For various reasons, such as blogger's increasingly bad layout and not wanting to support the growing google monopoly too much, I have decided to move my blog to the wordpress platform. The link is here :
All my previous posts have been transferred over and can now be found on the wordpress blog, as will all future posts, and this page will probably not updated in the future.
My Swedish language blog Skrivet Mot Vinden has also moved over.to wordpress, you can find it here
The Longest Journey is a point-and-click adventure game, developed by the Norwegian studio Funcom and first released in 1999.
It’s
story centers on April Ryan, an art student in the American city of
Newport, a fictional city in the 23rd century. It is a high-tech
corporate-run Cyberpunk world. April has some strange experiences, which
leads her to discover that this is actually only one half of the world.
Many millennia ago, the world was split between the forces of science
and magic to keep humanity from descending into chaos. It created a
world of science and technology named Stark and a world of magic named
Arcadia. Arcadia is a medieval fantasy world. A force called the balance
keeps the two worlds in order, but it is breaking down, under threat
from a group called the vanguard that wants to tear down the division.
April has the rare ability to shift between the two worlds, and it is
her task to restore the balance.
This story has its twists and
turns, but it is actually quite simple at heart. It is a standard
fantasy story of the hero who has to fulfil the prophecies, defeat the
forces of evil and save the world. There are some suggestions,
particularly at the end, that this good vs. evil story is not all there
is to this world, but this game at least doesn’t really explore it.
What
makes this story work and not come across as superficial is the
excellent character and dialogue writing and worldbuilding. The
characters are so distinctly written and memorable. The game has plenty
of humour but there is also serious substance to the characters and
world.Ragnar Tørnquist was the writer of this game, and it is a work of art.
The game does take time to develop its world and plot in a truly extensive manner. The Longest Journey
might be named after a Dag Hammarskjöld quote, but it also lives up to
its title by being an unusually long game, especially by adventure game
standards. I reckon it took me around 16-18 hours to play, about twice
the length of most adventure games. And the writing actually is able to
support a game of its size.
April herself is foremost among the
game’s great characters. She is a great protagonist. She is a quirky and
snarky young adult whose kindness, bravery and intelligence leads her
to become a saviour of the two worlds. She is loveable and funny in a
way that makes an ideal companion for the player to explore the world of
The Longest Journey.
The supporting characters are
similarly well-written. Perhaps the chief joy of the game is that they
help April and are helped by her in return in ways that endear you to
them and make the relationships quite touching. The friendship between
April and her sidekick the talking bird Crow is perhaps the highlight,
but the people she meets on the steps of her journey are all great. You
have a constant sense of meeting and helping well-developed characters
and even cultures on your journey in a way that makes playing The Longest Journeyquite fulfilling.
The
dialogues in this game are admittedly often very long, this is one of
the talkiest adventure games ever made. And there are entire characters
who have almost zero to do with the plot you can have long conversations
with. Yet the dialogues are so well-written, creating distinctive
characters and making the world feel alive.
It helps that the
voice acting in the english version is excellent. Practically all the
voices are great, butspecial praise must go to Sarah Hamilton as April.
April is in the game the whole way through, having things to say about
everything you can click on and long dialogues with just about every
character, and this is a long game. She therefore has an unusually large
amount of dialogue compared to not just other video game characters but
perhaps even fiction in general.And Hamilton’s performance is excellent
all the way through this long and difficult role, hitting all the
different emotional registers April goes through.
In large due to
the excellent character writing, the worlds in this game feel
believable. They are also well-written and developed in other ways.
Stark is based on the cyberpunk’s genre critical depiction of a world of
high technology turned to the sinister ends ofcapitalism and big
corporations. The Longest Journeytakes up and continues that
criticism with its sharp satire of technological capitalism. This satire
still rings true. A very early-game highlight is the computer in the
hallway in Alice’s boarding house that tries to get you to buy voice
control for it when it already has voice control installed, but “only
for sales purposes”. This satire takes a darker turn later in the game.
There is depiction of severe class differences and poverty, with people
ending up having to sell themselves into virtual slavery on space
colonies. The villains fittingly are in Stark organized into a complex
mix of new age religion and multinational corporation.
Yet Stark
feels real in a way that many Cyberpunk dystopias don’t. It helps that
it is not fully a dystopia, there is still happiness in the world even
if you are not part of the rich elite. You start the game in a small but
not pod-sized apartment, and there are still parks and art schools and
cafés around. It doesn’t feel tonally inconsistent with the rest of
Stark and Newport, it feels like a natural continuation of our world
where there are both areas of misery and relative happiness, even when
you are not rich.
