development though because they either don't think about it, it makes sense to them at the time, or because they don't see a problem with the game having this big branching meta-narrative that doesn't actually get properly explained enough to take the place of the narrative we started with.  However, fixing it is easy...all you have to do is be aware of it.  Be aware of your meta-narrative and make it work WITH your plot rather than taking over your plot.

Know what story you want to tell and don't stray from it.  If you want to tell Cordy's story, tell it.  If you want her to be a metaphor for a disease, let that be your lead.  But whatever story you tell, don't let another story sidetrack it.

            On the whole, this isn't a big thing with Our Darker Purpose because of how devoted the fans are and because of how interesting the story is when it all comes together, but it could have been a huge problem.  There's really nowhere outside that one Steam forum that goes into detail about this, not even on the Wiki, so it could have left players feeling confused and possibly angry.  My plea is not to take the lore or the ambiguity out of gaming, but to use them as the supports for the pillar that is story.  The story stands on its own, but with the supports helping it, it has a stronger presence overall.

            I want a story that's not just deep or steeped in lore, but one that's also complete.  Show me a story that's the greatest of all and I'll listen without hesitation.  Show me a story that's the greatest of all but which has not ending and I'll leave without a second thought.  Characters and audiences need closure.  It's just part of being human.

Perhaps this just hits me hard because I'm a writer and story is my bread and butter.  But I hate it when a character we've grown attached to is cast aside for some twist or metaphor.

            There now...that wasn't too bad.  I did try and keep some spoilers to a minimum.  I thank anyone who's stuck with me through this.  Sometimes it feels like this blog is a mouth piece for whatever I'm thinking about video games and game design at the time.  And it kind of is...but I hope others find it fun too.  I literally just thought of this article and how interconnected it was with my expectations and other games I'd played not more than two days ago.  Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it.

Creator Spotlight: Kiyoshi Sakai

            If ever there were a developer I never expected to spotlight here, it would have to be Kiyoshi Sakai...mostly because I didn't know the name of the developer I had such admiration for until...about a month ago, when I was doing research on a game I dearly love.  Why am I spotlighting Sakai?  Two words.  Umihara Kawase.

Kiyoshi Sakai has practically no pictures online, but Umihara Kawase is his child and his face in the gaming community.  So, ladies and gentleman, meet Umihara.

            Umihara Kawase is a small series of games based around young Umihara.  And yes, this was another Japanese only game introduced to me by the fantastic Justin Carmical, who showcased it in his second You Can Play This video.  I could go on and on about that, but we're here to talk about Kiyoshi Sakai.

            Sakai is the very definition of a niche/independent publisher.  Hardly well known, works typically in informal wear such as slacks or in apartments, and is rather shy in demeanor and very seldom makes appearances.  What I can say about Sakai, though, is that he is a damn fine programmer.  Sakai himself is quoted as saying, "I’m good at making complex game systems.  I designed the game myself, and I did it in a way where I could use my ability to come up with a complex game system. I built the game design around that skill."  Translation?  Sakai is able to program a system that is remarkably complex in it's execution, but very easy to use.  That being said, most of Sakai's games have an incredibly high skill ceiling, making experts on youtube seem akin to gaming gods.

It takes skill to get to the bosses of the game and a ton of skill to survive them.

            Unlike most of my previous spotlights, Sakai has actually been around for a long time.  He got interested in game design due to his father buying a PC for work and he fiddled around with it, learning to program from there.  Sakai wanted to create something with his knowledge and this led to his career in game design.  He got started in the early 90s and his first commercial title as published in 1994, when the first Umihara Kawase game was released by NHK for the Super Famicom.  The game sold modestly well, but NHK faded into the background while Sakai's child, Umihara Kawase, lived on and had several sequels and ports.  Sakai himself is only credited as working on five games.  Four Umihara Kawase titles and the original Ape Escape.  Umihara is Sakai's legacy, as he created one game for the Super Famicom, one for the Playstation, one for the Nintendo DS, and his latest title for the Nintendo 3DS.  The PSP port of Umihara Kawase was made by an outside team.

