Video Games and Anime that turn 30 this year

I’ve kind of already talked about the importance of 1996 to Video Games when I argued it’s the start of the Silver Age of Gaming.  

But to sum it up the original Pokémon Games in Japan, the Launch of the N64, Super Mario RPG, DKC3 and Kirby Superstar as a trio of swan songs for the SNES and in the world of Japanese Bishoujo Games the birth of the Visual Novel with Shizuka and Kizuato from Leaf alongside Welcome to Pia Carrot and Kakyusei and to end of the year Otaku Culture’s Princess of Mars turned John Carter in YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World. 

Remember that Commercial for Super Mario RPG about the Elderly man rambling about the plot of the game to his Grandchildren? I was 10 for most of 96 and I consider myself possibly on the younger end of people Nostalgic for this game.  So we’re now halfway to the point of that commercial becoming real.

For Anime that turns 30 this year, due to what my focus has been lately Detective Conan is what I’ve been hearing about and talking about the most. Netflix has some of the earliest important episodes streaming both Dubbed and Subbed, the two part pilot at the start of the Black Organization collection and then the first five episodes of the Rivals Collection are episodes that aired in 96.  But there are still many important 96 episodes not there like the Moonlite Sonotata Murder Case, Kogoro’s Class Reunion Murder Case, and the Mountain Bandaged Man Murder Case. They can all be watched Subbed on Crunchyroll, and they do have old English Dubs for those who know where to look. Episode 42 (or 43 of the international count) was the last to air in 96. 

It looks like that’s the only TV Anime to start in Winter 1996 I’ve even partially watched. Looking at what shows have their second or last cour during Winter of 96 could cement an argument for viewing Spring 95 as the start of the year that begins the Bronze Age of Anime. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam Wing and Wedding Peach. 

For Sailor Moon this year ends SuperS in March and then airs most of SailorStars. 

For OVAs we have Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team, the Sonic The Hedgehog OVAs which became localized as Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie, Fire Emblem which I don’t remember the details of right now, it stars Marth and I think is the first time he was voiced by who still his voices him in Smash, but that’s the Japanese VA in the English Dub he’s Spike Spencer.

I like Inma Youjo enough to break my usual resistance to mentioning Hentai in these kinds of posts.  Its second and 3rd episodes came out in 96 and the 2nd in January is possibly the one I like most,  I have a sneaking suspicion Maya’s character design from the first two episodes influenced Utena. 

In Spring we got Escaflowne, Kodocha and Slayers Next and the first Shamanic Princess OVA on a date that’s technically Summer already, the birthday of John The Baptist, I can’t find dates for its other episodes.  That exact same day is also the release date of the 2nd of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVAs which is the wildest one with its early Internet plot.

For movies we have Tenchi Muyo In Love which was good and Lupin III Dead or Alive which is probably fun but I don’t remember it as well as other lupin movies I’ve seen, Lupin’s TV Movies were better during the 90s, which we see in August with Lupin III: The Legend of The Twilight Gemini which I consider a personal favorite. The film version of Clamp’s X/1999 came out this year, but I’ve only seen the TV Anime version. 

Summer’s OVAs include the Maze OVA which is another fun hidden Gem of 90s Isekai.  But I’ve seen no TV Anime that started in Summer of 96, just continuations of prior shows. 

Fall had the Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy TV Anime once localized as Magical Project S which I do highly recommend. Another anime from Fall that’s notable but I haven’t seen yet is Martian Successor Nadesico. And Those who Hunt Elves also aired out this season. 

In the OVA department the year ends with Galaxy Fraulein Yuna and Wedding Peach DX and 08th MS Team reaching its halfway point.

For Western Weebs, this year is I’m pretty sure when Sailor Moon first aired in America after the DiC Dub initially broadcast in Canada in late 95. I’m pretty sure catching early Sunday morning broadcasts of Sailor Moon in 96 was my very first exposure to any Japanese Animation. 

Pokémon and Nintendo Fandom

One thing I feel is missing from how many people reminisce about the early days of the Pokémon fandom is how the Pokémon Fandom and the wider Nintendo fandom related to each other. 

Pokémon is the only franchise represented in the original Super Smash Bros. that wasn't old enough to even have an SNES game, a few others had no NES games but only Pokémon had no SNES games.

The way Pokémon so quickly jumped to being arguably the most mainstream popular of all of them and certainly bigger than every franchise but Mario and Zelda did garner some degree of subtle resentment from the more long-time Nintendo fans.  Not me though, I was a Nintendo loyalist for years already before I heard of Pokémon but once I discovered Pokémon I quickly thought of it as part of the family.  But I noticed that for example early Sprite Comics predicated on being epic Nintendo crossover fics never included Pokémon.  And when there were Pokémon references it sometimes felt kinda mocking.

