We don't always like being nonplussed

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Tomorrow: RPG Maker Showcase!

New feature again? Yup: I've been looking for something different to review here, maybe some Japanese freeware, just for a change of pace. I also wanted something quicker and punchier because I've been tied down to one game for six months and I just need some space, some fresh air. I'm suffocating here!

As I was going through some of the Japanese freeware sites, I wasn't seeing not a lot of standalone games that really grabbed me at first sight as I hoped, but what I did see is that there are countless scores of RPG Maker games on the Japanese freeware scene. See, RPG Maker (Known in Japanese as RPG Tsukuuru, which is translated a bunch of ways and none of them make much sense) is this awesome little series of very literally-named programs that let you test your favorite bundt cake recipes in a detailed, real-time baking simulator.

...no wait, that's Dragon Age, isn't it? ...Call of Duty?

There've been console versions- which are largely the only ones that were released in the USA -but the format is really much better suited for the PC, where you can actually distribute your games to people who haven't even bought RPG Maker. (Not to mention the console versions' extremely limited storage space, which really hobbled RPG Maker for the original Playstation in particular.) Point is, there are a lot of fanmade games out there, and a lot of them look... not great. And some of them do look great! And some of them are just sort of there. So a lot like the world of professionally published gaming.

Beginning tomorrow: RPG Maker Showcase!



If you want to flail along at home, it may be tricky; you might need AppLocale from Microsoft so you can get games with Japanese file names to unzip correctly, though not neccessarily run correctly. Still experimenting with that. The most helpful site I've found so far is Famitsu's free game section, which has games for download, links to the developers' homepages, and most importantly a page with downloads for the Japanese RPG Maker Run-Time Packages you'll need to run these games. Most games are marked by what version of the software they use as well- extremely helpful!

Tomorrow we begin with something called lorca. That's a lowercase L, not a capital I. Man, why do I mess with Japanese? English is confusing enough...

Flail it Yourself: Aerith or Aeris?

I've got an announcement in a little bit, but let's start off the day with one of the great nerd debates of our time. Or possibly 1998.
This, once again courtesy of Wikipedia's page, is "Su." We talked last week about how Fu is technically also Hu, and Su also shares its destiny with another sound when used in foreign loanwords.

As the title implies, Su is the go-to kana for the Th-sound, which is what creates the confusion between whether the name was supposed to be "Aerith" or "Aeris." (That's also why Cloud makes a reference to "...phiros" in his Final Fantasy Tactics cameo- the translators didn't catch that he was referring to Sephiroth.)

Modern versions have gone to Aerith because that's what Japanese media has traditionally used. (Japanese romanizations are handy sometimes, but also not infallible due to the Engrish Factor, as witnessed by the name of FFIV's hero being called "Cecil Hervey" in some Japanese sources.)

So, which version is "right?" Well, first you'd have to decide what "right" is. The current official spelling in both languages is "Aerith," so that's as close to correct as you can get. If you prefer Aeris, it's not like you're making it up either: that was the official spelling back in `97. But in this case, the game itself is probably the worst possible authority on what the name should be, because it was a pretty lousy translation ("This guy are sick.") I lean towards Aerith but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Later, we announce something entirely new!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Dragon Quest VI/6 - day 7 (this old man, he played three, he did it cause he's a tree!)

And we return for our Friday update, before the weekend. I'm excited, can you tell?

We start out the day by leaving the small church, and looking around for the next plot hook... I mean location in which we will have an adventure! After a thorough search of the area, I find that our one choice of location is...

Awful lot of remote shacks we're visiting here. If I hear a banjo we're making a run for it.
The little house on the prairie.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Dragon Quest VI/6 - Day 6 (a horse is a horse, of course, of course.)

And I return today with more Dragon Quest viiviii, whatever, for your pleasure today. I'd like to point out that with the new addition of my latest piece of equipment for this site, there was ever so slight of an accident that completely erased all of the save files on the cartridge, so I've just spent a good amount of time to get back to where I was. I'd like to say that this is why I don't like cartridge based games, but that's a lie. I still love cartridge based games, and always will.

After all of the work I just went through, I head to the Inn to rest up so that I can go to the next plot point, when I realize that I am not staying in this inn, and never will.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Dragon Qyest VI/6 Day - 5 (the horny men are vicious.)


And we're back after the festival of the crazy people to start our new day, or week, there's no way of telling in game. I guess it's time to start searching through towns again, so I'll start by seeing if the thing I was given is a legal thing that will let me enter the town that requires a thing to thing... I mean enter.

On the way back through the mountains, I see Rejected Blond Guy from the previous night wandering around the area. I don't know if he's going to be a recurring character or not, but I think I should come up with a name for him. If it was Rejected Guy Blond, I could always call him Roy G. Biv, but since that grammar is bad even by my standards, I'm going to call him Koala.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Dragon Quest VI/6 Day - 4 (Comet of Rejection)

Starting out today, I'm lucky because I know exactly where to go, even if not what to do. I found out where to go because I was looking around the little carnival thing in town again, and walked into a house that used to have nothing in it but a random NPC female. This time however, things were a bit different.

'Poor chump saved my life. Wish I'd been able reach his walle-HEY! You're alive! ...good for you.'
That's right, our friend the dwarf viking has returned, and he's doing... something! And after talking to him for a few moments, likely reminding him how close he was to death... which was also only a walk away from life again, he gave me a gift! If I've played RPGs before, and I have, as far as I know, then these are probably the papers or whatever that I need to get into the Emerald City. Oh joy, I'm off to see the sorcerer!.. No, that doesn't sound right. Sage? Maybe... Mage? Priest? Meh, I'm sure I'll come up with a good one along the way.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Flailing Through Dragon Quest VI, or 6, I can't remember anymore... oh yeah, and it's day 3!

So we begin our new week with a fair amount of power leveling, and money grinding. I've got to admit, the monsters around this town look pretty damn freaky, including one that... well, I'm not sure.

See those first three katakana? That reads 'Shi-RuDo.' Yep, 'shield.' Sorry, still in Blathering about Kana mode from yesterday... -Ed.
It looks like some sort of decapitated duck/kitty shield wielding goblins... or maybe that's their face on the shield, and the body is a decoy? This one took a little bit of thought, but I'm doing to call it a Duckler, which is a combo of Duck and Buckler, which is a shield I assure you.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Flail it Yourself: Wearing a Food, Jumping through Foops

This is one that trips me up pretty frequently, no matter how often I try to remember it.

This is the Katakana for "Fu," courtesy of Wikipedia. Because of how this letter is pronounced in Japanese, it falls in the middle of the H family of sounds: ha, he, fu, hi, ho. But it pretty clearly sounds like "fu" to everybody else. The other F-sounds- Fa, Fe, Fi, Fo (Fum) -are written by combinations of Fu and smaller modifying vowel-kana: a, e, i, o.

Problem is? Fu is also used for "Hu" sounds.



Beam... Foop?

This is also Final Fantasy's Cat-Ear Hood, or if you prefer: "Nekomimi Food." I didn't even know cat ears needed fed...