            Now, I love Umihara Kawase, but it is damned hard...and I have Sakai to thank for that.  The game features a cute girl named Umihara in a strange otherworld in habited by fish who walk on land and strange larger than life items, like vegetables or bicycles.  Her only defense is her ability to jump, run, climb and use her elastic fishing pole, which she can use to reel in fish, or latch onto objects.  This is where Sakai comes in.  While he designed all the game mechanics on his own, what is jaw dropping is the physics engine.  See, Umihara can use her fishing pole to swing from ceilings or walls to try and get to new places.  Some of these swings are insanely hard, requiring momentum, precise angles, and a combination of the jumping and climbing mechanics on par with rom hacks, swinging from ceiling to ceiling with nothing but an ocean or a bed of spikes underneath.  For 1994, this physics system was amazing and has never been replicated except by, ironically, Sakai himself.  Like Bionic Commando, it features swinging from roofs and walls, however there is so much more finesse at play with Umihara, that I'd say the only comparable physics engine is actually in Portal, which uses momentum in a similar way.

Takes some out of the box thinking to make the physics engine work for you in this game.  It takes skill.

            What is perhaps more shocking is that Sakai hasn't worked on more games.  In fact, his Umihara games have been made by different studios each time, with the only real constants being himself and the series illustrator Toshinobu Kondo.  So, I want to give Sakai a bit of a spotlight for this amazing game system.  It is a testament to his talent as a developer that, for the Super Famicom, he created a physics engine on par with, if not better than, most modern ones.  Sakai doesn't really see any problem with a lack of recognition for himself or his series, though.  In fact, the most recent game in the series, Sayonara Umihara Kawase, seems to be closing the door on the series, and he's satisfied with how far it has come.  It would seem that Sakai saw game design and programming as a challenge and something that he enjoyed doing just for the hell of it, rather than getting rich off a franchise.  By his own admission, he built a prototype on his own and showed it to a friend who was working with NHK and asked if they could work together to make a video game out of it.  Despite this somewhat laid back appearance, Sakai has led the charge with all the Umihara games, being the visionary who has kept the series going.

Yes, that's a giant radish and a huge tadpole.  No, I don't know why.

            If I had to give a complaint about Sakai, it's his lack of story focus and at times his informal demeanor.  In truth, Sakai himself admits that Umihara Kawase came to be because of a happy accident.  The games feature almost no story, despite Toshinobu Kondo's illustrations of Umihara and the world around her seemingly begging for a Miyazaki-esque fairy tale to provide context to the weird world of giant fish, oceans, and rivers.  It features some unusual imagery that does actually make players wonder...like in the original game, bicycles, vegetables, and certain other things that in Japan might be related to childhood or how in the sequel there are hints at a more grown up perspective, with pencils and school supplies dotting the landscape.  All the while, the background focuses on rivers and oceans, hinting at recreation and the imagery of another life that might be an obstacle for Umihara's enjoyment.  Even Umihara having fishing as a hobby was just because Sakai thought it would be cool for her to do that in order to make his mechanics work.  He didn't set out to make a fishing game at all.  Ostensibly there is no story and even the game's title, Sakai admits to creating just on a lark.  Umihara Kawase refers to the choice cuts of meat on fish, Ocean Stomach, River Back.  Kondo's illustrations beg for more context to this world...

Sakai, I wanted to know more about Umihara.  Please, tell me more.

            Umihara Kawase has never seen an English release, but in 2014, English speakers are going to get their first taste of it through Yumi's Odd Odyssey on the 3DS.  Honestly, I'm super excited, but I also hope it's not the end.  The game seems to have a story of sorts attached to it and it will be our first taste of some translated Umihara goodness.  For many, it will also be their introduction to the hardcore, but oddly satisfying mechanics that has become Sakai's hallmark.  I would like for more people to know about Umihara Kawase and Kiyoshi Sakai, because they're just fantastic, all over.

Sayonara Umihara Kawase on the 3DS, known in the States as Yumi's Odd Odyssey.  Check it out to witness Sakai's mastery in action.

            Kiyoshi Sakai has little information floating around the web about him, lacking even a proper wikipedia page, but there was an interview with him on USgamer and he is credited on Giant Bomb.  Umihara has little information about it, but to see it's madness and it's beauty, this youtube channel is the best way to go.  And please, support Umihara Kawase by buying Yumi's Odd Odyssey on the 3DS.  It's a digital download from the eshop and is well worth the price.  Give it a look!

