Generic title here.
I was going to post about my "adventure" to the mall last week (the big, nice one that I never get to because it's 40 minutes away), in which a nasty guy first acted nice and wanted to tell me about some contest and then got rather pushy and insulting when I didn't want to buy the magazines that he turned out to be selling. He went from telling me I was so "nice" and that it was "cool" that I liked video games and knew Japanese to calling me a "cheapass" and, as I finally got up to leave after failing to disengage myself politely, "weird." He called me weird at least three times. I might not be average, but what's so "weird" about me? That I tried to be nice to him? (I really did. My mom told me, "You don't have to be nice," but I recognize that working retail is sucky, so I try to be nice to people even when they're trying to sell me crap I don't want.) That I don't want to buy magazines from some random dude in the mall? (Just because I'm at a mall doesn't mean I want to spend all my money. Another memorable line from the guy: "What, buying one subscription wouldn't put you on welfare, would it?" No, but I'm stingy even on stuff that I *want* to buy.) Come on, now.
This experience left me irritated and on edge for the rest of the day. I had just entered the mall when he stopped me (well, I had already done my mission of the day -- looked for $5 copies of Muramasa at Sears, of which there were, alas, none), so it really put a damper on my visit. I didn't even go into the Babbages because the worker at the register there was *watching* me as I walked past (creepy much? I mean, I can understand people watching when you work at the mall and your register faces out, but try to be a bit more discreet, mmkay?) and I just didn't want to deal with any more males.
Anyway ...
After that trip, I decided spending any more time looking for the elusive $5 copies of Muramasa was more trouble than it was worth, so I ordered the game online.
I received it yesterday, and have been having a lot of fun with it. I'm doing Momohime's story now -- she's one of the two playable characters and is a princess possessed by the spirit of ... I guess some guy with good sword skills. The battle system is very fast, and the graphics are lovely (not as atmospheric as Odin Sphere, but they do look really good). I'd already heard the story was not as in depth as OS, and that the translation was lacking, so I was expecting those things.
The story: The story so far is certainly not bad, it's just ... barely there. At the beginning, there is really no introduction. After learning how to fight and wandering through a number of map sections (the equivalent of the rings in Odin Sphere ... except not ring-like) of normal enemies, you run into some monks who call you "Jinkuro" (and seem to hate you) and the floating soul of said Jinkuro, who apparently invaded Momohime's home (for some reason) but was stopped by Momohime (somehow -- I guess since he's a spirit, she must've managed to kill him?) and has been possessing her body since (except for just then, because I guess occasionally Momohime is able to kick him out). Since then I've found out that 1) Jinkuro will lose Momohime's body if her spirit dies, 2) Momohime had a fiance with connections to the shogun and plans for ... something, and 3) Jinkuro has a sexy kitsune (tm) servant who finds out stuff for him. There have been other little details, but without much an overarching plot to fit them into, I'm having trouble even remembering them. I'm hoping that we'll find out later what happened before the beginning of the game ... I've heard that the two main characters don't cross paths much, so I don't think Kisuke's story will flesh anything out.
The translation: Actually, I could say the same things about the translation as the story. It is a bare bones translation -- the heart of the meaning is there (as far as I can tell, which is not terribly far for some of the characters), but the translator saw fit to cut out the little things around the meaning that give dialogue its flavor. For example: A random guy says, "Kitte kure, jou-chan," and proceeds with a story. They translated the story. They left the "hey listen, girl" off entirely. Another example: When Jinkuro is possessing Momohime, her voice uses masculine, less formal language, but there's nothing in the translations to indicate that. Kongiku (the foxgirl) also uses very formal language, but again, going by the translation, she might as well be speaking informally. And it's not just the problem of "it's hard to translate some things in Japanese to English"; in Muramasa's case, either they were purposely simplifying things in translation or they were just being lazy.
