No clever subject matter
Indiepop Capital of the North: Amy Millan confirms to Brendan Murphy in this week's Hour that she, Emily Haines and Feist are thinking of recording an album together. So uh, in the event that you care, stay on top of that one. XD
Thank God for Youtube (VG Edition): I keep watching other people's gaming clips. Not just cutscenes for reference but boss battles and combos and such (and not just FF, either). It's lame but I can't stop for some reason. XD; (......The new JoJo game. I just remembered. Ohshi how much will I get fired if I get on Youtube right now.)
I really like the FFXIII protag's character design. She looks somewhat like a female version of Cloud[1] and a lot like a cyberpunk version of Beatrix. ON THAT BAD ASS LIKE WHITE ON RICE Y/Y. If Shiva can be a motorcycle then Save The Queen can be a gunblade.
Also she wears a cape. A++ Nomura-san...... Weirdly enough I find I'm glad the main character is going to be a woman. It's funny because I don't care about the age, gender, orientation, species or general physical shape of a novel's POV character in the least, but somehow the fact of having to manually move a little avatar around on the screen forces me to identify with said avatar, more than I would if I were reading a book or watching a movie. It's never been oppressive to the point of bothersome, but given the choice I would pick a girl over a guy (ex. when I played Suiko3 for like half an hour it was with Chris), and given further choice... I don't think I've ever been offered "nearsighted Asian female mage" in a video game - Shion probably comes closest - but this used to be a problem when people tried to get me to join tabletop RPGs. XD I automatically set about recreating myself in stats. It's very different from creating a character to write.
The following is just for Kristin really: Final Fantasy character classes, not that this helps necessarily - jobs and tropes have imperfect overlap, and every new installment in the series remixes what came before. XD;
* Vaan "One Jump Ahead": you're not forced to specialize character tasks in FFXII, but it helps, because you conserve license points that way. Vaan is a thief, story-wise - one of FF's sturdiest character archetypes - and while you don't have to play him as a Thief the psychological effort required to buck the trend is too steep for the lazy. XD Besides if you want to make money in this game you have to steal, constantly, and Vaan is there - constantly.
For boss fights I have Vaan gambited as Thief/Time Mage, out of tradition and because it works. XD To break it down, Vaan tanks which in context actually means he dodges a lot, meaning it's useful for me to control him manually to draw the enemy away from other party members, and sometimes you want to cast status effects manually as well.
* Penelo "Hips Don't Lie": is a dancer but not a Dancer - you can't license that ability in FFXII. It may be in Revenant Wings, I don't know. She has the strongest inherent magic stats in the game, and the "nice" girl is usually made the White Mage in these things, but pretty much everyone I know hates the fact that White Mages are useless on attack unless they're also Summoners or you're in the endgame phase with spells like Holy. I mean, ANTI-FEMINISM OF IT ALL ASIDE. Granted all I did was give her a bow instead of a dinky rod, i.e. turned her into Rosa, but that's because healer + long-distance weapon is as effective as it gets.
Most people seem to be playing Penelo as Black Mage or Paladin/Fighter. BECAUSE YOU CAN.
* Balthier "Bowie": there have been other pirates in FF games but Pirate is not in and of itself a job class. For most of the game thus far I've been using Balthier as a straight-up melee artist, pole + battle harness, with Thief gambits if I'm giving Vaan a breather. Would not believe the crap I get from sororial unit, who claims that poles are for girls. How can a POLE be a girly weapon? ...Moving on. Believe it or not Balthier and Fran are slower - are actively penalized - if they use guns and bows respectively, for no reason I can see except to be a bitch. Nevertheless I'm re-classing Balthier as Gunner/Chemist for the next few areas and seeing how that goes. One for sneaking past entites, theoretically, two... because it's funny.
Balthier: *is party leader*
Balthier: *spots an enemy*
Balthier: *moves toward enemy, stops a hundred feet away*
Basch and Ashe: *run past*
Balthier: *takes languid aim*
Basch and Ashe: *enthusiastic hack/slash motions in the distance*
Enemy: *croaks*
Balthier: *shrugs, puts gun away, keeps walking*
On occasion he deigns to take a potshot. When the mobs are particularly irksome.
* Fran "Iman": is the coolly silent non-human character, I guess, like Freya or Kimahri. You almost expect her to be a Lancer (bunny hop lol), except Lancer doesn't exist in this game either. So instead she's an Archer. I'd like her to be Black Mage/Archer in lieu of White Mage/Archer, for a change, but there doesn't seem to be much point in putting MP toward anything but buffs and heals. And it feels wrong to equip her with anything but a bow. Maybe a javelin would work, come to think of it.
* Basch "Will The Real KOTOR Please Stand Up": is both a knight and a Knight (à la Steiner). As with Vaan contrariness just takes too much mental effort. XD License board consists of a buttzillion augments plus the latest sword/hammer/axe because all he ever does is whale on things.
* Ashe "Contrary To Expectations I Do Not Have A Smartass Nickname For Everyone": there has been at least one previous ruler of a small desert kingdom caught between an invading empire and a resistance movement, but... actually if you think about it Edgar is like Ashe PLUS Ondore PLUS Al-Cid. It's kind of disturbing. XD; [2]
However FFXII would definitely be cooler if Rabanastre could roll around in the desert.
Ashe has high magic stats as well, but... I can't bring myself to make her a mage. orz So I did the logical thing and made her a samurai. She juliennes things that get in her way. It looks satisfying. XD
...No really why on earth did I write all that. orz I had a whole long thing on Vagrant Story but now it'll have to wait.
[1] Not that Cloud isn't a trap when he wants to be.