Diminutive Diatribes: The Game News Media's Double Edged Sword

                 I've made my disdain for the game news media and their hype machine preeeeeettty transparent in my past editorials.  However, even I can admit that they are a necessary part of video gaming culture.  I mean, without Kotaku spotlighting BrentalFloss or Laura Shigihara, they might never get thousands, if not tens of thousands, of fans.  Without the Escapist talking about a female game developer receiving harassment, how would we know?  And we do need to know.  We do.  Now, I have a complicated life...a frustrating life...and I don't like to deal with a lot of the drama of the world.  I know others who have a similar mindset and don't want to hear about some tragedy or some new thing to be scared of.  But we NEED to know.  At least in a cursory manner if not in a more indepth one.  Because if we live in a complete bubble, we're going to be left behind by the world and the people around us.

Games news media?  Essential.  Absolutely.  Both for our culture and for us as individuals.

            The game news media plays an important role in video game culture.  Hell, without Kotaku, Retroware TV, or any other game review/news media hub, people might not have ever known about Justin Carmical's tragic death or about the amazing work he tried to do for people.  We wouldn't know about the pros and cons of game consoles, we wouldn't know about the idiocy of companies like EA, the list just goes on.  HOWEVER, there is something that really grinds my gears about all this.  Editorializing.

Without news, a lot less of us would have known.  Even if we didn't want to know about his passing, we did need to know.

            Listen, I editorialize alot.  So do others on the sites I mentioned.  And, honestly, that's not really a big deal.  It can be fun, hearing a difference of opinion or being exposed to an idea that we haven't heard before.  As I've said, all opinions are important.  I actually tend to like editorials, like Ben Yahtzhee's Extra Punctuation or Kotaku's Random Encounters.  However, when we are relying on you to deliver the news...and you deliver an editorial...then we have a problem.

Whether they make you angry or not, an editorial is a clear as day, "this is my opinion" piece.  Just like this blog.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Really, it's not.

            This may just be a personal preference, but every time, every post I see, basically playing Fox News with Nintendo, treating it's recent turn of bad Wii U sales as the end of the world, I get angry.  Because, you're putting either your viewpoint into an article that didn't really need it, because it's news, not an editorial, or you're trying to drum up views by sensationalizing the news.  That's not good.  Anyone who has seen modern news programming knows that they try to scare the ever loving crap out of their audience so they will keep watching...this has even begun to bleed into games media...and I hate it.

            Going back to Nintendo, Kotaku seems to have a particular dislike for it.  Blistered Thumbs had a similar disdain for the Xbox One...now, you're allowed to, in an editorial.  Editorials are basically our opinions put to paper to share.  But we DEPEND on you guys for the news.  We need to know if Dark Souls 2 is gonna be delayed or if the Wii U has lost more 3rd party support.  But what we don't need is all the fear mongering or sensationalism or hatred that gets added in.  Yes, Nintendo has had a bad time with the Wii U.  Know what else had a bad time?  The Gamecube.  What was that succeeded by?  THE WII.  You know, last generation's machine that practically printed money...why do you feel the need to make us believe Nintendo has ended in a NEWS article?

This and the controversy surrounding it?  Yeah, we need to know.  We rely on news.  So, why does so much of that news sound like a thinly veiled editorial?

            Point of all this discussion is that the games news media is a double edged sword.  We need it.  We need it to know if our rights are being suppressed by Congress, Youtube, or if one of our own, like Total Biscuit, are being harassed by an unscrupulous developer, so we can rally together and fight.  We need to know that women are being harassed so that we can tell people to knock that off and hopefully grow as an industry.  We need to know that the Wii U has had crappy sales and that this might affect it's future with other developers.  What we don't need to know is that you think Nintendo is dead, that women gamers are being butthurt, or that the world will end tomorrow if we don't fight SOPA and PIPA.  In news, we need facts...not wild speculation or opinion.  But we're human...so that's almost certainly what we're going to get.  It's almost impossible to divorce our opinions from any piece of news, especially when we're reading it.  And so, we have this eternal conundrum.  Game news media is the sword we use to defend our medium, but also the razor we use to cut ourselves in the bathroom.

