Unexplained Mysteries of Games

[Vexorg]

In Final Fantasy, how the heck do they get a house to fit into a treasure chest? For that matter, how the heck do my guys manage to carry six of the things without any problem? And why do they just use the things once and throw 'em away?

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

**SPOILERS**
**SPOILERS**
**SPOILERS**

Up next is the mysterious metamorphosis of the Mega Man X character Zero.

Back in the MMX series of games he looks like:


But 100 years after the end of the MMX series he looks like:

It's such a radical change that I couldn't believe he was the same guy the first time I played Mega Man Zero. Over time, I came to the conclusion that he may have had a body change. He got reconstructed in MMX2, which changed his appearance, so it's possible.

But then, Capcom tries to convince us that he looked like a bishi from the beginning:

I am fine with him having a body change. But trying to pass the new design as the original design is just baffling to me. What a bunch of BS, Capcom.

[Ruldra]

The original design is so badass, why they decided to change it is beyond me. He looks like a kid now.

[moozooh]

Hell, he also behaves like one! In early games Zero was cool and manly, starting with MMZ he became an emo boi. Mavericks have probably secretly augmented his original body with a bucketload of pussies while he was in stasis.

Then again, I lost any faith in Capcom as soon as I realized how long they'd been milking the franchise. The notion of milking in Yagawa games almost seems humane in comparison. They should just let it die already.

[Specineff]

Yeah, because realistic boots, braces and helmets are no match for armor that is pretty much the equivalent of wearing half a bathtub on your feet, and funnels on your arms. Robots in the streets are almost rioting about the unrealistic representation of their kind, right now.

Srsly, guys. It's games we are talking about. It's not like power pellets let you eat (and crap out) ghosts, or that you can stand on a crocodile's head and remain unharmed as long as their mouth is closed.

[Drum]

Since when TPP slashers are supposed to make any sense? Have you played Devil May Cry?

Have you played God of War? I don't think there's any other game so stupid that takes itself so painfully seriously (other than maybe Kingdom Hearts). It should not be mentioned alongside stuff like Devil May Cry - that is quite aware of how hokey and loony it is.
If GoW was a music video, it would be this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6KXgjLqSTg

Also: The Megaman Zero design is a huge improvement.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Have you played God of War? I don't think there's any other game so stupid that takes itself so painfully seriously (other than maybe Kingdom Hearts). It should not be mentioned alongside stuff like Devil May Cry - that is quite aware of how hokey and loony it is.
If GoW was a music video, it would be this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6KXgjLqSTg

That's kinda the point, although it's not even half as stupid and taking itself as seriously at the same time as the film Se7en and the likes. Videogames aren't yet quite up there, although those you play as a soldier tend to come close.
Nevertheless, I fail to see what does it have to do with the double jump. Kratos is a dude with superpowers and double jump is one of them. I find receiving such a power from the gods as a gift somehow more fitting than the usual Stan Lee radiation nonsense. Now that's ridiculous.

The plot in about every J-RPG.

If you don't understand Suikoden's plot, it's a mystery indeed.

[dpful]

I wish Michael jackson and crocodile Dundee would have returned for Sengoku 2.

[Dragoforce]

The plot in about every J-RPG.

If you don't understand Suikoden's plot, it's a mystery indeed.

I fail to understand why a gang of squirrels are risking their life for me.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I fail to understand why a gang of squirrels are risking their life for me.

Because you possess the charisma of a leader. They trust you, and you indeed take care of them, heal and revive them and - last but not least - make them level up. Being the only one 69lvl squirrel in the whole world is a goal not quite unlike goals people have in real life.

[Dragoforce]

Ok, that sounds plausible. But why do they fly away from me when I approach them at my castle?

[Obiwanshinobi]

They do? I don't recall such a behaviour, but then it's been quite a few long jRPGs for me since the last time I played any Suikoden game...

[Ruldra]

Yeah, because realistic boots, braces and helmets are no match for armor that is pretty much the equivalent of wearing half a bathtub on your feet, and funnels on your arms. Robots in the streets are almost rioting about the unrealistic representation of their kind, right now.

Srsly, guys. It's games we are talking about. It's not like power pellets let you eat (and crap out) ghosts, or that you can stand on a crocodile's head and remain unharmed as long as their mouth is closed.

No one said a single word about it being realistic or not.

[Specineff]

Then why are we using realistic rules to criticize them?

