Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Ranakel

Pages: [1] 2
1
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: May 13, 2011, 02:27:45 pm »
Well, as opposed to miss Maneater, Regina didn't left the story by being captured, restrained by a magical device, and reduced by a powerful fire spell into a little pile of ash.

2
Flipside Discussion / Re: Vote Incentive Request Thread
« on: May 13, 2011, 07:20:25 am »
Now, with Moby v2.0 and her magical hair, it's time to get twice more serious at the same time !

Love it.  ;D

3
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: May 13, 2011, 07:19:10 am »
I wonder though. Is Beeflips Perona named like that because he/she flips like a bee ? Or...  :'(

4
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: May 09, 2011, 07:24:50 pm »
Okay, that was unexpected.  ;D

5
Flipside Discussion / Re: Vote Incentive Request Thread
« on: May 02, 2011, 06:10:49 pm »
Well, as I said for the first (great) vote incentive I humbly requested, I quite enjoy Vennice and Moby amongst the recently introduced characters. As Vennice had thankfully a bit of lovely attention, then I will request a drawing of Moby now.

Let's see... One thing that could be fun would be Moby having somehow recuperated Suspiria's former hair/hair enchantment in some way. As such, the picture would be her, say, crossing her arms or striking a pose, and her hair prouting little arms doing the same pose as her.

A bit silly, but... Yeah, I like that.

6
Free Talk / Re: The 'What Did You Accomplish Today?' Thread
« on: April 17, 2011, 11:23:09 pm »
Today, I actually repaired my computer with duct tape.

Hell yeah.

7
Free Talk / Re: Getting reacquainted.
« on: April 17, 2011, 11:21:42 pm »
Well, as a representative of the new forumites side of things, uh... Yeah, hello then ! Glad to see things going on in a positive light ! Yay for good mood, fitness, socialities and changes !

8
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: April 16, 2011, 01:37:38 am »
If my memory serves me well, it was actually revealed during the course of the story. And if my memory still serves me well, you got the three third letters right at least.

9
Hall of Games / Re: The oracle is [IN]
« on: April 11, 2011, 02:31:35 pm »
Quote
how much is that doggy in the window?
Silly you, there's no doggy in that window. If I was still running with Windows and if there was a doggy there though... I guess it would be quite costly. We hypothetically bonded a lot after all.

Quote
nom nom nom pizza?
With pleasure. I do tend to prefer the american-styled stuffed, thick things with creative toppings to the more traditional italian-style ones too.

Quote
do you crave cheetos?
Nope. Cheetos aren't really popular in France if they're available at all, so that doesn't comes naturaly to me.

Quote
what is your favorite icecream flavor?
As with most things, caramel is always nice with good old ice cream. I tend to favor composed ones to single tastes though.

Quote
what is your favorite bubblegum flavor?
Last time I chewed some was probably a matter of years. I don't have much of a taste in that domain.

Quote
when will the cows come home?
They left ? Oh no ! I liked those cows ! I want to know when too.

Quote
if pigs really learned how to fly would everything people say about things happening when pigs fly actually happen?
Well, this would require each and every pig to learn this while still remaining pigs as far as species classifications go. Which is most unlikely, really. If that did through some unexpected circumstance happen though, it probably still wouldn't happen due to forgetfulness, hypocrisy, utter lies, etc. These are human nature traits that'll only change when pigs will fly.

10
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: April 11, 2011, 06:44:02 am »
I wonder what will be "Naughty Pork"'s show.  :'(

But of course, there are other fun mysteries here, boss.

11
Black t-shirt and blue boxers. And a blanket. Using a phone instead of a computer does have SOME advantages after all. I guess.

12
Flipside Discussion / Re: Vote Incentive Request Thread
« on: April 08, 2011, 05:02:59 am »
Oh how I regret to have missed those before today's seeing how nice the results are ! Vennice is adorable.

Curse you broken comp...

This being said, is there a way to catch up on the past ones ? Or will they loop during the month ?