Today Pokémon isn’t different from other Nintendo first party franchises because it’s seen as too new, Pokémon is older now then Mario and Donkey Kong were when the first Smash came out (in fact so is Smash itself) and some even younger franchises are firmly part of the Nintendo pantheon now.  But Pokémon does feel a little different still in some hard to explain way.

Nintendo loves dropping Easter Eggs to their other first party franchises in various games, but Pokémon does feel a bit left out of that tradition, both in terms of being referenced and making references. Smash seems to be the only place Pokémon coexists with the other Nintendo franchises and it’s not first party only anymore. 

It might be because Pokémon is by many thought of as a Multimedia franchise rather than a Video Game franchise first.  The whole Pokémon saying only their own names trope is an Anime invention that proper Pokémon games rarely incorporate and when they do only really for Pikachu. Except Smash of all places where Jiggleypuff also still does this (I do appreciate how Rachel Lillis name is immortalized as part of the Smash Ultimate credits).

In which case it does go both ways.  Comic Party is an Anime from OLM the same studio as the Pokémon Anime that I refer to as the Lucky Star of the early 00s, more specifically it is for OLM what Lucky Star is for KytoAnimation on a meta level. And yet Pokémon is the one OLM Anime left out of all that referencing even though it was by far their biggest franchise.  Perhaps because Nintendo didn’t want their new Crown Jewel being so directly linked to Otaku Culture. 

Pokémon is by money earned the largest IP franchise of all time, beating out even Star Wars and Batman.  So it’s perhaps the one franchise Nintendo feels they don't need to cross promote. 

On a Fandom level Pokémon’s long term ubiquity has made it now the opposite of what I observed in the early days.  Pokémon references inevitably show up in fan content related to other Nintendo and other Anime franchises.  But a Pokémon specific YouTube channel is not likely to bring up Metroid.

It’s a shame because I think there is a lot of fun you could have with fan theories based on connecting Pokémon to the rest of the Nintendo multiverse, like the parallelism I see between the Lake Guardians and the Golden Goddesses. Or how Kirby could be a Pokémon anatomically related to Clefairy and Jiggleypuff.  Heck one could go beyond just Nintendo and speculate on a relationship between Deoxys and Jenova.

And if Link isn’t out of place in Mario Kart then Pikachu certainly wouldn’t be.  If a Side Stepper can somehow drive a Go Kart so can a Krabby.

Nintendo was right to stick with Cartridges for the Fifth Generation

So many YouTube videos on gaming history still repeat the old conventional wisdom that Nintendo’s refusal to jump to CDs right away was one of the greatest blunders of all time.  And I’m tired of it.

No one denies that Nintendo 64 Games like Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time were the key groundbreaking developments of true fully 3D Gaming.  The original PlayStation and Sega Saturn never made a fully 3D game like those.  And what is more well known to non industry insiders now than it used to be is that if Nintendo had jumped to CDs that console Generation they would not have been able to make those games for it.  So many 3rd Parties wanted the CDs because they wanted FMVs and less limited audio options, but there was a trade off for that which fans and journalists didn’t understand at the time.  Nintendo then like now prioritized actual innovation in how Games are played over flashy cosmetic things that look cool in a trailer.  

And the thing about Final Fantasy VII is that the FMVs are exactly the part of the game that visually hasn’t aged well.  Most of the time I find these failed attempts at “cinematic” animation ugly and would much rather have watched those scenes play out with the charming 32 bit models.  The only one that works is the opening Cinematic, but it’s so minimalist compared to the others that when I look at CutScenes in N64 Games like Jet Force Gemini and Majora’s Mask I see no reason the same scene couldn’t have been done on it.

And another thing, the Sony PlayStation launched in 1994, it was on North American store shelves in September of 95.  Yet the great Iconic PlayStation games didn't start coming out till 1997.  It took seeing Nintendo break 3D ground in the spring of 96 for them to even start tapping their own inferior console’s full potential.

Yet still so many of those 97 PlayStation Games do nothing in the actual game play that couldn’t be done on the N64, in fact I see little that couldn’t be done on the SNES.

And it’s not like only Nintendo themselves could make great games for the N64.  Rare had a slew of Classics.  And then look at what Star Wars did on the Console, Shadows of The Empire, Rogue Squadron and Pod Racer.  George Lucas had a similar innovation over superficiality spirit to Nintendo so it makes sense his IPs were among the few licensed games on the N64.

