Bought/Thought 12/17

[Dread]

(gives Dread a cyber-hug) Hurray! You're one of us now! We happy few; we band of brothers (and sisters) who enjoy Incredible Hercules! Let's have a parade!

Now that's the spirit! Thanks!

I was just talking to a friend about this on Friday. I can't even remember when the last issue came out. It'd be nice if they'd get their act together though, The Twelve is one of the few Marvel comics I'm actually enjoying nowadays.

Yeah, THE TWELVE is behind but I am sure it will be completed by next year. A 1-2 month gap between issues is usually what a THOR reader calls "typical".

Anyone who buy's issue 3 is just saying "please, rape us more with delay times, we don't mind them at all". 3 years is unacceptable. Hell, a ****ing year is unacceptable. Theres ZERO reason why whoever is writing it had to take THREE ****ING YEARS to finish his issue 3 of 3. Hell, he only needed 22 pages, he could of done them easily within a week on the ****ter alone.

Think about it for a second. That's House of M time. That's Infinite Crisis time. That's just plain ****ed.

And anyone who buys the reprints of 1-2 are just about as bad, because you're saying "hey, we support rebuying and reissuing story arcs specifically to get more money out of them".

Come on, man, Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine is serious literature that needs its due time and attention. What, you think he's just gonna have Wolverine and the Hulk brawl for 22 pages? No way. It's gonna be a transcendent metaphysical experience for those who read it. I mean, the guy took three years to write it, after all.

We got into a big argument about UWvH in the March Solicts thread and I don't feel like resurrecting it. Suffice it to say I won't be bothering with that buffalo turd debacle, and I would like to be proven wrong and for the 3 year late third issue to sell poorly and not outsell plenty of better books. I just doubt I will be.

 

[MightyAvenge]

yea it's really rediculous howling it's taken to finish UWvH, I'm not gonna buy the reprints but I will but issue 3. I have to, I bought 1 and 2 cause they were awesome and I'm sure issue 3 will be awesome, so I'm gonna complete it. But if any other comic ever takes this long to finish, I will not give in again.

 

[fifthfiend]

Totally kidding yourself.

But honestly I don't blame anyone who buys this thing. I mean we're talking about, on the whole, people who have already paid for two-thirds of a story. As far as I'm concerned those people have every right to both 1. read the final third of the story they've already mostly paid for, and 2. be utterly pissed off at Marvel's bad faith and lack of professionalism in this matter.

 

[Sloth7d]

Junctioning, while utterly stupid as a gaming system, actually plays a huge part in the storyline. When Ellone takes the team into the past, she's in fact junctioning them to Laguna's trio. When Ultimecia uses this technique to take over Edea and Rinoa in the present, she's in fact junctioning herself to them. Later on she draws the memory of Griever from Squall himself and then junctions herself to that.

It all makes a bit more sense when you realize, after having a bunch of FAQs explain it to you, in my case, that the entire magic system of the FF8 world -- the GFs, the Sorceress powers, draw points, all of it -- is based on memories.

Also, considering that the founders of SeeD used to, well, run that orphanage, compounded with the revelation in the end that it was Squall himself who told Edea to create SeeD, it's actually pretty significant that most if not all of the members of that orphanage wound up being SeeD members. Rinoa wasn't in that orphanage and, through amazing coincidence, she wasn't a SeeD member. You see? After Squall told Edea what she needed to do, she and Cid used their home as a drafting ground, which is what would eventually lead him into telling her what to do in the first place.

Time travel.

Despite all the explanations I've been given, to this day, I still do not understand the orphanage plot twist.

 

[SouLeSS]

Would any of you happen to know how to get that game to be able to be played on a psp? I'd love to have it portable.

 

[BrianWilly]

Dunno. I didn't even know that you could play PS1 games on the PSP.

Despite all the explanations I've been given, to this day, I still do not understand the orphanage plot twist.

Cid and Edea used to be the caretakers of an orphanage, they eventually created SeeD, and a lot of SeeD members -- including but probably not limited to the main party minus Rinoa -- wound up being selected from that the children at the orphanage. That's pretty much all there is to it. That's right, nothing else to see here, stop reading now. NOW.