            What can be done to solve this problem?  I honestly have no idea.  That's why this is a shorter discussion.  There ISN'T really a solution to this.  I mean, the best I can suggest is that people remember that these news pieces aren't the word of god.  They are biased.  They have people behind them.  So, take them with a grain of salt.  If you can remember that, then perhaps you can whether the promises of net neutrality dying, Nintendo going third party, or the Xbone being the first console to be dead on arrival.  Because these are just speculation...not fact.  And for the games news media, I just have to ask...try not to be Fox News.  Try not to sensationalize things for the sake of views.  Try and think about what you would think reading a news article that you've written.  How it would make you feel.  Don't try to spread anger or fear.  If we're going to grow up as an industry, anger and fear aren't what we need.  Reason, rationality, calm, etc. are.  Passion is grand.  Vitriol is horrific.

The sad thing is that even the article talking about Mario and microtransactions admits this is hearsay and that the talk of this is nothing new.  Then why did you need to report on it and spread anger/fear?

And also, please, know that you don't need to report on everything.  Games news media is like any news media...it feels like if it doesn't have a story, then we won't listen.  Maybe.  But we won't go away either.  We need you...so don't feel like you need to pad out your pages with articles that either don't matter or are just mean spirited.  Perhaps my favorite examples of this are, the Attack on Titan Burgers are disgusting (1, not your call, some of us might like them, 2, Really?  You really had nothing else to report on?) or the random person somewhat affiliated with Nintendo talked about making a microtransaction so that Mario could have a higher jump.  Why do we need to know or care about a hamburger marketed on an anime?  Why should we care about someone spouting rumors who probably has no power to influence what Nintendo says or does?  Answer...we don't and we shouldn't...but news media sites need their views.

Did we really need to know this exists, Kotaku?  I mean, really...you know, a slow news day isn't the end of the world.

            Like I said.  Stay vigilant and take all these "news" articles with a grain of salt.  More often than not, there's a subtext there.  Don't be taken in by it.  It kinda sucks that we, the consumers, have to pick up the slack for a vitriolic or fear mongering media machine, but...we NEED the news.  So, I think for the moment, that's how it has to be.  Maybe in the future it won't be like that.  We can always hope, right?

                             Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see
                                                                                    -Benjamin Franklin

Creator Spotlight: Laura Shigihara

            Confession time.  I got the idea for the Creator Spotlight section of this blog almost entirely due to one person.  I rediscovered her work just a little while ago, and I'd been a huge fan for years before...not really sure how or why I forgot about it.  She reminded me of other great game creators that I respected...and I wanted to pay my dues to them.

Too often people get angry at developers and creators who don't deserve it.  I want to pay respects to people rather than getting angry at them.

            From the title, it ought to be obvious who I'm talking about, but let me just give a brief introduction.  A fantastic pianist and vocalist, capable of singing both in English and Japanese, and a member of the prestigious club of 3 composers who have actually made me break down and cry from playing a video game.  This is Laura Shigihara.

Talented to a fault, but also very humble, enthusiastic, and adorable, Laura Shigihara is one of a kind.

 

Laura on Youtube.  Check her out.  CHECK HER OUT NOW!!!

            While not nearly as obscure as Amon26, I don't believe Shigihara gets nearly enough credit.  True, she has had some mainstream recognition from her work on Plants Vs Zombies, Plants Vs Zombies 2, and thanks to Kotaku spotlighting her collaborations and covers of other video game music.  However, she's not a household name when...really, I believe she should be.  Shigihara may be relatively new to the composing scene compared to Uematsu, Mitsuda, Talarico, or Yamaoka, but that doesn't make her any less talented or worthy of praise.

Shigihara has also worked on this charity album with such great composers as Uematsu, Mitsuda,a nd Yamaoka...eerie, isn't it?

            There's something undeniably charming about Laura Shigihara that is apparent anytime she creates her music and talks to the audience.  She appears to be both humble and enthusiastic about her work, showing a true reverence and respect for gaming as a whole.  Her first soundtrack composition was for the small casual game Wobbly Bobbly, which she offered to do for free just because she was so excited to be working on a video game.  Such dedication shines through all her work and it has gained her employment on a number of games, including Minecraft, World of Warcraft, Basement Collection, and my personal favorite, To The Moon.

Wobbly Bobbly, the debut of a great composer.