Arcadia is no less well-developed. You get to
explore Arcadia quite thoroughly, not just encountering different
characters but different cultures as well. There are a race of
earthdiggers, one who experiences past, present and future
simultaneously, stick people, merpeople and flying lizard people. April
is a curious and tolerant person, who is able to listen to and
understand different perspectives and become a part of all these
different cultures. It is very rewarding world to explore that feels
very alive. The player gets to develop a close connection to most of
these cultures, even exploring their stories and myths. It develops into
a theme of tolerance and understanding between different cultures, and
an important goal is to create peace between two different people at
war, that were once one people.
The art really helps in making the
game’s world feel so interesting. Graphically the game is 3d sprites
moving across 2d environments. The 3d sprites are admittedly not good at
all. The character design is okay but the execution in the actual game
engine looks just ugly and is awkwardly animated.
The 2d
backgrounds, however, are still impressive and look just gorgeous to
look at. The detailed and well-executed art helps to make the world feel
so immersive. The music is relatively sparse, but quite effective and
haunting.
Today, there are also technical issues that comes with
running the game on modern systems. The GOG version doesn’t run that
well. but amazingly SCUMMVM supports it and makes it run like a charm,
in widescreen too.
The point-and-click gameplay is flawed but
actually quite good. The logic of what you have to do mostly makes sense
and the challenges feel satisfying to solve. There are only about 3-5
really hard or complicated puzzles, and I would only name one as truly
illogical (the infamous rubber ducky puzzle). There is some pixel
hunting nonsense, you can press X to bring up symbols that highlights
all exits on the screen but nothing similar exists for ordinary
interactable objects. But it is not that bad, what you need to find is
usually easy to find if you are dilligent in your exploring. It helps
that this game is Lucasarts-style (the game actually references Guybrush
Threepwood) in the sense you can’t die or end up with a dead end. Of
course that means scenes where you are supposed to be under direct
physical threat from another character end up being not threatening at
all, but that’s a worthy trade for not punishing the player with death.
The
great writing also helps motivate the gameplay, the characters and
environment are so likeable that you you want to explore and help
people. This is what makes The Longest Journeysuch a great adventure game, one of the best of its kind.
(Note:this review was first written and published on my tumblr blog shortly after Christopher Plummer's passing away in February, which is why I write about it as a recent event)
The passing of Christopher Plummer has made think about Murder by
Decree from 1979 again, and how good a film it is.
The film is one of
many “Sherlock Holmes hunts Jack The Ripper” stories that have
been made. The pairing is of course almost irresistible for writers.
The Ripper murders are perhaps the most famous unsolved crimes in history,
and they took place in London during a time period when Holmes, the
greatest fictional detective of all, was active as a detective. And
if you are playing the great game, the Ripper murders seem to pose a
contradiction that call for interesting answers. Holmes must have
known about the murders. And thus if he investigated them, why was no
solution made public? Did Holmes fail to find the killer? And if
Holmes didn’t investigate the murders, why did he not?
This is actually the
second film made about Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper, after “A Study
in Terror” from 1965, which also had Frank Finlay as Lestrade and
Anthony Quayle in a supporting part. But the 1965 film is mediocre,
without any glaring flaws but not any outstanding virtues either.
Whereas “Murder by
Decree” is one of the best Holmes films ever made in my opinion.
One of the main reasons is Christopher Plummer as Holmes.
He portrays an Holmes that is not only highly intelligent, but also
emotional, deeply moved by the plight of the women that is
victimized by the serial killings and the conspiracy behind them. He
even cries in one scene.
This is not as
contrary to canon as people would have you believe. The Holmes of the
canon is more empathetic and emotional than later adaptations like
BBC Sherlock and the Guy Ritche films would lead you to believe.
Admittedly, the Holmes in the canon is not as outwardly emotional as
the Holmes in this film is, but this is also presented as
extraordinary events for him.
And Plummer makes it
all work via his amazing acting, every emotion rings true. The film
ends with a long monologue from Holmes explaining the case and the
strength of the acting makes it riveting viewing. He won an award for
this role, (the Genie award, which was awarded to Canadian films) and
you can see why.
James Mason as
Doctor Watson is really good too. He is way too old for the role (as
is Plummer to be fair, most fan chronologies would put Holmes and
Watson in their mid 30s in 1888,), but his acting makes any
viewer willing to forgive that. Doctor Watson is depicted as
intelligent and capable despite his age, and while Watson is a bit
underused (his medical knowledge doesn’t come into play), he is a
very good Watson.
The friendship
between Holmes and Watson is very nicely depicted in this film, there
is a believable chemistry between them (the friendship and chemistry
between Holmes and Watson is an underrated part of any successful
Holmes adaptation). The famous pea-squashing scene is especially
well-done, illustrating the different personalities between the two
men.
