Where's the Japanese archers in JRPGs?
We've got a lot of vaguely European armor, weapons and fighting styles in Final Fantasy and other JPRGs, but there's also ubiquitous Ninjas, Samurai, and fighting monks who exhibit fantasy variations of eastern hand to hand styles.
I was just puttering my way through Suikoden V again -- SOOOO much easier on a back-compatible PS3 where the load times are speeded up -- and I noticed that one Elf character starts to lift his bow in a Japanese archery style -- but then, no, he drops his hands and draws European style. Fran and everyone in FFXII have western stances as well. Of course, most of them are using shorter bows -- Penelo's is much too short for Zen archery, and the Elf characters in Suikoden have short bows as well. So I suppose that what I think of as a Western draw is really a shortbow draw.
Anyway, just once l'd love to see a kyudo (Zen) archer in a game. I've seen them practicing at my local range a few times, and it's absolutely mesmerizing. This video captures it.
I could've envisioned Fran and her sisters using a variation of it, since they are such meditative warriors who prize stillness and silence (when they aren't being driven into a killing frenzy by the Mist.)
Then again, Kyudo archery is usually reserved for religious ceremonies and Zen meditation, and is normally done so slowly -- maybe it would seem jarring to depict it in a battle or competitive setting?
This entry was originally posted at http://auronlu.dreamwidth.org/220516.html, where it has
comments.
I was just puttering my way through Suikoden V again -- SOOOO much easier on a back-compatible PS3 where the load times are speeded up -- and I noticed that one Elf character starts to lift his bow in a Japanese archery style -- but then, no, he drops his hands and draws European style. Fran and everyone in FFXII have western stances as well. Of course, most of them are using shorter bows -- Penelo's is much too short for Zen archery, and the Elf characters in Suikoden have short bows as well. So I suppose that what I think of as a Western draw is really a shortbow draw.
Anyway, just once l'd love to see a kyudo (Zen) archer in a game. I've seen them practicing at my local range a few times, and it's absolutely mesmerizing. This video captures it.
I could've envisioned Fran and her sisters using a variation of it, since they are such meditative warriors who prize stillness and silence (when they aren't being driven into a killing frenzy by the Mist.)
Then again, Kyudo archery is usually reserved for religious ceremonies and Zen meditation, and is normally done so slowly -- maybe it would seem jarring to depict it in a battle or competitive setting?
This entry was originally posted at http://auronlu.dreamwidth.org/220516.html, where it has
comments.