The FFVII we got was a great game, but it could have been so much better on the N64.

By the next gen things had advanced enough so using CDs wouldn't hold Nintendo back mechanically anymore. 

Princesses can outrank Queens

 So there's a YouTube Vidoe that fully breaks down the History of the title "Prince of Wales".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_AP3Z6KvkM&pp=ygUeaGlzdG9yeSBvZiB0aGUgUHJpbmNlIG9mIFdhbGVz

And one thing I realized is this is largely the origin of the use of the English Word Prince as we know it entirely.  And one major point is when certain Welsh rulers started using the Title it was due to it's connection to the Ancient Roman Imperial title of Princeps viewed as outranking the title of King.

On the show The Tudors set well after all that history you'll notice that a King can also be called a Prince even while they are a Ruling King.  Machiavelli's book titled The Prince was always intended to be about a status equal to that of a King not inherently lesser.

Princess is the feminine form of Prince, even though we all know that we fail to think of it the same since Reissuance Germany and Italy never had any ruling Princesses, all the states called Principalities always had male rulers. 

Yet at the end of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra the Queen Cleopatra is called a Princess by her handmaiden.  This was based on a quote taken from Plutarch's biography of Marc Anthony.

When translating The Hebrew Bible into English multiple words get translated "Prince", most notably Sar, Nagyim and Nasi, but the only uses of "Princess" in the KJV are the feminine form of Sar, Sarah.  However the use of "King" in these translations is more consistent always being a form of Melek.  Yet I remember being told once that at least Assyrian Sources definitely thought of Sar as being a higher ranked title then Melek.  In fact the oldest version of "King of Kings" seems to Sar Sarrani, the Melek version came later.  And none of these Prince words are ever used in The Bible with the meaning of "Son of a King".

And yet because Princess in modern dictionaries gets defined as meaning only a Daughter of a King/Queen or Wife of a Prince, lots of Internet Nerds get all pedantic about certain Nintendo characters being called Princess when they are also clearly presented as being the ruling Monarch.  Princess Peach/Toadstool, Princess Zelda in some eras of the "Timeline", Princess Daisy.  And I think we even see it beyond Nintendo in some other Video Game Franchises like Final Fantasy.

A lot of this could be read as just making fun of Nintendo's very make it up as they go world building.  The NES Games never thought about about how the world works beyond the handful of Sprites we actually see, and then later games with more needed worldbuilding didn't want to make the female leads of these franchises subordinate to someone else.  But I also think it's a little influenced by Star Wars where Leia was still called a Princess after her Parents were dead.

But occasionally someone says this with a more serious criticism in mind, that it demeans or infantilizes these characters who are actually Queens to call them the same title we do Disney Princesses.  But I say just remember how the English word Prince originated.  I would rather not see Zelda or Peach or Daisy ever demoted to being a mere Queen.

Pokemon is a Video Game Franchise First.

I consider Detective Pikachu an Anime movie as much as a Video Game movie because I feel it's the Anime Universe's version of the Detective Pikachu story (perhaps even specifically more inline with the recent AU Anime Films) mainly because of how they did use the Pokémon Speak trope for more then just Pikachu.

But people like Folding Ideas keep saying it's not really a Video Game movie because Pokémon was a multimedia franchise from it's inception.

Pokémon only seems like that to Western Fans because we got everything at the same time in September of 1998.  In Japan Red and Green were released in February of 96 and the Anime didn't debut till April of 97, that's over a year, technically Super Mario Bros got an Anime faster.

So in Japan there were kids who'd already beaten the game and went into the Anime with expectations based on that.  The Anime was always an adaptation of the Games.

Now Pokémon is unique among Video Game franchises, especially Nintendo First Party ones, in how much true unironic success it's had in other mediums.  I think the Zelda Mangas are underrated but that's another rant, maybe for November.

But that's another thing, even if Pokémon had debuted in another medium I'd still think of anything in an intellectual property situation where post PS1 the Games still only appear on Nintendo consuls as a Video Game franchise first because Nintendo clearly owns it in some fashion.

Pokémon was in Super Smash Bros from gen 1.  That's clearly a Video Game franchise.

I want to defend Pokemon localization.

I've read a lot of stuff on the Dogasu's Backpack website.  It's a great site if you want to see all the differences between the American and Japanese versions of the early season of the Anime documented.  However I can't always agree with their opinions on the matter.

People like Dogasu are often people who were already Otaku before Pokemon came to the West, which they say as much when talking about the Polygon episode.  So my perspective is different, I'm a part of a generation who grew up on the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon, for whom Pokemon, Sailor Moon and DBZ were our first exposure to Japanimation.  Pokemon was I think the first one I knew wasn't an American Cartoon because I was a Nintendo fan first and so knew all about the N coming from Japan.