[2] Edited to note: Edgar is also TWINS. Um. I guess someone in charge of FFXII really digs Edgar? THAT'S OKAY SO DO I.
Thank God for Youtube (VG Edition): I keep watching other people's gaming clips. Not just cutscenes for reference but boss battles and combos and such (and not just FF, either). It's lame but I can't stop for some reason. XD; (......The new JoJo game. I just remembered. Ohshi how much will I get fired if I get on Youtube right now.)
I really like the FFXIII protag's character design. She looks somewhat like a female version of Cloud[1] and a lot like a cyberpunk version of Beatrix. ON THAT BAD ASS LIKE WHITE ON RICE Y/Y. If Shiva can be a motorcycle then Save The Queen can be a gunblade.
Also she wears a cape. A++ Nomura-san...... Weirdly enough I find I'm glad the main character is going to be a woman. It's funny because I don't care about the age, gender, orientation, species or general physical shape of a novel's POV character in the least, but somehow the fact of having to manually move a little avatar around on the screen forces me to identify with said avatar, more than I would if I were reading a book or watching a movie. It's never been oppressive to the point of bothersome, but given the choice I would pick a girl over a guy (ex. when I played Suiko3 for like half an hour it was with Chris), and given further choice... I don't think I've ever been offered "nearsighted Asian female mage" in a video game - Shion probably comes closest - but this used to be a problem when people tried to get me to join tabletop RPGs. XD I automatically set about recreating myself in stats. It's very different from creating a character to write.
The following is just for Kristin really: Final Fantasy character classes, not that this helps necessarily - jobs and tropes have imperfect overlap, and every new installment in the series remixes what came before. XD;
* Vaan "One Jump Ahead": you're not forced to specialize character tasks in FFXII, but it helps, because you conserve license points that way. Vaan is a thief, story-wise - one of FF's sturdiest character archetypes - and while you don't have to play him as a Thief the psychological effort required to buck the trend is too steep for the lazy. XD Besides if you want to make money in this game you have to steal, constantly, and Vaan is there - constantly.
For boss fights I have Vaan gambited as Thief/Time Mage, out of tradition and because it works. XD To break it down, Vaan tanks which in context actually means he dodges a lot, meaning it's useful for me to control him manually to draw the enemy away from other party members, and sometimes you want to cast status effects manually as well.
* Penelo "Hips Don't Lie": is a dancer but not a Dancer - you can't license that ability in FFXII. It may be in Revenant Wings, I don't know. She has the strongest inherent magic stats in the game, and the "nice" girl is usually made the White Mage in these things, but pretty much everyone I know hates the fact that White Mages are useless on attack unless they're also Summoners or you're in the endgame phase with spells like Holy. I mean, ANTI-FEMINISM OF IT ALL ASIDE. Granted all I did was give her a bow instead of a dinky rod, i.e. turned her into Rosa, but that's because healer + long-distance weapon is as effective as it gets.
Most people seem to be playing Penelo as Black Mage or Paladin/Fighter. BECAUSE YOU CAN.
* Balthier "Bowie": there have been other pirates in FF games but Pirate is not in and of itself a job class. For most of the game thus far I've been using Balthier as a straight-up melee artist, pole + battle harness, with Thief gambits if I'm giving Vaan a breather. Would not believe the crap I get from sororial unit, who claims that poles are for girls. How can a POLE be a girly weapon? ...Moving on. Believe it or not Balthier and Fran are slower - are actively penalized - if they use guns and bows respectively, for no reason I can see except to be a bitch. Nevertheless I'm re-classing Balthier as Gunner/Chemist for the next few areas and seeing how that goes. One for sneaking past entites, theoretically, two... because it's funny.
Balthier: *is party leader*
Balthier: *spots an enemy*
Balthier: *moves toward enemy, stops a hundred feet away*
Basch and Ashe: *run past*
Balthier: *takes languid aim*
Basch and Ashe: *enthusiastic hack/slash motions in the distance*
Enemy: *croaks*
Balthier: *shrugs, puts gun away, keeps walking*
On occasion he deigns to take a potshot. When the mobs are particularly irksome.
* Fran "Iman": is the coolly silent non-human character, I guess, like Freya or Kimahri. You almost expect her to be a Lancer (bunny hop lol), except Lancer doesn't exist in this game either. So instead she's an Archer. I'd like her to be Black Mage/Archer in lieu of White Mage/Archer, for a change, but there doesn't seem to be much point in putting MP toward anything but buffs and heals. And it feels wrong to equip her with anything but a bow. Maybe a javelin would work, come to think of it.
* Basch "Will The Real KOTOR Please Stand Up": is both a knight and a Knight (à la Steiner). As with Vaan contrariness just takes too much mental effort. XD License board consists of a buttzillion augments plus the latest sword/hammer/axe because all he ever does is whale on things.
* Ashe "Contrary To Expectations I Do Not Have A Smartass Nickname For Everyone": there has been at least one previous ruler of a small desert kingdom caught between an invading empire and a resistance movement, but... actually if you think about it Edgar is like Ashe PLUS Ondore PLUS Al-Cid. It's kind of disturbing. XD; [2]
However FFXII would definitely be cooler if Rabanastre could roll around in the desert.
Ashe has high magic stats as well, but... I can't bring myself to make her a mage. orz So I did the logical thing and made her a samurai. She juliennes things that get in her way. It looks satisfying. XD
...No really why on earth did I write all that. orz I had a whole long thing on Vagrant Story but now it'll have to wait.
[1] Not that Cloud isn't a trap when he wants to be.
[2] Edited to note: Edgar is also TWINS. Um. I guess someone in charge of FFXII really digs Edgar? THAT'S OKAY SO DO I.