13
Aaaaah, Wesnoth. One of the only game at my disposal during my time on Linux. Fun and rather difficult game.

And from what I saw of Bulletstorm, it's so sad. It had plenty of great ideas, but many poor design choices too. Comfortable design choices, mixed with less comfortable, but cool elements. As the saying goes, it has its ass between two chairs. Oh well.

Anyway, on my side, I'm playing Chaos Rings. A Squeenix RPG for the iPhone. Great interface, really pretty, and some good music going on. It's a costly thing, but it's worth it.

14
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: April 06, 2011, 11:58:55 am »
Black, short-haired suspiria. Biggest twist ever.

I wonder if that needed a proper haircut or simply some disenchanting.

15
Free Talk / Re: The Chat Thread
« on: April 04, 2011, 07:30:04 am »
Rock Paper Scissors is the real gentleman's way to fight.

You lost with honor to a guy that had some nifty kung fu moves.

16
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: April 04, 2011, 03:28:23 am »
Riding a magic horse while doing fantasy phonesex.

That's what I call traveling. And the precisions upon the ways portals work is nice too. Aren't these handy little things ?

Also, the coloring is gorgeous.

17
Flipside Discussion / Re: Lobster Talk 2: Japanese Video Games
« on: April 04, 2011, 03:21:35 am »
I would have wanted to participate in that so much. Too bad it was 2 in the morning from my point of view.

You do have quite the voice. Enthusiastic, powerful. And distinct enough for me to manage to decypher that without too much effort. The little saturation issues and small cuts in the sound are a bit bothering though, at some moments, the sounds of some guy or other typing on the keyboard can get a bit... Well, noticeable,and the girl whose name eluded me (sorry) is definitely on the hard-to-listen side though, sounding quite far from her mic. Too bad, it made my brain disconnect regularily so I feel I missed bits.

Anyway, from what I gathered, some of it probably redundant with what was already said, here are my two cents on that. If that discussion dwells too much on, I guess it can be moved to the pop culture section.

So , WRPG versus JRPG. I don't think I'm innately biased towards one of the other. I don't believe in good or bad genres. Only good or bad games. This being said, we didn't have any great WRPG in a looong, long time. Some pretty good ones, like Mass Effect or oblivion. But besides that one, the only other noteworthy ones are either game adaptation of existing tabletop roleplaying games licences (Vampire: Bloodlines, Neverwinter Nights 2: mask of the betrayer) or at least ten years old (Baldur's gate 2, Planescape: Torment, a bit later for Morrowind but still). I'm just stating a general opinion though here, I never really managed to get in Morrowind and couldn't run Oblivion on my dear old machine. I enjoyed Daggerfall in its time, but of course it was unfinishable due to its bugs, and I was ten years old tops. So that doesn't really counts.

Meanwhile on the JRPG side. Well, the main series (Final Fantasy of course) had its good times. FF6, 7, 9 come to most's minds of course, to which I'll shamelessly add the twelvth installment. But we'll focus a bit on that series and why these episodes precisely later. For now, let's just say that besides the final fantasy, there are other pretty good ones, like Breath of Fire IV (haven't played the third installment but heard good stuff about it too), Suikoden 2 and more recently 5, Dragon Quest IX, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2, The World Ends With You, the Persona series as well... The list goes on. But don't get me wrong. For every great game such as these ones, there are many Ar Tonelico, Magna Carta, Wild Arms or Eternal Sonata that just don't quite reach that level.

Determining that WRPG are open-ended and JRPG are linear is an error in my book. Sure, the tendencies are here... But a game such as Final Fantasy X-2 or XII can hardly be considered a straight line, just as a game like Vampire: Bloodlines isn't exactly a wide open sandbox. Plus, the very expression "open-ended" always sounded a bit faulty to me. If the end is open, then, I guess it just means that you've got several endings. Every Suikoden have that. Valkyrie Profile has that. The feeling of openness doesn't comes from the very end to me. To veer a bit away from the RPGs strictly speaking, while the two endings per character depending on your input are nice in Soulcalibur 3, I don't think it can exactly be called open-ended. It's either "Be Tira, smack people, go to the room to the left and be ambushed or be Tira, smack people, go to the room to the right and give the Meat of Evil to a little kid".