For most westerners this month is the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon not back when GO launched, though I personally was a year late, my 20th Anniversary with the franchise will be a year from now.  Literally the first episodes of the series I saw the day they first aired on Kids WB were Clarify Tales and Battle for The Badge on September 25th 1999.  So I certainly can't relate to already being aware of Pocket Monsters before Sting fought Hollywood Hogan at Starcade.

The first thing I want to point out is Nintendo made the decision to change various names for localization just as they do for all their other franchises.  In North America the Anime started a few weeks before the games were released, but I'm certain the Games localization was much longer in the making.  So like when people mock the Ninja Gym Leader's name being changed from one Japanese name to a different one, know that Nintendo not 4Kids should be given the Credit/Blame for that.  Other Nintendo franchises don't have such a vocal crowd of Japanese purists because they never made such a mark in the Anime community.

Now de Nipponizing a game who's map directly mimics Kanto can seem more inherently wrong then one named after an Italian Plumber, or a Tolkeneisque Fantasy. But lots of creatures in the Mario games had Japanese names originally.  And at the end of the day Pokemon Kanto isn't real world Kanto anymore then Westeros is England, Tokyo for example is split into two separate cities one of which is walled off.  And the Anime never cared about following the Games map to begin with, having our heroes encounter lots of non Japanese places.  So really when Purists talk like the show is literally set in Japan I can't help but roll my eyes. Thing is I'm sometimes unsure how serious Dogasu is being in the outrage they express, a good example is the Hollywood rant when discussing Mewoth's origin story episode, they can't possibly really be that offended by adding the word California?

Also one thing many people overlook is most of the Censorship decisions were made by the network/distributor, Warner Bros, not 4Kids.  They decide which episodes to skips because they had to much gun-play or fake boobs.

A lot of Dogasu's complaints are things about Anime dubs in general, that Cartoon Cipher and Explanation Point have been doing YouTube videos on. Mother's Basement also has a video defending 4Kids.

I am also unusual in that I love Pun based Humor, every single Pun associated with the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon I love.

Every time Kami is translated something other then "god" people talk about it like it's more censorship.  When it comes to the discussion of "God" in the First Movie I agree.  However I also know many actual linguists think it's problematic when Kami is nearly universally translated as "god".  Yes the word is used of the Judeo-Christian God as well as Beings analogous to the Olympians.  But it's also used of spirits more analogous to the Nymphs.  The Pokemon Anime at some points used Kami even of the first Gen's Legendary Birds, but in my opinion no Legendaries are truly godlike, even in the Polytheistic sense, till the third Generation.

Much of the crux of hating on the Pokemon Dub revolves around the first two movies.  I don't quite care about Pokemon 2000 enough talk about it.  But I have a lot to say about the first movie, since it is the only one I have seen in Japanese.

First of all, Dogasu's page on Mewtwo Strikes back actually confuses me on if they're under the common misconception that the Ambertwo sequence was originally part of the movie in Japan.  It's consistency added to the film in Japan for all TV broadcasts and Home Video releases, but as Bulbapedia makes clear it was not in the original theatrical release.  And that I'm pretty sure is why it wasn't in the American release, 4Kids clearly wasn't afraid to Dub it since they did for the Mewtwo Returns DVD.  But the fact that this sequence would consistently be in any bootleged Fansub has caused people like the late Jewario when he joined Suede and Linkara's review to think it was part of the original release.

A similar issue exists with Hypno's Naptime, the Dogasu page on that is unaware that originally in Japan it flashed back to the Beach Episode, but rebroadcasts changed it, 4Kids was given the original, they didn't change anything.

Dogasu is under the impression that in the Dub Mewtwo remembers Ambertwo.  I think this is because of the "was it all just a dream" line.  But I always saw that as being Mewtwo having vague memories of the life of the Mew he was cloned from.

Now I agree that the more nuanced dialog script of the original Japanese is better, and I would not oppose a Redub someday following it more closely.

But the thing is, the impression I got of Mewtwo's character when I first watched the film in 1999 was not that different from how people like Dogasu describe Japanese Mewtwo.  Yet these massive critics of the 4Kids Dub act like they turned Mewtwo into a mustache twirling Super Villain.  Watching a Dub with the intent of over-analyzing every difference kind of hurts the ability to just experience what a Normie sees watching it.  And in the rest of the franchise this is by no means the only time Dub haters describe a Dub character as one note simply for not being identical to what they wanted.  Marina in Legend of Thunder is described as having "no redeeming qualities" in the Dub which I find odd since she has no qualities I dislike.