[Ed Oscuro]

Spec said what I was thinking. Artists who can't draw feet, serious business.

I sympathize with fans who feel their intelligence is insulted when game companies (not that this hasn't ever happened elsewhere...see comics again) are all "hey that stuff you know happened...IT DIDN'T"

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

I thought for a long time that the original Zero was a female, so when the "original Zero" (redesigned) appeared, I couldn't help but notice that the bewbs were gone. I thought, "damn those japs turned Zero into a loli too. The bewbs so small now they had to cover 'em with band-aids." Some people might argue that the yellow lines on his chest are pockets, but I can't imagine why Zero would wear a shirt. Though, what I really can't get over is that they saw fit to replace his buster with a gun.

[gct]

I thought Zero was a chickbot too, it didn't really help that I was playing Rockman X and couldn't read a lick of Japanese.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Spec said what I was thinking. Artists who can't draw feet, serious business.

I sympathize with fans who feel their intelligence is insulted when game companies (not that this hasn't ever happened elsewhere...see comics again) are all "hey that stuff you know happened...IT DIDN'T"

It's because the US comics industry is a comics hell where comics artists must serve their shit before they are allowed to be reborn somewhere else. It's not like I haven't seen insultingly shitty comics art and whatnot created elsewhere, but the US standards are paticulary depressing. It's hard to believe it all happens in the country of Windsor McCay, Will Eisner, Alex Raymond and Hal Foster. You have to wonder "what went wrong?"

[Ed Oscuro]

I thought Zero was a chickbot too, it didn't really help that I was playing Rockman X and couldn't read a lick of Japanese.

The first time I saw Zero I also assumed this. Was before I found out more, and more...so now we know to assume that if they look like girls, they're just gonna be drawn in MxM fanfic couplings but that's it.

Spec said what I was thinking. Artists who can't draw feet, serious business.

I sympathize with fans who feel their intelligence is insulted when game companies (not that this hasn't ever happened elsewhere...see comics again) are all "hey that stuff you know happened...IT DIDN'T"

It's because the US comics industry is a comics hell where comics artists must serve their shit before they are allowed to be reborn somewhere else. It's not like I haven't seen insultingly shitty comics art and whatnot created elsewhere, but the US standards are paticulary depressing. It's hard to believe it all happens in the country of Windsor McCay, Will Eisner, Alex Raymond and Hal Foster. You have to wonder "what went wrong?"

It all has to do with margins of course.

PC-Engine Fan X! should be able to relate: Who has seen the awesome early film treatments of not just Superman (Superman versus The Mechanical Monsters in the 1940s), or the unreleased Bob Clampett Princess of Mars film bits from 1936 - those were out there on the cutting edge (Princess of Mars would've been groundbreaking, even more so considering this was pre-Snow White but with rotoscoped low-gravity sword fighting, eight-legged horses, rockets, and more fun). Then, of course, stuff like Terrytoons and Hanna-Barbera cut in with cheaper, more affordable cartoons. Anything can make money; it's just a question from one publishing house to another. I think that there is too much focus on a lot of new stuff, though - I get the impression that the core readership of comic books devours them like other people do novels, or television, or games, or music, and so there's always room for more and that leads to some of the corner-cutting trends we've seen - most recently there's been some cases of "intra-studio plagiarism" where one artist uses stuff from their own publishing house in a way thought "dishonest" by some fans (brings to mind the saga of Street Fighter II HD), or occasionally awkward / too-close use of reference photographs. Ideally one could make any media at a slower pace and sell it for a time, but big-budget film doesn't have much of a shelf life, nor do many other formats.

Recently I read through Batman: Gotham County Line, and was expecting something different than what I got (was expecting something more European or vudu, dunno why, in tone, instead of basically a supernatural Millennium episode). It was three parts and they were all very short - to be honest, even though it wasn't the most amazing thing I've seen, I would've liked a bit more time in that space. The references to some way-out-there superheroes were jarring, though - from what I can tell some of the most critically-acclaimed comics of late have basically stripped out all the unnecessary junk from the canon (official cruft?) and created some new vision - as Superman: Red Son seems to be well taken up by most.

But this is all pretty wildly off-topic.