            I first came across Shigihara's work when I played Plant's Vs Zombies.  She not only composed the entire sound track and was the sound designer on the game, but was also the vocalist, in English and Japanese, for the end theme, Zombie on your Lawn.  The song and music video were featured on Steam and the deciding factor in my purchase of the game.  However, I only really took notice of Laura Shigihara while playing the indie game, To The Moon.

            In To The Moon, Shigihara's music made for a fantastic emotional rollercoaster.  It could be quiet and somber, a little manic or silly for the lighter moments, or even bombastic in places.  What got me, though, was the song Everything's Alright.  This is sung at a key moment in To The Moon where love, true, unrequited love, is lost.  I first heard it when I was in a...less than stellar relationship.  I won't spoil the payoff, but it was beautiful, moving, and heartbreaking all in one.  For me, this piece was something sad, but also somewhat hopeful.  It was an anthem to me of love and became both the hope and the requiem of my own hopeless romance.  Even though my love is dead, I still listen to it frequently and never tire of the soft, thoughtful look at a flawed relationship that we want to work so well.

             I suppose that's what made me really sit up and pay attention.  You see, this song, and Shigihara's music as a whole, remind me of a saying from the game Soul Blazer.  The gist of it is that music is a funny kind of thing.  The same music we listen to can feel very triumphant or joyous when we are happy, or mournful and sad when we are depressed.  It spoke to me, I suppose you could say.  It made me feel.  Any game and any music that can do that, really make you feel something, is powerful.

Yeah...that's the moment.  The moment music begins to make you feel.

            Shigihara's music usually involves the piano as she is incredibly skilled as a pianist, but it doesn't have to.  Thanks to the advent of sound software and electronic keyboards, a piano can produce a much wider variety of sounds, which offer great variety to the music as a whole.  Which is quite good, as Shigihara's strength is in piano music and vocals.  She often collaborates with others when other instruments are needed, which have led to some fantastic renditions of classic video game music.

            Now, I am not an expert in music or composition by any means, so perhaps this is also pretty normal for those who can play.  However, Shigihara amazes me with her ability to play music by ear and compose her own original pieces.  Her original work can span any range, from being soft, quiet, and mournful, to being fast paced and energetic.  Cubeland, From the Ground Up, and Jump showcase this range and all her songs are immediately infectious and memorable.  I also can't forget when I saw her playing the Little Nemo themes by ear on her piano.  It sounded spot on and was a wonderful nostalgia trip for me.

            Shigihara is an amazing composer in her own right, however she has also dabbled in game design.  While work began on an RPG called Melolune, it never made it past the demo phase.  However a 3 hour demo is quite impressive, nonetheless and Shigihara has stated she is only on break from this game.  At the moment, she is working on a title called Rakuen, which focuses on a mother and son's relationship, and how stories told to the hospital bound boy are able to help him cope with his illness.  Along the way, the boy starts to learn about the patients in the hospital and tries to complete his own sets of challenges to meet the guardian of the forest from his stories, the mysterious Morizora.  Having heard some of the soundtrack for Rakuen, I can say it looks to be charming and playful, yet also a little somber, mysterious, and possibly even tragic.  In short, it sounds like an emotional journey that I can't wait to try.

Fantasy and reality mixing to create a journey of emotions.  Also, I want that kids hat.

            While I have many famous composers I admire, including Nobuo Uematsu, Akira Yamaoka, and Yasunori Mitsuda, I'd say Laura Shigihara deserves a place among the best of them.  Her music is hauntingly beautiful, memorable, and something that everyone, not just video gamers, should listen to.

Laura is also very vocal about her love of gaming.  She defends the works of others and is a voice of reason in the vitriol fueled games media machine.

            For more information on Shigihara's game, Rakuen, check here.  For all Shigihara's music, which you can purchase for a nominal fee, check here for her bandcamp page.  If you want to show some support, then check out her blog or her facebook pages, but above all else, look at her Youtube channel.  It features some beautiful covers of music, from Miyazaki and Megaman to Frozen and Final Fantasy.  And, just to cover all bases, for the EXCELLENT To The Moon, and other great emotional journeys, check here.

            We don't get composers like her everyday.  No matter what the future brings, we're all anxiously waiting to see what you come up with, Laura.  Keep on playing, keep on singing, keep on having fun.

Keep on making that wonderful music, you beautiful person.