Now let's talk about the anti-violence message.  I find the notion that there is some inherent hypocrisy here really aggravating, ya know Linkara's "NOT LIKE THIS" meme.  The fighting in that scene IS different from normal Pokemon battles, the same way a sanctioned refereed Boxing Match is different form two people trying to kill each other in a back alley.  The Japanese was not trying to give that specific moral at this time, but I still do not consider it out of place, it certainly doesn't take away form the all life matters message.

Now Dogasu says this distinction I just discussed is implied in something Nurse Joy says but is then thrown out by some lines Brock and Misty say.  No, what Brock and Misty say don't overrule what Joy said, they are meant to be understood in the context of what Joy explained.  Honestly at this point it's like how Atheists grasp at straws to say The Bible contradicts itself.

Now I agree the execution of this in the Dub is cheesy and ham handed.  But that's kinda how a lot of dialogue in this franchise is in any language.

However my biggest area of disagreement with Dogasu is on the score.  When I did watch Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japanese, I found the score rather bland and underwhelming.  And I'm not the only person who feels that way, here are some comments from a YouTube upload of The Birth of Mewtwo from the Dub score.

Mewtwo's theme from the Dub Score is to me an iconic Theme on par with Danny Elfman's Batman theme or John Williams Superman theme.  In later movies (from the 4th through the B&W era the scores mostly weren't changed for the Dubs) the Music does get better.  But Dogasu talks about the Japanese scores of these movies like they're on par with the Music in a Ghibli film or Star Wars, but they really aren't.  What I enjoyed most musically in Pokemon Heroes is stuff Yuki Kajiura does better in the Soundtrack for Noir.

Now the Music in the Dub of the First movie can be split into two categories.  The praise in those YouTube comments is for the Score.  While those who'd laugh at the idea of defending the Dub's music are probably mainly thinking of the Pop Soundtrack.  The Pop Soundtrack only intrudes on the film when Brother my Brother plays, mostly they're used in the Pikachu's Vacation short and the end credits.

The Britney Spears song never made it into the film at all.  Soda Pop is the only song of her's I've ever listed to that isn't a Music Video, solely because of it's association with Pokemon.  It wasn't recorded for the movie like most clearly were since it was on her album released earlier in the year, and doesn't seem to fit at all.  But I in my overreaching nerdiness like to point out that in the Games you can buy a Soda Pop from the Vending Machine on the roof of the Celadon Department store, it costs 200 Yen.  Basically I do kinda like the song and so feel compelled to justify it's association with Pokemon.

I hate Boss Rushes in Video Games.

They are always tedious to me, and a very unimaginative way to try and force in a penultimate challenge before the final Boss.

And they don't work plot wise either, the equivalent of it never happens in other mediums, unless it's like one of those Batman stories making him gauntlet through all of Arkham.  But guess what, many fans tend to find those annoying.  But it's considered acceptable in Games, so much so that some Rom Hacks will add one to a game that didn't originally have this problem.

The only thing like a Boss Rush I've ever actually liked was what Super Mario RPG: The Legend of The Seven Stars did with The Factory at the end.  Lesser forms of earlier Smithy Gang bosses now appear as just normal enemies, just as dodge-able as any others.  (I also like that this RPG doesn't have random encounters.)  And if you bought the SeeYa item from the Frog Coin merchant in Seasside Town you can run away from ones you unintentionally run into.  So only one Yaridavictch battle is truly required.

It makes sense plot wise, because they were pretty clearly Mechs of some sort to begin with (for some reason people on Mario Message Boards back in the early internet didn't get this, they couldn't even even tell Smithy's true form was a Robot).  So it makes sense to see unfinished prototypes roaming the home base.

You can avoid them if you want, but they are also good for grinding if you want.  If you want to you can battle an endless supply of Macks.

Mario RPG managed to be a good exception to a lot of my personal rules.  I mean in general Mario role playing games are the only ones I can really play.

I did a post once on how I feel it hurts the story telling when the final boss has no character presence before you fight him.  But Smithy managed to work in-spite of being that very problem.

Mario RPG is also a game where Status Effect moves at least sometimes work on bosses.  I always use Toadstool's Silence on Czar Dragon, as well as it's second form.