But all in all, I'm having fun. Like I said, the battle system is very fast and pretty fun. I had little trouble with the three bosses I've faced so far. (I am playing the "Muso" mode, which is the easier of the two difficulty options, but the instructions call it the normal mode.) Since there isn't an exhaustion gauge like Odin Sphere, you can pretty much just mash buttons until you win (though you do need to watch out for your blade breaking ...).
I'm looking forward to playing more ^^
And I'm going to curtail this entry now because there's supposed to be another fierce line of storms coming through ... yuck. Today started terribly hot, became terribly stormy and windy, had a few hours of cool and calm, and will now go back to stormy. Saa.
This experience left me irritated and on edge for the rest of the day. I had just entered the mall when he stopped me (well, I had already done my mission of the day -- looked for $5 copies of Muramasa at Sears, of which there were, alas, none), so it really put a damper on my visit. I didn't even go into the Babbages because the worker at the register there was *watching* me as I walked past (creepy much? I mean, I can understand people watching when you work at the mall and your register faces out, but try to be a bit more discreet, mmkay?) and I just didn't want to deal with any more males.
Anyway ...
After that trip, I decided spending any more time looking for the elusive $5 copies of Muramasa was more trouble than it was worth, so I ordered the game online.
I received it yesterday, and have been having a lot of fun with it. I'm doing Momohime's story now -- she's one of the two playable characters and is a princess possessed by the spirit of ... I guess some guy with good sword skills. The battle system is very fast, and the graphics are lovely (not as atmospheric as Odin Sphere, but they do look really good). I'd already heard the story was not as in depth as OS, and that the translation was lacking, so I was expecting those things.
The story: The story so far is certainly not bad, it's just ... barely there. At the beginning, there is really no introduction. After learning how to fight and wandering through a number of map sections (the equivalent of the rings in Odin Sphere ... except not ring-like) of normal enemies, you run into some monks who call you "Jinkuro" (and seem to hate you) and the floating soul of said Jinkuro, who apparently invaded Momohime's home (for some reason) but was stopped by Momohime (somehow -- I guess since he's a spirit, she must've managed to kill him?) and has been possessing her body since (except for just then, because I guess occasionally Momohime is able to kick him out). Since then I've found out that 1) Jinkuro will lose Momohime's body if her spirit dies, 2) Momohime had a fiance with connections to the shogun and plans for ... something, and 3) Jinkuro has a sexy kitsune (tm) servant who finds out stuff for him. There have been other little details, but without much an overarching plot to fit them into, I'm having trouble even remembering them. I'm hoping that we'll find out later what happened before the beginning of the game ... I've heard that the two main characters don't cross paths much, so I don't think Kisuke's story will flesh anything out.
The translation: Actually, I could say the same things about the translation as the story. It is a bare bones translation -- the heart of the meaning is there (as far as I can tell, which is not terribly far for some of the characters), but the translator saw fit to cut out the little things around the meaning that give dialogue its flavor. For example: A random guy says, "Kitte kure, jou-chan," and proceeds with a story. They translated the story. They left the "hey listen, girl" off entirely. Another example: When Jinkuro is possessing Momohime, her voice uses masculine, less formal language, but there's nothing in the translations to indicate that. Kongiku (the foxgirl) also uses very formal language, but again, going by the translation, she might as well be speaking informally. And it's not just the problem of "it's hard to translate some things in Japanese to English"; in Muramasa's case, either they were purposely simplifying things in translation or they were just being lazy.
But all in all, I'm having fun. Like I said, the battle system is very fast and pretty fun. I had little trouble with the three bosses I've faced so far. (I am playing the "Muso" mode, which is the easier of the two difficulty options, but the instructions call it the normal mode.) Since there isn't an exhaustion gauge like Odin Sphere, you can pretty much just mash buttons until you win (though you do need to watch out for your blade breaking ...).
I'm looking forward to playing more ^^
And I'm going to curtail this entry now because there's supposed to be another fierce line of storms coming through ... yuck. Today started terribly hot, became terribly stormy and windy, had a few hours of cool and calm, and will now go back to stormy. Saa.