The supporting cast
is great too, with outright luxury casting of great actors in small
roles. Geneviene Bujold as Annie Crook, a victim of the conspiracy,
is in basically only one scene, but it is a great performance in a
very emotionally affecting scene. She also won a Genie Award for her
role, deservedly so. Susan Clark is also moving as real life Ripper
victim Mary Jane Kelly. Anthony Quayle as Sir Charles Warren and John
Gielgud as Lord Salisbury both play historical figures, but they are
depicted as villains in this film and work well as such, as does
David Hemmings in the fictional Inspector Foxborough.
The most problematic
part of the cast is Robert Lees (another
historical person), but that is due to the script rather than the
acting.Donald Sutherland plays him very well and makes these scenes watchable. But
the subplot of his visions of the murders don’t really lead
anywhere in the film. There is also a very non-canonical bit where
Holmes seems to believe Lees psychic visions.
The film’s
solution of the Ripper murders is based on the entirely discredited
masonic-royal conspiracy theory that was popular in the 70s. It was
part of the general popularity for conspiracy theories in the Western
world during that decade, due to the mistrust of authority caused by
real-life events like Watergate and The Pentagon Papers, which
uncovered real, verifiable conspiracies in politics.
It was also a
popular subject in film too, and while Murder by Decree has an
historical setting, thematically it has a lot in common with other
late 70s conspiracy thriller movies like “Marathon Man”, “Three
days of the Condor”, “The China Syndrome” and “Capricorn one”
So the royal-masonic
theory spoke to the popular mood. Back then, the theory actually
rekindled interest in Jack The Ripper, but nowadays doesn’t even
seem to be popular among the conspiracy theorist crowd. The
foundational texts of the theory like Stephen Knight’s once
bestselling book seem all to be out of print, which says something
for the fall in popularity of the theory, when far more ludicrous
books like “Chariots of the Gods” and “Holy Blood, Holy grail”
have remained in print for decades.
The film’s
reliance on an outdated conspiracy theory isn’t really a problem in
my opinion. The royal/masonic conspiracy makes for a good story (in
fact that is part of the appeal of conspiracy theories, they make for
more exciting stories than the dry facts often do, and the believer
gets to participate in the drama in the heroic role of the
truth-teller for their belief). And the film makes effective
dramatic use of the theory. The script may be flawed, but is often
genuinely well-written with some great dialogue. “We’ve unmasked
madmen, Watson, wielding scepters. Reason run riot. Justice howling
at the moon. “
The story,
regardless of any factual inaccuracy, is rich with themes of the
cruelties the rich and powerful’s perpetrate against the
dispossessed poor and working class. There is the arch-victorian
hypocrisy of the upper class men who condemn women who work as
prostitutes while committing sexual infidelities and murders
themselves. And in this film, literally murders these women to cover
up the sexual indiscretions of a prince.
Holmes’s
final
speech is not just a presentation of the facts he discovered, but a
moral condemnation of the men who perpetrated it. As Holmes so
eloquently puts it, directly to the prime minister: “You create
allegiance above your sworn allegiance to protect humanity. You will not
feel for them, or acknowledge their pain. There lies the
madness.“ The empathy that Holmes feels for the victims is what
makes him a hero, and the callousness of the powerful conspirators to
the poor people they consider expendable is what makes them “madmen
wielding scepters”.
I don’t know how
seriously the filmmakers took the conspiracy theory at the root of
the film. While the film treats it seriously, it also fictionalizes
some historical personalities, which possibly indicates the film is
not intended to be a representation of the facts. The William Gull
character is named Spivey for example. Either way, regardless of any
intentions you can easily treat this film as pure fiction and the
conspiracy as allegory for the evils of the Victorian British class
system.
The film is carried
by the actors and emotional story, but it is a well-made film in
other aspects. The direction by Bob Clark, the music by Paul Zaza and
Carl Zittrer and the editing by Stan Cole all won Genie awards as
well. And it is all very good, with the film-making telling the story
effectively, most of the time without drawing attention to
themselves, with the exception of a few more expressionistic
sequences to heighten emotion. The production design is great, and
the recreation of Victorian London in studio sets looks great.
This film is of
course not perfect and if you want to poke fun at it, there are lots
of things you can point out. The plot is based on a discredited
conspiracy theory, the entire Robert Lees subplot, the actor playing
Watson is far too old or even minor outlandish details like Holmes
committing the Victorian fashion faux-pax of wearing a deerstalker to
the opera. But none of that matters, because it gets the important
part of a film right: telling an emotionally affecting and
thematically interesting story well. Among theatrically released
films, it is second in my estimation only to “The Private Life of
Sherlock Holmes” on my list of the best movies ever made about the
great detective.
Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are two JRPGs, released in 2001-03 for the Gameboy advance. I'm going to review both in one post, as they tell one big story in two parts. They are truly a duology. There was also a sequel, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, for the Nintendo DS but we are not going to review that game right now.
