Games you are playing

[Lord Mutton Chops]

Anyone else play castle crashers?

[eharper256]

[scy]

I'm contemplating the import >>. Yes, I realize that's a little sad.

Honestly, all the extra art goodies is just awesome and I'm quite a fan of the BlazBlue art (when it's not squirrelhookers and datassrobots).

[spoiler]...alright, Mu is still adorable.[/spoiler]

...anyway, the Fan Edition has to be purchased through so there's the link for any curious; there's only 500 total so ... yeah.

It's £54.99 (~$87) for all the goodies; the regular LE is £49.99 (~$80) and I assume it's ~£40 (~$60) otherwise. Or maybe it'll be the discounted price we got here ($40) for the standard but I think it was said to be expected full retail.

[Twat]

[negzee]

Castle Crashers is awesome you don't know what you're talking about

[Twat]

I think my game is bugged because the fun wasn't working.

[scy]

[negzee]

[Lord Mutton Chops]

[Twat]

I played it with my brother and his friends. I seemed to be the only one there who did not like it.

[Twat]

My reformed thoughts on Arc Rise Fantasia... Instead of typing it out, I will just paste a chat log.[spoiler][22:14:42] Amari says:
Today I will defend Arc Rise Fantasia, from myself.
[22:14:46] Amari says:
I did an experiment.
[22:15:01] Amari says:
I deleted my file, and tried it without any voices.
[22:15:06] Amari says:
And guess what?
[22:15:09] Amari says:
I drove me mad.
[22:15:13] Amari says:
Because the mouthes are moving.
[22:15:18] Amari says:
They still stop to talk.
[22:15:33] Amari says:
Imagine if you had such a curse in reality.
[22:15:36] Amari says:
Not being able to hear people talk.
[22:15:41] Amari says:
But still hear music and sounds.
[22:15:47] Kolarin says:
D: Yeah.
[22:15:50] Amari says:
And then I realized.
[22:15:57] Amari says:
Arc Rise Fantasia does not have bad voice acting.
[22:16:05] Amari says:
It has different voice acting.
[22:16:17] Amari says:
It has to do with expectations.
[22:16:23] Amari says:
Look at the voice work in other things.
[22:16:44] Amari says:
A character can say a very simple line that you would hear any day, but it is repeated time and time again.
[22:16:45] Amari says:
Why?
[22:16:51] Amari says:
Because the voice is amusing.
[22:16:54] Amari says:
The voice is over-the-top.
[22:16:57] Amari says:
It is very memorable.
[22:17:16] Amari says:
But seldom would you ever hear a voice that stands out that much in reality.
[22:17:25] Amari says:
Look at L'Arc.
[22:17:30] Amari says:
What does he sound like?
[22:17:44] Amari says:
A 16-19 year old American male.
[22:17:54] Amari says:
And guess what? L'Arc is 17.
[22:18:19] Amari says:
Just that with fictional work, particular that which is anime-inspired, the expectations are that of more exotic or outlandish voices.
[22:18:26] Amari says:
It has to be outlandish, but it also has to be really cool.
[22:18:42] Amari says:
Even if it's outlandish but bad, it's memorable because it's different.
[22:18:45] Amari says:
Pit in Brawl.
[22:18:56] Amari says:
Not a good voice, but you still quote it all the time because it's entertaining.
[22:19:13] Amari says:
Arc Rise Fantasia's dialogue, sans Niko and Cecile, is very normal.
[22:19:29] Amari says:
Now at some point, I critized how Alf worded the script "Oh no!"
[22:19:48] Amari says:
But look at it on the flipside: perhaps the voice actor wanted to say something that sounded normal.
[22:19:53] Amari says:
How many people actually go
[22:19:58] Amari says:
OOOHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO D8
[22:20:12] Amari says:
It's more of a "Drat..." sort of thing.
[22:20:12] Kolarin says:
Hehe, yeah.
[22:20:22] Amari says:
It's not so much that they fail to carry out the script.
[22:20:32] Amari says:
It is just that they have new voice talent with a new approach.
[22:20:46] Amari says:
If you focus on the voices too much, like I did, it is easy to be critical.
[22:21:13] Amari says:
I do not like Niko's choice of voice, but it is not necessarily bad acting when I look at it from another perspective.
[22:21:23] Amari says:
If the studio did not want cracking in his voice, they would have done a retake.
[22:21:29] Amari says:
Similarly; people DO pause while they speak.
[22:21:55] Amari says:
You never see anime characters really stop while they speak.
[22:22:27] Amari says:
It can be like me saying
[22:22:52] Amari says:
"Well, if you have a cold and find yourself seriously ill... you should just stay home."
[22:23:00] Amari says:
It is natural.
[22:23:16] Amari says:
Another aspect of expectations is established norms.
[22:23:23] Amari says:
It is unfair of me to expect Alf to have a GENTLE voice.
[22:23:31] Amari says:
BECAUSE ALL KIND PRINCES HAVE A GENTLE VOICE
[22:23:49] Amari says:
And I furthermore would just make him dull with that angle.
[22:24:14] Amari says:
He says things rather casually in battle, but formally in the story script.
[22:24:22] Amari says:
Which is very natural.
[22:24:44] Amari says:
Despite me saying all of this, I do not take back what I said about the excessive amount of systems.
[22:25:08] Amari says:
However; by viewing the game in a way not aligned to typical RPGs or a Tales series game, it is much better.
[22:25:13] Amari says:
In fact, it actually made the game easier.
[22:25:39] Amari says:
Arc Rise Fantasia is very unique, in truth.
[22:25:55] Amari says:
Not necessarily good.
[22:25:58] Amari says:
But unique.
[22:26:09] Amari says:
I like L'Arc a lot more now.
[22:26:19] Amari says:
His design is pretty boring.
[22:26:21] Amari says:
And it's very typical.
[22:26:29] Amari says:
But his dialogue is not so bad.
[22:29:19] Amari says:
Also, character illustrations along with dialogue is stupid.[/spoiler]tl;dr
Aside from the voices of Niko and Cecil, the approach that Arc Rise Fantasia utilizes is not necessarily bad so much as it is different. I would not mind less-exaggerated voice acting in future titles as long as the dialogue is lively and interesting. After my experiment the game seems... much more enjoyable. Certainly not going to be memorable but it is a valiant effort.

[Centurion_Beta]

I just picked up The Dark Spire (the game I picked EO1 over a year or two ago) and Yggdra Union (a Fire Emblem-style GBA game I've been trying to get for years) the other day and am very pleased with both. I'm surprised I overlooked the two until now.

[scy]

[Twat]

[scy]

Speaking of JRPGs, Flight-Plan (Summon Night series) died. They're gone.

[spoiler]Alright, fine, some of them formed a new studio Apollosoft but still.[/spoiler]