Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 140
February 12, 2012
Drawing is still super boring, but it honestly isn't as...
Drawing is still super boring, but it honestly isn't as bad as typical Final Fantasy grinding. Instead of running around in a circle for three hours fighting sixty random battles until your party is ready to fight that meaningless mini boss, you instead run in a circle for three hours fighting four random battles, spending a ton of time letting bad guys slowly bite away at your HP until you've got 100 sleeps for each character.
February 11, 2012
So I've started up Final Fantasy VIII. It's the...
So I've started up Final Fantasy VIII. It's the first time I've played this game for anything for than 10 minutes since 1999. I remember really, really liking most of it. As I go, I'll write a few notes and put them here, under the tag you see on this post.
Notes on the first few minutes:
The intro is super flashy, but it's also a highlight reel of moments from later in the game. It's a huge contrast from VII (I'll probably do a lot of comparisons between the two), and I feel it actually does a worse job of drawing you into the world. VII's intro is so good because it slowly zooms in on the present moment while not really revealing much. VIII's first few minutes are a mishmash of character composites staring at something while "Final Fantasy VIII" typography seizure-flashes around.
I like how the actual game starts, though. Instead of a brazen hero about to save something, you're an injured student healing from a training wound. It's immediately clear that you're in some kind of military school (albiet a fancy futuristic-style one), you're a broody punk, you have a rival who is a douche bag, and your teacher has a crush on you. You learn this all within three minutes, but nothing is actually stated. It's all shown.
There's a woman in the infirmary who says "so we meet again," even though you have no idea who she is. I never liked this part even after I found out about it all, because I've already been dropped into an unfamiliar universe with strange characters and unknown motivations. I don't even know who I am yet, and I already have to keep track of mysterious women? Again, compare that to FFVII, where the only thing you needed to know was that you were an environmental terrorist (something easy to pick up on from real life), and the planet was dying (relatable), and you didn't really trust the people around you (because you, the player, knew the characters as little as Cloud, the protagonist). In FFVIII, everyone is already familial, and you're left playing catch-up.
What's nice about it, though, is that if you're going to drop a player into a world where the protagonist is already part of a mesh of characters, you should give them some non-crisis time to walk around and get their bearings. FFVIII does this really well, as nothing critical happens in the plot for a few hours. By then, you've met everyone, wasted time getting lost in the giant school, probably already played some cards (more on that later), and acclimatizing yourself to the feel of the game.
FFVIII holds up 13 years later way better than FFVII. The character models look dated and rough, but the pre-rendered backgrounds still look super sharp. And because the characters aren't drawn all blocky like VII, it's easier to imagine them looking nicer.
February 10, 2012
"Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing."
- Cormac McCarthy. (via supersonicelectronic)
At the Bottom of Everything - Bright Eyes.
And in the...
At the Bottom of Everything - Bright Eyes.
And in the caverns of tomorrow with our flashlights and our love, We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge
Why Being Sleepy and Drunk Is Great for Creativity
Jonah Lehrer on "the benefits of not being able to pay attention." He should've named his new book this.
"The plot was conceived over a round of drinks. One afternoon in July 1932, Francis Pasqua, Daniel..."
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Instapaper was made for articles like this.