I mean, Zero there is character art. In the old days (pre-SNES) it didn't matter if a game character looked nothing like they did in-game, in the manual; people just expected that (though I note, looking through a bunch of my old Konami games, that often you could see a great similarity; probably the art director or overall director drew them, like with Capcom's Strider - the poster / cover being done by Kouichi Yotsui for example). Then in the SFC / SNES days, as budgets are increasing a little, and hopefully artwork is improving - but there's Zero with Man-Bellbottoms and shiny emerald pasties. Daaaamn.

[null1024]

@everyone above me
Am I the only one who saw Zero way back when and was thinking "male"?

Also, Zero's old design screamed "BADASS".
The new one... doesn't scream anything like that. He's like a shota now.

[saucykobold]

It's kind of jarring whenever I see Sakura clobber Rugal, Zangief, and other massive characters. In a fighting game, weight training doesn't matter one iota.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm not into Mega Man/Rockman universe, but the latter design resembles Astro Boy, whose child-like appearance was intentional as he was supposed to resemble his creator's late son. Seems like "reborn by redesign" idea. Gandalf the Grey/White, this sort of stuff.

It's kind of jarring whenever I see Sakura clobber Rugal, Zangief, and other massive characters. In a fighting game, weight training doesn't matter one iota.

Depends on the fighting style. It's not like all martial arts adepts practise the same kind of training. If you are a slender girl, emulating fighters bigger than you won't do you much good.

[Ex-Cyber]

I'm not into Mega Man/Rockman universe, but the latter design resembles Astro Boy, whose child-like appearance was intentional as he was supposed to resemble his creator's late son. Seems like "reborn by redesign" idea. Gandalf the Grey/White, this sort of stuff.

It's kind of jarring whenever I see Sakura clobber Rugal, Zangief, and other massive characters. In a fighting game, weight training doesn't matter one iota.

Depends on the fighting style. It's not like all martial arts adepts practise the same kind of training. If you are a slender girl, emulating fighters bigger than you won't do you much good.

There's a reason that weight classes exist, though. A tiny high school girl would need to be one hell of a fighter to even stand a chance against a guy who's big enough to wrestle bears.

See also: Marvel vs. Capcom, and pretty much every game with Superman.

[Ruldra]

@everyone above me
Am I the only one who saw Zero way back when and was thinking "male"?

Same here. From the start I knew he was a male, and was confused when I saw everyone around me mistaking him for a girl.

[Lordstar]

@everyone above me
Am I the only one who saw Zero way back when and was thinking "male"?

Same here. From the start I knew he was a male, and was confused when I saw everyone around me mistaking him for a girl.

I would be outraged! If you knew him from back in the day it was quite apparent he was all man. If the game nier is anyhting to go by all our heroes will be looking like he man in the near future becuase us dumb westerners cant possibley imagine lithe feminie guys lifting huge ass swords three times the size of them selves.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

I wouldn't blame anyone if they saw them boobs and thought botchick in the original MMX:



I didn't read a lick of English back in the day, so my impression was solely based on appearance.

[Ed Oscuro]

Vegeta face is the key to the trap.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The main character's mug in Max Payne 2 doesn't make sense. They replaced Max Payne with some two-handed bloke speaking with Max Payne's voice. The point being...?

I wouldn't blame anyone if they saw them boobs and thought botchick in the original MMX:



I didn't read a lick of English back in the day, so my impression was solely based on appearance.

A woman with her pelvis this contracted? How would babies come through it?

[Ed Oscuro]

The main character's mug in Max Payne 2 doesn't make sense. They replaced Max Payne with some two-handed bloke speaking with Max Payne's voice. The point being...?

Good one. I played through the two games in sequence a while back...Payne 2 definitely went further out on a limb with the humor aspect, but it turned out to be a big departure from the first title. I think time will show it is more of a prototype for Alan Wake than a sequel to the first game (not just the character look). Why they got rid of Payne in his hilariously incongruous tropical shirt and unmistakable mug is beyond me. I hardly remember what Payne 2 looked like - knockoff Duchovny or something. You can't ever forget what the original character looked like.

A woman with her pelvis this contracted? How would babies come through it?

I think the real question is who'd screw a gal with a mug like that.

[monkeyman]

I'd like to know why every phone box or trash can in beat em up city contains apples and cooked chicken. And how the hell eating those somehow manage to heal broken limbs.

Also in almost any JRPG you care to mention, why the main character always thinks it's a good idea to let a 6yr old child accompany you on the latest jount to a monster infested cave.