The plot seems very cliched at first. It takes place on the fantasy world of Weyard, which is based around the classical four elements of earth, fire, water and wind. There are magic users called "adepts", which have a special affinity for a certain element and have powers based around that element (for example, wind adepts have wind based powers). In the ancient past there existed a power which could be used to manipulate the four elements, called alchemy. The people of Weyard however misused that great power for war and it was sealed away. In the present, a group of villains try to recover the power of alchemy and our heroes try to stop them.
This basic plot is of course more or less the same as that of "Secret of Mana" or "Final Fantasy VI". "Bad guys are after magical powers and want to use them for evil, the heroes must stop them" But the cliches are actually subverted and by the second part of the story, we get a new perspective on this plot that changes everything. The villains turn out to have a good reason to recover the power of alchemy, though their methods in doing so are ruthless. You even get to play as one of the antagonists of the first part. This twist is fun and gives some welcome complexity to the story. It is still essentially children's fiction, but one that respects its audience.
The world you get to explore across the two games is fairly large, but doesn't feel repetitive. There is a large amount of variety in environments, towns, people, equipment, weapons, enemies and other creatures to give it life.
The world-building is well-done and works for this kind of story, feeling developed enough to give variety and some complexity to the world. An interesting aspect of the worldbuilding is that every culture has it's own cuisine, and when exploring towns, you can look into people's kitchens and see what they are cooking. The text descriptions of the food are well-written and funny.
It is a large world and a lengthy, epic story. The length of the story and size
of the world is probably the main reason for the game being released in
two parts, essentially splitting the large world across two cartridges. It makes the two games, taken together, capable of giving an experience equal in scope to RPGs released for home consoles.
The basic gameplay is traditional to the core for JRPGs, with turn-based battles and random enemy encounters. It would not have felt out of place on the Super Nintendo ten years earlier. What's new with Golden Sun is that it mixes traditional RPG elements with elements inspired by both the Zelda and Pokemon series.
A central part of the games are the djinn, pokemonesque creatures which you find in the overworld, the towns and the dungeons. The djinn can be set to a character, which changes their stats and often their class. The djinn also determines what kind of magic the character can use. The djinn all have their own individual move, which then can be used in battle by the character. It is usually some kind of powerful, element-based attack. When used, the djinn go into standby, and a character has to use up a turn to set them again. But standby djinn can be used to summon powerful spirits, who unleash powerful attacks, which are an immense help in battle. All summons require a certain number of standby djinn: the more djinn, the more powerful the summon. When used in a summon, the djinn goes into standby mode; and can't be used for anything for a certain number of turns, before they automatically, and without wasting a turn, set themselves to the character again.
The world is based on the four elements; and both the djinn and the characters all have their own element. Enemies are weak to attacks of the opposing element to their own and strong against their own element. It is easiest to simply match up djinn of one element with a character of the same element. But one can mix djinn of different elements to give your character a different class; something that is in fact necessary to get certain kinds of magic (called psynergy in this game).
I think this is simply a well-made combat system; which combines influences from Final Fantasy and Pokemon to create something new. It is a system that is as simple and as complex as you want it to be; and one that is simply fun to use in battle. The complexity of the system rarely comes into play outside of boss
fights, but these however require some strategy to beat and it is most
rewarding. The basic gameplay with its turn-based battles is otherwise generic, but
this synthesis of varied influences makes it into something original.
One of the few problems with this game is that finding the overworld djinn is almost impossible without a walkthrough. You have to find the specific area of the map, where you will encounter them randomly.
There are also Zelda-like elements in the game's dungeons. They are filled with puzzles. These puzzles are quite clever and one of the best parts of the games. They make the dungeons more engaging, than the traditional RPG dungeons, which focus solely on defeating enemies. Here you get to use your brain more. Often they involve using your psynergy powers outside of battle, which is a nice touch. There are also puzzles outside the dungeons, most often with a Djinn as a reward.
The only problem i have with the basic gameplay is that in battle, when a character is set to attack an enemy and that enemy dies from the actions of the other characters before the character can attack, he or she defends instead of attacking another enemy. Turns are often wasted that way.This was fixed for Dark Dawn.
The presentation is very well-made, especially for the handheld system it was on. Graphics are good, it has a pleasant cartoony look again reminiscient of SNES era RPGs. The music was created by the composer for the Tales series, Motoi Sakuraba. The Gameboy Advance soundchip was often criticized as inadquate, but the music in this game takes full advantage of its capabilities and is very good.
And that is the general strength of the two GBA Golden Sun games. It was released for a handheld system, but are both such well-made RPGs that taken together truly feel epic in scope and variety and the overall experience is fully on the same plane as many of the RPGs I played for home consoles.So many RPGs barely have any creativity to create a fulfilling experience for one game, the Golden Sun games had so much that they had to make two of them.
