The Other Side of the Fourth Wall

When I first introduced the review feature to this blog , you may recall that I had three verdicts- Recommended, Highly Recommended and Not Recommended. At the time, my intent was to create a review system that was simple and less prone to grade inflation, but now, I would like to add a new review- Conditionally Recommended. Conditionally Recommended sits somewhere between Recommended and Not Recommended, since it is the former for the viewers/players to whom it appeals, and the latter for those outside of the appeal zone. Obviously, this is a far cry from Highly Recommended, as well as Recommended, since I give out the former if I have no reservations about whether the work would appeal to people. Nevertheless, works with this rating have enough merits to avoid a Not Recommended rating. Of course, Conditionally Recommended, like the others, serves to concisely sum up my verdict on the work, and is not a substitute for reading the review and considering the strengths or weaknesses. If

Spoilers can be a sensitive topic in discussing fiction, since while many people desperately avoid spoilers, others don't mind viewing them or even seek them out. As such, it can be difficult to decide what aspects about a series one should discuss in reviews or other discussions, so I will discuss some factors to consider when deciding what constitutes a spoiler that should be avoided. Audience The first question is who the intended audience is- whether people who have already viewed the work or outsiders. In the former case, spoilers are generally acceptable, as you are generally talking with people who have already discussed the work. There are exceptions, though, such as in ongoing works, as there is no guarantee that people are fully caught up. Take One Piece as an example- on the day of a chapter's release, the fans who can read Japanese will be able to see the latest installment days in advance of those who must wait for a translation(whether fan or official), and weeks

Killing off a character is an important moment in a story, and the impact it has depends on how well it's done. Done well, it can be a shocking and emotional moment that can alter the story, but done poorly, it ends up being a cheap and emotionally manipulative stunt that reeks of wasted potential. The timing for killing off a character is one important aspect, so I will focus on the pros and cons of killing off characters near the beginning of the story, midway through it or near the end. First, the beginning of a story. Killing off a character at the very beginning of the story can help set the plot in motion, especially if the story is about the consequences of the character's death. On the other hand, it's harder to care about a character whom you've only just gotten to know, although it can be possible to retroactively flesh out that character through flashbacks. Now for the end of the story. Killing off a character near the end of the story can be a good way to de

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest often gets derided as an RPG for beginners, due to its simplistic gameplay and low difficulty. However, those weaknesses can potentially be strengths to newcomers to the genre, and the game has a unique charm of its own that can even appeal to veterans. Story I'll be blunt; FFMQ's story is lackluster even by the low standards of the SNES era. The plot basically involves the hero trying to save the crystals in order to help heal the world; for example, recovering the Water Crystal saves Aquaria from an endless winter. Most of the characters have no personality to speak of, save for Tristam being a Han Solo-esque rogue and the Old Man being rather eccentric for the wise old man archetype. The Dark King is probably the most generic and cliched RPG villain I have ever seen outside of parodies, and the fact that he is only introduced just before the final dungeon does not help matters. Combat Combat is rather simple. Like other RPGs, you can choose to figh

Games with customizable player characters often feature the ability to input character names. While easy enough to accommodate in game text, it has caused complications in games that heavily feature voice acting. I will look at a few case studies that show the various ways this causes complications when writing the script and recording the dialogue. Final Fantasy X Like the previous installments in the franchise, Final Fantasy X's protagonist has a canonical name- Tidus- but the game allows you to choose whatever name you want at the start of the game. However, unlike those previous games, Final Fantasy X is the first game in the series to feature voice acting. As a result, Tidus is almost exclusively referred to with second or third person pronouns by other characters in spoken dialogue, as well as other terms; for example, Yuna calls him "the newest guardian" in her sphere recording, one of the few times she talks about him without speaking directly to him. This continu