As for why the children Squall, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie wound up being the adults who would defeat "Edea" and save the world...there are two possibilities. One is that Cid and Edea specifically groomed and handpicked them out to be the ones to stop her, because Edea would want to be stopped by those that she loved and trusted, such as her old wards that she cared for; remember that Edea knew about the threat of Ultimecia ever since the Squall from the future visited her in the past, and had been preparing for it ever since.

The other possibility, one that isn't necessarily mutually exclusive from the former, is that the Haaaaands of DESSSSTINY were at work. Note that the main musical theme to the game, Liberi Fatali, means "fated children." The orphans were fated to be the ones to free Edea. (Just as Squall and Rinoa were fated to come together, being the children of Laguna and Julia.)

(Which is...actually kinda icky since "they" could've been brother and sister.)

For some reason, I never hated Advent Children. I know Cloud's consistently emo in it, but I guess the fight scenes help me overlook that.

Advent Children was beautiful. Seriously beautiful, it beat the uncanny valley to death and then drank from its corpse. And the action scenes? Man, they set the bar to the ****ing moon.

The story though? The story was a limbless idiot child trying to beat at itself with its nonexistent hands. Environmental AIDS and Turks. Really? ****ing Turks? Who cares about the Turks!!!111!????! Oh yeah Square*Enix does, considering that it's still milking the prequels for their worthless worth.

 

[SouLeSS]

Dude come on Rude and Reno are the ****.

 

[Sloth7d]

Dunno. I didn't even know that you could play PS1 games on the PSP.Cid and Edea used to be the caretakers of an orphanage, they eventually created SeeD, and a lot of SeeD members -- including but probably not limited to the main party minus Rinoa -- wound up being selected from that the children at the orphanage. That's pretty much all there is to it. That's right, nothing else to see here, stop reading now. NOW.

As for why the children Squall, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie wound up being the adults who would defeat "Edea" and save the world...there are two possibilities. One is that Cid and Edea specifically groomed and handpicked them out to be the ones to stop her, because Edea would want to be stopped by those that she loved and trusted, such as her old wards that she cared for; remember that Edea knew about the threat of Ultimecia ever since the Squall from the future visited her in the past, and had been preparing for it ever since.

The other possibility, one that isn't necessarily mutually exclusive from the former, is that the Haaaaands of DESSSSTINY were at work. Note that the main musical theme to the game, Liberi Fatali, means "fated children." The orphans were fated to be the ones to free Edea. (Just as Squall and Rinoa were fated to come together, being the children of Laguna and Julia.)

(Which is...actually kinda icky since "they" could've been brother and sister.)

So why didn't any of them remember being at the orphanage again? It just seemed so random when you finally get there and they're all like, "Oh yeah, we all grew up here right?" It just threw me for a loop. Unlike Clouds memories in FFVII. I got that. The guy went kinda.... psycho in a way and replaced all his crappy memories with someone who was awesome... Even though he kinda took out Sephiroth, which is awesome in itself. Man, but this little memory lapse with the FFVIII cast just seems nuts.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

For some reason, I never hated Advent Children. I know Cloud's consistently emo in it, but I guess the fight scenes help me overlook that.

Isn't Cloud consistently emo in everything?

 

[BrianWilly]

So why didn't any of them remember being at the orphanage again? It just seemed so random when you finally get there and they're all like, "Oh yeah, we all grew up here right?" It just threw me for a loop. Unlike Clouds memories in FFVII. I got that. The guy went kinda.... psycho in a way and replaced all his crappy memories with someone who was awesome... Even though he kinda took out Sephiroth, which is awesome in itself. Man, but this little memory lapse with the FFVIII cast just seems nuts.

They very briefly explained it in the game, it's because of the GFs. Magic in the FFVIIIverse is based on memories; again, it's never explicitly said in the game, but if you think about all the magic in there, everything makes sense. When you draw magic from enemies you are in fact drawing the..."idea" of it from them and then bringing it to life. Which is why drawing works even on human foes. This is the basis of the Sorceress Power.