I've been having more fun with my Youtube Channel lately

I've made some Playlists.  A few start with videos I myself made or was involved in making.  One Playlist in Anime themed and another if PLL themed.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepgVaO0EvjNdHW9yIyaNsWlP

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepim3BzuDii9wkHFaCPLJC0M

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepj7SSj5ryPlVJMOjfoE8uc3

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepibp84PkGlVbfr_hclJ8X80

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepi_3d0aPuFShBbNsMv4pOY6

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wepiWtsxVse5kEQDThBlJGPki

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4CWxmx4wephC02uEbErCgJY17oUdfd7X

Story telling and the Video Game medium

First I want to preface this by saying I shall be using the word "Story" to encompass a number of literary terms, Story, Plot, Characterization, Character Interaction/Dialogue, character development, character exploration, world building and so on.

Video Games are the only Entertainment medium where story tends to be thought of as less important then the technical aspects.

In movies, cartoons, TV shows, radio dramas, plays, comic books, and of course novels which don't have any other elements really, the technical aspects we expect to also be done well and not lazily, but are ultimately tools in telling a story.

While with Video Games the story is ultimately just a thing that justifies the game-play.  Gamers will enjoy a game with fun game-play but a non existent or crappy story quite often.  While a game with an interesting story but uninteresting game-play will be something we find ourselves wishing had been a movie instead.

None the less, I as someone who does not consider himself a hardcore gamer really, but still more then just a casual one, care about the story quite a bit.  And clearly so do lots of Gamers for many great games have stories that have proven just as important to their fans as Star Wars or Batman.

Still many game reviews out there won't mention the story at all.  Others will say "it has a cool story" but not say anything about why it's cool.

In some ways this different attitude towards storytelling with Video Games is beneficial for story telling, in my view at least.  In the Video Game medium Remakes are not hated on, a technology based medium understands the value in retelling a story people love with now even better technical capacity to do so.  It's not even thought of as blasphemy to declare a remake the definitive version of a game.  However none of that means we fail to appreciate what the older classic games did, and we often enjoy new games done in a retro style.

In other mediums plenty of remakes have surpassed their originals, but society prefers to not acknowledge this by simply forgetting the earlier version even existed.

Likewise with Sequels, Sequels being thought of as great movies is so rare only like 5 examples are even allowed in the mainstream. And Third installments seem universally reviled whether it makes sense to me or not.  But in Video game serieses the 3rd installment is frequently the most highly revered, SMB3, ALttP, Mario Galaxy was the 3rd fully 3D Mario.  Super Castlevania, Super Metroid, and for America Final Fantasy III on the SNES.

I'm often really interested in even the most paper thin stories.  Like the Mario games which besides the NSMB games always have something more to them then just the Princess being Kidnapped, though the way the games are made fun of would have you thinking otherwise.

For some over emphasizing the story can hurt a Game when it causes the game-play to be more linear then they might prefer.  To many this has been the growing problem with the 3D Zeldas, and even sometimes Final Fantasy.  The way to solve this is by allowing the story to have a variety of ways it can play out.  (It sounds like this may be what Wii U Zelda is going for.)  Or perhaps to have multiple stories going on the player can chose to get involved in in whatever order they like, Majora's Mask was like that to a degree.

And it hurts any ability to truly try and make the player character a stand in for yourself if certain aspects of their personality are defined by the set story. I understand this concern, but I don't truly desire to play as myself, I think I'd make a boring a protagonist so for me it's a none issue.

RPGs tend to be the most story heavy games.  Final Fantasy VI (III on the US SNES release) is the Final Fantasy who's story most interests me.  But I can't handle the Gameplay, besides the general reasons why RPGs can be the hardest for a not so hardcore gamer to play (I have beaten the original FF and Mystic Quest, and a few Mario RPGs, and got pretty far in FF II on Dawn of Souls before I think I screwed myself at the Dreadnought), I can't get used to the more complicated battle system, when I play an RPG I want just simple turn based battling.

Not really much of a point to this post, just wanting to share some thoughts.  Many future posts I make are going to be Video Game themed.  Though PLL and DCCU also remain on my mind.

Femme Fatales and female villiany

There are people who view the Femme Fatale archetype as inherently sexist.  At the same time when dealing with some especially older literature the Femme Fatales and other female villains are often the female characters that seem more real and relate-able (especially to female readers/viewers) since they alone are allowed to break traditional restrictions on what women can be.  Add to that other reasons people often enjoy villains more, and they can be pretty cool.

With the Femme Fatale or The Vamp, I'm more concerned by the fact that that kind of villain never truly wins (in anything remotely mainstream).  I know the bad guy winning is technically rare in general, but plenty of examples of it do exist.  However every-time a Femme Fatale actually succeeds in seducing and ruining/destroying the "hero" of the story, it's always because he was a weak or horribly flawed character to begin with, in movies like Body Chemistry.