I think what matters more is the exploration... Or more importantly, the ways plot and exploration can interact. Because I'll say it frankly, I could never get into Morrowind. Too much exploration, too little narration. Just as I could never get into FFXIII which reverses the vice completely, too little exploration, too much narration. (It does gets more terrible than Morrowind as well because of doubtful gameplay choices, and that dreaded series of files you've got to read to understand cutscenes you just saw... I mean, ugh. Worst storytelling ever. I don't even care if it improves after, it was too terrible, too soon.) In a game like Suikoden V, you know what to do quite nicely, you have a duty, justified, and should you forget it, you have a follower that will remind it to you (which, between you and me, is much better than an arrow pointing where you must go. I'M LOOKING AT YOU FINAL FANTASY X !) and if you want to revisit old cities, wander around to see if there isn't a member to add to your army here and there, or just grind in this or that area, well sure. I mean, of course in FFXIII you can backtrack along that long line if you want. But it's nothing compared to taking your flying ship and noticing new wonders, new islands and having an encounter with black pirates in Skies of Arcadia.

The process of coming to somewhere is as important as the destination. A boring path wastes a good destination just as an uninteresting end wastes a good path. A great example of that can be found in Babylon 5, which is of course one of if not the best sci-fi series in existence, just sayin'. And in that series, one race tends to have prophetic dreams about their death. We see that dream, and see that one of the characters will kill another, strangling him. So it's a in-universe spoiler... Except that it doesn't really spoils anything because the narration is done with enough bumps in its story, ups and downs, that the process of getting there remains interesting. And that when that scene DOES happens, it is surprising DESPITE happening exactly the way we see it !

I mean, if you "purify" things too much, you remove the substance of the thing. In the end, it's just "press X to kill" so you might as well resume it into a button masher with pretty particles effects and nothing more. With choices if you like them. And then, you get a Farenheit/Indigo prophecy or a Heavy Rain. And that kind of game feels REALLY constrictive to me, which gets severely in the way of enjoyment. It's the difference between being tossed in a desert and being bound, gagged and dragged along a path. Neither of those are enjoyable to me. Just find an appropriate middle point, and stick to it mostly, making things a bit more linear in moments of intense scenario parts because something terrible is happening, and a bit more loose when you're in a calm moment.

And then, there's characterization, and I think that's really where a Planescape: Torment crushes an Oblivion down. Mute main characters aren't enticing. They are given a "hero" flag and as long as they wave it, all is good. But nothing really makes them particular. The only way to make that character interesting is to make decisions matter. And you make all the decisions, of course. Else, you might as well be given a character with a personality. Both approaches work, the uneasy "mute char that does nothing really" doesn't. Nor does the "fully customizable character with no given personality". Especially, for the latter, if you don't even have a party with you so at least they can interact ! Then you are just walking along in the silence, and you might as well play a platformer or an action game, because there's no roleplaying anymore !

What you have as a result is basically a MMORPG world without other players then. And it's just short of an actual MMORPG as far as immersion goes, only because you don't have in every town people screaming "wtb [G-string of the petulant gladiator] 10000g plz". Besides this, it's just a setting offered to you, with a plot you may follow that bears no importance compared to any other activity. It makes you think "If I don't do that, others can ! Why don't the city guards move their ass a little ?" And then you realize you're not a hero. Just a mobile piece in a still world.

Now, for a bit of talk about music, because it was told about and I enjoy that topic as well. Limiting the soundtracks strictly to genres or nationality is, then again, a bad idea. Still, the "hollywood influence" is indeed present in WRPGs. But I see it as a corollary to what I just mentioned. If there's no narrative importance, no great phenomenal points, then there's no reason to put a music with an identity. You just have to remain atmospheric... And even then, that's no reason to just be so bland ! There are some great examples still. The first Diablo had for its city and first series of level great tunes that set the mood right away. RTS manage to have in spite of a gameplay more consistent as RPGs some great music, like Command and Conquer (first only) or Red Alert (all three of them. Special mention for the third one who's just craaaazy) or Total Annihilation (I mean... Listen to this !). And MMORPGs which are in essence more static as well manage to pull it off quite well sometimes, the most triumphing example here remaining to me Granado Espada. Seriously. This is just the menu music. Every tune sets a mood while remaining EXTREMELY lively. One last great soundtrack that sets a mood without being bland ? Sure, here, have this city theme from Heroes of Might and Magic V.