The GFs mimic the real magic of the Sorceresses, but since their users are ordinary humans, the humans power the GFs through their own memories. It's very gradual which is why no one has noticed it before; remember that both SeeD and its use of the GFs are completely new to this world, maybe seven or eight years old tops.

And that's why the party forgot about having been orphans together.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

This thread totally crashed and burned as soon as Final Fantasy entered the mix.

 

[BrianWilly]

Much like Final Fantasy itself, when you think about it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Let's talk about Chrono Trigger instead. It's totally better, plus it just got released on the DS. Relevant!

 

[SouLeSS]

Chrono Trigger is more overrated than FFVII. There I said it.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

You suck, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart in the true spirit of Christmas.

 

[SouLeSS]

And yet another brillant case of "if you don't like what I like, you're wrong".

 

[Blader5489]

Chrono Trigger is more overrated than FFVII. There I said it.

That's not possible. Nothing is more overrated than FFVII.

 

[SouLeSS]

FFVII has PLENTY of people speak out against it. Chrono Trigger, however, doesn't. It's like everyones holy grail of "perfect games that can never be talked down upon", when it's a mediocre RPG at best.

 

[Eros]

Chrono cross is superior to both games IMO.

 

[SouLeSS]

Only in just about every single way.

 

[El Bastardo]

Chrono Cross was a lump.

No, not a lump of coal.

 

[Spade]

Story and gameplay are where it falters. The music in Chrono Cross, however, is extremely underrated.

 

[fifthfiend]

They very briefly explained it in the game, it's because of the GFs.

And by "briefly explained" he means they said "So how did we all forget about the orphanage we grew up in? I know, using summon monsters must cause amnesia! So we all have that then. Oh well!"

I mean it's been a long time since I played that game and I scoured a lot of the memory of it out of my mind so maybe BW's right that it's actually this incredibly deep system of deepness that they can never actually explain in an intelligble way because of how deep it is, but at the time it definitely seemed like the most blatant excuse for a deus ex inserted for a ridiculously forced plot twist in pretty much anything ever written that wasn't a Brian Bendis comic book.

Let's talk about Chrono Trigger instead. It's totally better, plus it just got released on the DS. Relevant!

I'd be excited about the rerelease except they fiddled with the translation and then added in something or other to make it more connected to Chrono Cross. Which mostly just makes me say why would I pay money for a weaksauced version of the game when I can steal the good version on my laptop for free?

The original CT really was a fantastic game though. Endearing character writing, gripping dramatic arcs, beautiful, imaginative design, clever game mechanics, brilliant music, it's pretty much all there.

Story and gameplay are where it falters. The music in Chrono Cross, however, is extremely underrated.

Underrated? Pretty much any passably sane person I know who's played it acknowledges that as the one actually excellent aspect of the game.

It sucks that such a great soundtrack got attached to what was otherwise a total ****fest of awfulness, but eh, what can you do?

 

[Spade]

I haven't met many people who've played it, so maybe that's why I feel it's underrated. Those I know who have played Chrono Trigger stray away from it based on reputation.

 

[El Bastardo]

I'd be excited about the rerelease except they fiddled with the translation and then added in something or other to make it more connected to Chrono Cross. Which mostly just makes me say why would I pay money for a weaksauced version of the game when I can steal the good version on my laptop for free?

Yeah, they took away the way Frog spoke. Maybe it was meaningless, the way he spoke, maybe it was out of place, but it was awesome and fun, darnit. And it fit his musical theme.

As for the "bonus ending" and the "extra end boss," yes, it's made to connect the game to Chrono Cross better, which is not beneficial, and it's horrid, lazy, sloppy writing to boot.

I'd agree with Souless that CT is overrated, though. And I don't mean that as a negative about the game. As far as Squaresoft games go, it's top-notch. But there's plenty of better games out there. Although, there aren't a lot of games that do much with time travel, or necessarily do it less problematically or in a better way. I'm probably mind-blanking, but I can only think of the Legacy of Kain series.