Often they think they're being feminist by doing it that way. (though the same scenario plays out in plenty of traditional works, like Samson, Samson was a morally weak hero.  Of course Samson I believe was real so perhaps I shouldn't mention him when discussing fiction at all, but his story is told in a literary fashion). Sending the message that the man shouldn't really be allowed to blame the woman for his moral failings, and I understand that.  Problem is plenty of female characters have been allowed to use being manipulated by a man as a valid excuse for their mistakes, and that too is thought of as a feminist rout to take.

And with that, every time a "Real Man" deals with a Femme Fatale he either resists, or if he has sex with her manages to turn the tables, it sends a message that women can't influence other people as well as men can.

The closest things I know of to exceptions to that are some of the Femme Fatales I really enjoy in French Pulp Fiction of the 19th Century, from Authors like Pal Feval and Ponson Du Terril.  But even those are iffy.

Leaving that issue aside, I would also like to see more Heroic Femme Fatales.

There are lots of examples of a good female character briefly attempting to use her feminine wiles, but it's usually as nothing more then a momentary distraction (if it works at all) and still ultimately the Heroine just uses brute force to overcome her adversary (and recently even female villains using them turns out that way, like Mystique through out the X-Men films).

And again many may think they're being feminist doing it that way, thinking they're deconstructing or subverting the "problematic" Femme Fatale trope.  But in fact the message it sends is that what society has long viewed as the masculine way to achieve a goal (brute force) is more valid.

But there is also the socially conservative reasoning, that a heroic woman could be smart enough to realize that's a weapon at her disposal but is not truly virtuous if she's actually any good at it.

A very notable exception to this is an old Pulp Character known as The Domino Lady, she was a very effective Heroic Femme Fatale, and I'm glad she's making a come back in New Pulp circles.

And as a Christian I'll point out that one of the Heroines of The Bible uses Sex to take out an Enemy of Israel.  Jael in the Book of Judges.  The poetic way it's described may make it difficult in English for some to notice, but in the Hebrew the sexual nature of that story is clear.  She has sex with him when she "covers" him, if it meant covering him with a blanket he wouldn't become uncovered when she gets him something to drink.  And similarly in the Apocrypha is Judith.

I also lament the fact that we aren't allowed to have Female Villians who are brains but not brawn anymore.  Because people are afraid of sending the message that fighting is only for men.  Yet plenty of male villains are still allowed to be super intelligent schemers who have others do their dirty work for them.  It seems many attempts to correct mistakes of the past only result in what limits a female character being changed.

I also feel we Feminists should be less concerned about the truly evil Female villains.  And more concerned when a male author seem to be unwilling to make a woman truly Evil.  And that can happen whether or not the female villain in question uses Femme Fatale tactics.  It is that kind of idealization of femininity that causes men to put women on Pedastools.  Now I do love Redemption stories, I'm a Christian after all, but when a writer seems to consistently have female villains less evil then the males it's a frustrating pattern.  It does not cause me to dislike the stories, but the pattern I feel should be noted.  Now works like many Magical Girls shows where all villains male or female get redeemed in the end I'm all for as a universalist.

This is the only area where Lewis is better then Tolkien, he was more willing to have Female villains like the White Witch and the Green Witch.  With Narnia anyway, in The Hideous Strength Mis Hardcastle, the only woman in NICE is also implied to be possibly not quite as evil as everyone else.  But at least she's allowed to die without redeeming herself, my greater problem is that she is the only gay character Lewis ever wrote, and it's purely an example of her evilness rather then an attempted source of sympathy.

The most evil Feminine creatures Tolkien wrote were beings not even remotely human, like Ungoliant and the other Spiders descended from her.  A lot of people feel Tolkien was very hard on the Queens of Numenor, but they were misguided if anything, not Evil.

Paul Feval, as much as I've praised his handling of female characters elsewhere, is in The Blackcoats possibly seemingly guilty of this.  Marguerite, the only woman on the High Council of the Habits Noirs, is also the only one given any depth or sympathy (even The Colonel's love for his Granddaughter is described as being like the love one has for a pet).  However she is also the only one given an origin story at all, in Heart of Steel, and in that early period is where all the humanity exists, once fully inducted into the High Council she seems as demonic as all the others.  Plenty of lower level Blackcoats are sympathetic, like Ehcolaot and Similor, and also the Marchef, but the High Council members are depicted as pure archetypes of evil.