Just because you can't tie your keys to a precise narration doesn't means you can't make something with a strong personality, a real presence, a part of the game as any others without being completely crushing or overwhelming. But if you try to make something discrete when there isn't even a worded narration around, you end up just throwing some things because you have to. And that isn't quite right. Not every game can have such great scores, and not every game should entirely revolve around its sound like an Elite Beat Agents or a Rez. But using boring music results in a game with boring music, not immersion.

Last thing, about the progressive instruments addition. The last pokémon games did something absolutely wonderful with that, adding one instrument at each of the eight gates leading to the Victory Road, thus giving it a real imposing presence. And if you're looking for old examples of music altered to reflect some changes, before Ocarina of Time, you had thing such as the level selection of Yoshi's Island which changed a bit, adding some instrument at every world. Or even much before that, just the theme of the level speeding up when you're running out of time in the first Super Mario Bros.

Hm. I got a little carried away there didn't I ? Oh well. Topic's interesting, so here I talk.

18
Free Talk / Re: The Chat Thread
« on: April 04, 2011, 12:10:55 am »
It's not up yet, how can you know it's a trap ?

19
Hall of Games / Re: The truth is unknown...
« on: April 01, 2011, 08:14:25 pm »
Have you no shame ?

Knowing that "mantike" means the divination and "kine" the movement. Don't you feel that resurrection should be called "Necrokinesy" instead of "Necromancy" which should be left to divining the future within the spilled guts of cute little bunnies ?

What is odd about your ball ?

20
Hall of Games / Re: The oracle is [IN]
« on: April 01, 2011, 08:10:29 pm »
Quote
how tall are you?
1m79. That's a bit over 5' 8" if you want to know in that wacky imperial system.

Quote
what is the answer to the ultimate question?
Nothing.

Quote
what is the ultimate question?
What have we learned in the end ?

Quote
who asked the ultimate question?
Many people actually, and the answer somewhat paraphrases Socrates for instance. However, since it is a properly -ultimate- question, the sense you used for your question is wrong. Because other questions will be asked. An ultimate question is, by essence, the last.

Quote
how short are you?
1 little meter and 79 pitiful centimeter. That's under 5' 9" if you want to know in that wacky imperial system.

Quote
do you know I have a "truth" thread?
I did not know for sure but assumed so.

Quote
why no questions for me?
Because of mass effect. Not the game with the commander Shepard no. The one that means that one doesn't asks things, then another forgets, and so on, until your topic is hidden underneath others and out of reach of the man searching the emboldened "Today" last posts only.

Quote
has my "truth" thread died of a unspeakable death?
No, I believe he took a perfectly speakable nap, probably of the digestive kind.

21
Hall of Games / Re: My truth is funner!
« on: April 01, 2011, 10:27:53 am »
Is Country music referring to a particular country, or is it short for "countryside ?"

22
What are your thought on ducks, and disco ? (not necessarily together)

23
Hall of Games / Re: The oracle is [IN]
« on: April 01, 2011, 10:23:26 am »
Quote
what's your favorite aspect of brion's comic so far?

The relationships that go on between the characters, central yet not obnoxiously slammed onto our faces, with compromises, talk and drama to believable levels. Basically, one of the only one that I enjoyed and enjoy looking at since Spice and Wolf.

Unless we're talking about Brion's dnd comic. In that case, it's the human/demon lesbian empowering sex of course.

Quote
do you like pudding?
I can't tell for sure. I haven't ever tasted genuine, wobbly British pudding. It's on my to-do list should I go make a tour there. Preferably during a road trip across West of France, England, Scotland, Ireland and absolutely-not-Wales. Closest I can get is... Flan I guess ? Or Rice pudding if we think by name only.
I like both then.