The Legend of Zelda has the same problem as Tolkien.  Lots of completely inhuman monsters may have feminine names.  But the only two major attempts at having a female main antagonist are Cia in Hyrule Warriors and Princess Hilda in A Link Between Worlds, one  redeems herself in the end, and the other not exactly but she still clearly seems forgiven.  Both were pawns of a greater evil to begin with.  In the case of Cia she was split between her dark and light halves into two separate people, Cia and Lana, but the Dark Half is able to be sympathetic in the end while Lana shows no capacity for evilness at all, it makes no logical sense.

The Zelda franchise has had male villains play out somewhat similarly.  But the greater evil is always Male (not always Ganon, some games do have no Ganon) and never Female.

Hilda was from the start a parallel Zelda so you may think "of course she was never really going to be Evil".  But if we have a Dark Link , so why can't we have a Dark Zelda?

There is however a notorious fan-made Zelda game, an RPG called The Legend of Zelda: The Fallen Sage.  Where the title character, Sulkaris, is female and is allowed to be as Evil as Ganon, no redemption in the end.  In fact Sulkaris is the Morgoth of that version of the Zelda mythos.

Lovecraftian Pokemon

Because of the Anime people have a notion in their heads that all Pokemon are basically good, even the ones that seem to be designed to look like The Devil or Demons.  They can be chaotic and destructive at time but always inevitably calmed down, and the big fights the Legendies often have with each other are always misunderstandings.

But that isn't always how it is in the Games, the Games can be pretty dark beneath the surface.  And I've come to notice lately a lot of Lovecraftian influence.

Because of his status as a Creator Deity, Arceus tends to get refereed to as the God, in a Monotheistic Judeo-Christian sense, of the Pokemon world.   And thus comparable to Eru Iluvatar.  But while he's a creator of sorts he's not outside space and time, he's still a Finite being rather then Infinite.  So at best more like a Platonic or Gnostic Demiurge.

In fact he is described as falling asleep right after creating the world.  Making him a lot like Lovecraft's Azathoth.  Who was in turn molded after Lord Dunsany's Mana-Yood-Shushai from The Gods of Pegena.

Meanwhile Giratina who was banished into the Distortion dimension outside our tangible universe, is a lot like Yog-Sothoth.  While Dialga and Palkia rule Time and Space.

While the Fourth Generation Legendary Pokemon may be the Outer Gods, the Third Generation ones seem like the Great Old Ones.  Groudon and Kyogre are primordial beasts of the Earth and Sea constantly at war with each other.  They have been dormant for eons and their awakening would likely destroy all life on the Planet.

Regardless of how destructive their awakening would be Team Magma is obsessed with awakening Groudon and Team Aqua is obsessed with awakening Kyogre.  They aren't Pokemon Mafia like Team Rocket or Pokemon P.E.T.A. like Team Plasma, they are cults very much like Lovecraftian cults.

Rayquazza however, who is supposed to live in the Ozone layer, possibly serves the role of Nodens, he alone is able to stop the conflict between Groudon and Kyogre.  However unlike Nodens he doesn't seem like Odin or Orome, he is a very primal force of nature himself.

One could also be suspicious of Deoxys, an Alien Virus from the depths of Space.  I've often felt inclined to compare Deoxys to Jenova of Final Fantasy VII.

So really a Nyarlathotep figure is all the Pokemon universe lacks.

And then if you decide to consider the Glitch Pokemon canon, all bets are off.

Let's give Wand of Gamelon it's due

I've never played the Zelda or Mario CDi Games, I can tell however from the game-play footage that I would hate trying to.  Fact is the gaming industry wasn't ready yet for the transition to CD rather then cartridge based games.

Still it fascinates me that two of these three games were the first to ever have Zelda be playable.  Canonical Nintendo games wouldn't have her playable in an actual Zelda game till Hyrule Warriors, though she'd been becoming more then just a Damsel in Distress since A Link to The Past.

The animated cut scenes are lame and awkwardly done.  They of course have a certain Charm because of their Narm.  But in all seriousness I do rather like Zelda's characterization in Wand of Gamelon.  She's not as goofy as the others, as if they were trying to give her an Only Sane Man quality.  And interestingly Link in Faces of Evil never had a moment as Bad@$$ as this scene.

She looks pretty cool the way she holds that sword there.

WoG also has a slightly more developed plot.  FoE everything you need to know is really in just the beginning and ending scenes, and one other in-between where Ganon does the actual kidnapping of Zelda.  WoG has interesting developments with Duke Onkled and Alma.

WoG I feel is an interesting premise for a game, that could have been executed much better.  I'm thinking since it's more popular then ever for fans online to make Hack/Homebrew video games maybe someone should try remaking this game's story using Zelda II or ALttP sprites and game-play mechanics.  Maybe incorporate the original cut scenes, or maybe not.  Maybe just muting Link would make a big difference.