Quote
why did you pick the avvy you have now?
It is quite cheerful, to an uncanny, creepy point that I enjoy. It carries with it a strong identity which makes it easily recognizable, something more or less required in my book for a good avatar. Plus, it's a small part of a Diablo Swing Orchestra album (picture in full [HERE]) which is filled to the brim with songs that are excellent, at least in my humble opinion.
So, it became my sort of "default" avatar as a matter of fact. That way I avoid posting my mug with each of my post (since it's the other obvious choice) and I don't leave it to my instinct (which generally leads to sexy anime girls with big breast leading to some gender confusion. And I had plenty of that in real life when I sported long hair but no moustache or goatee)

24
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: April 01, 2011, 05:30:41 am »
Of course, considering the price, a fully fledged, purely human hooker is much less costly. But it doesn't have the transportability of the summoned naked chick ! And there is also this revolutionary plus only the iRing can provide.

Sleekness.


Steve Jobbiness aside, I realized a little something. We have the three "named" apps that are pretty self-explanatory, and the second one from the first line is most likely the summon naked chick app. The one to its right remains a mystery...

A clear mystery though. Is that a target ? Or a boob ?  ???

25
Is humiliating soccer a variant of soccer a bit in the vein of the jello strip twister ? '_'

(Also, red and black squared shirt, KGB-inspired t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and gray boxers. Not that it matters that much now does it ?)

26
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: April 01, 2011, 01:32:51 am »
I wanna play Jesters VS Zombies.

27
Flipside Discussion / Re: Vote Incentive Request Thread
« on: March 31, 2011, 08:04:17 pm »
Yay for drawings ! I intend to donate as soon as some financial issues are sorted anyway, but until then, yay.

Hmm, since I predict many originals and/or main characters, I think I'll go with one of the new ones... It's hard to chose, as I like Vennice, Moby and Buzz... (Can't help imagining the latter with the ultimate radio voice even in common conversation but that's besides the point) So, hm...

Let's go with a bit of the two first. Not a two-person drawing. Just Vennice looking at a sheet of paper (what is on it hidden from the sight of the viewer) with an air of complete horror. What is on the paper being of course indicated in some ways as an idea Moby had for an outfit for her. If a few words flying are allowed, little phrases like "How can you even do THAT with fabric ?" and "I want to avert my eyes but I can't..." would be fun too.

Thank you very much of course.

28
Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 29: Discussion
« on: March 30, 2011, 05:57:29 pm »
Bernadette won't like the portal idea, though.
The way I see it, she wouldn't like it if she was to cross it herself. But she knows better that to impose her beliefs on others. Especially when Maytag is involved. After all, she is already asked a lot (what with the monogamy and all) so I don't think the prospect of her lover joining her via carried portal is as much a problem as May having to remain chaste except for the occasional masturbation.
And she will activate the ringlet just at that kind of moment won't she ?

29
Hall of Games / Re: The oracle is [IN]
« on: March 30, 2011, 04:44:27 am »
Confusing numerals. Making men wear skirts. Inspiration for Rome Total War. Founding cities. Leaving their traces in Latin languages. They brewed a nifty wine too, but that doesn't counts since we can't drink that.

I guess there are a few other stuff. But I studied Greek at school, not Latin.

30
Hall of Games / Re: The oracle is [IN]
« on: March 30, 2011, 02:40:38 am »
Quote
What is your quest?
To search for the holy original Monthy Pythons And The Holy Grail VHS.

Quote
What is the airspeed velocity of a coconut carrying a swallow?
Thrown by a European or an African coconut-thrower ?

Quote
What is to the left of your screen?
Depending on how high it is, two dead batteries, an empty glass, a Pokémon Black box, two stacked bowl, remains of my last breakfasts, the left speaker of my hi fi, and a bit of a shelf. If we only consider a straight continuity from the surface of the screen, it reached an empty mug that reads "Je suis génial en toute modestie."

Pages: [1] 2