Foreword (Report #005)

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☉ Platform: NES
₪ Genre: Action, Adventure
☑ Release date: February 1986
♬ Soundtrack: Title Theme and Dungeon Theme

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Oh boy, time to tackle the Zelda at long last. As I may have mentioned previously I've pretty much avoided most of Nintendo's franchises over the years as much as I've avoided, well, their consoles. There has been no tangible reason why things unfolded that way, they just did. So it's time to rectify and where else to start but at the very beginning of the series. Dipping my toes in it's time for The Legend of Zelda. Surprisingly enough this might be a short entry seeing as I won't, and can't in all honesty, pretend like I know what I'm talking about [yet] nor was I there for the historical impact back in the day. Meaning I can only really judge the game on its own merits as seen from today's point of view. Good news is it certainly has merit even today.

As far as the story is concerned we're presented with a simple premise – evil Gannon is up to no good stealing Triforce, but at the same time princess Zelda broke her own into eight parts and hid them across the world. Now it falls onto Link, our hero, to locate all the pieces. Only screen of the story you get in the game summarizes this in probably even fewer words before the game unceremoniously drops you into the world. It's also cheeky enough to not give you a sword, but instead you hit up the nearest cave where this old man hands you your starter weapon and you're off. This is the extent of storytelling in the game itself, but a lot, and I mean a lot, of the real info is contained in the manual – not only expanded hints you'll need as general hints, but also a lot about enemies, equipment as well as part of the walkthrough to get you started.

Speaking of equipment it is worth noting that what you begin with is merely that, a starting point. You will be replacing it, either by purchasing new stuff like the improved shield, damage reducing rings, etc or more often than not finding some in the wilderness and dungeons. To fund your purchases you'll need Rupees which are this world's currency acquired from defeated enemies or from hidden places. And oh boy, you want to find all those hidden spots by breaking rock walls with bombs or burning bushes away with a candle. While you don't need any of the extras to go through dungeons, you will want to locate as many of them as you can to make your life easier. Be it health extenders in the form of heart containers or a brand new sword all of them will make your dungeon delves much easier.

To touch on the world a bit. A good third or so of the game's dungeons can be done in any order you desire before missing amenities like raft, bow, whistle, etc start getting in the way of things. This design principle extends to the world itself – majority is explorable from the very beginning, provided you can handle enemies and don't get hurt too much, but there's plenty of routes and hidden bonuses you'll need to hold on for a bit before you can reach them. I really like how dungeons are set up in The Legend of Zelda and the way they're not just “rush through and kill everything”. Sure, there are enemies that need to be killed to drop a key, but you'll also be descending to a deeper level to get that dungeon item, fight the mandatory boss at the end, lighting up dark rooms with your candle, etc. Finding said dungeons can sometimes be annoying because not all have very ornate and obvious entrances and instead require almost random destruction of the locales like using already mentioned bombs to destroy parts of the rock wall. Said dungeons also slowly but surely ramp up in complexity and difficulty leading to multiple bosses and final Death Mountain being practically a military complex-tier of installment compared to earlier ones.

Peak of The Legend of Zelda's storytelling right here.

Forgetting to check out what each button does could you leave you stranded for a long time.

Bring your glasses. You might need them for NEON™ dungeons.

There is this immense feeling of satisfaction as you get better over time and for me that felt intact playing the game today over 30 years later. You begin incredibly weak, working your way around the basic sword but I think the moment game turns around and gives you that tiny nudge is when you locate the first heart container. Considering you begin with only three hearts, effectively six hits, this addition of an additional one is big safety net. This design principle extends to everything else in the game as well by making you more and more confident as you wander around in an unknown world without any real guidance aside from cryptic hints from crones and sages. Whether these hints were intentionally vague or merely poorly translated is beyond my knowledge, though.

I promised you a short one and by god I will deliver. Would I recommend The Legend of Zelda on the NES? Yes and no. I did enjoy it immensely and it was certainly a trip down the memory lane to school of design where omnipresent hand-holding of today was thankfully absent, but I can also see how someone from this modern era could get seriously frustrated with the game in record time.

Vagueness is the name of the game and you're expected to use that noggin. Not to solve some complex puzzles or alike, but rather to go back to the roots and see if you can stand face-to-face with history.

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☉ Platform: PlayStation 2
₪ Genre: Action, Adventure
☑ Release date: September 2008
♬ Soundtrack: Face To Face and Beast Itself

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It has been quite a while since I played the original Yakuza in its entirety, briefly covered elsewhere, and now I take a crack at its sequel – Yakuza 2. How does this sequel compare to what was to become the progenitor of a relatively niche yet successful series? Has SEGA, well, SEGA'd it? Let's find out. I will try to avoid repeating what I said about the first game. Don't hold me to it, though.

After we go through the prologue, which we can safely assume is set at some point earlier in time considering we see a familiar face when he was younger, story proper takes place one year after the events of the original. Now, I'm unsure what to say about spoilers and story in a game that besets you with a good fifteen minute long “Previously on Yakuza” recap video to remind you what transpired previously or to introduce brand new players to the game, but let's just keep it safe and say Kazuma is now taking care of Haruka and they're off to go pay their respects at a cemetery. While there they meet up with Terada, one of Kazuma Kiryu's acquaintances and a big shot in Yakuza's Tojo clan, but things suddenly go wrong as a hit squad shows up and Terada doesn't get out. Bequeathing his bloody will to Kazuma it falls on our hero's tattooed back to solve the mess Tojo clan is currently in.

I'm now imagining half of you thinking “What the hell is Tojo clan?” having read what I wrote above and that kinda portrays Yakuza 2's main “problem”, so to speak, when we get to the story – it's less personal compared to the first game, which already had a lot of characters and affiliations in the background to keep track of, and instead more about the stalemate between Tojo clan and Omi family. You're still giving me the stink eyes, I can tell... I'll attempt to explain further. After the events of the first game Tojo clan, one criminal group in the Yakuza in Kansai region that Kazuma belonged to, was left essentially in tatters. Seeing this display of weakness Omi family, another Yakuza criminal group operating out of Osaka, decides to make their move. This translates into a lot more, I hesitate to say political but that's exactly what it is, kind of story where faction affiliations and rank play an even bigger role. I'm just saying you might get easily confused and just go with the flow without understanding what's happening if you don't pay attention.

Good things do come from this greater focus on Osaka-based Omi family, though. I'm talking about a second city where you can do all the good stuff like side activities, gathering keys to unlock lockers, subplots aplenty, etc. Which means that beside largely familiar Kamurocho stomping grounds you now also get to go to Sotenbori as well. This is one of those cases where you really can't complain about more of the good stuff, especially because the first city looks very similar so you'd get bored very quickly if that was all you had to explore again.

Some new additions that are less visible at first glance, but I imagine very much appreciated by fans of the original, were things like fine-tuned combat system, expanded HEAT system for grand finishers, easier way to trick missions and collectibles, etc. Combat improvements in particular are something to be grateful for – you will immediately spot that dealing with multiple enemies is much more manageable in the sequel, but Yakuza 2 does not sacrifice slower and what could be called cumbersome approach to fighting. Just like earlier button mashing will get you nowhere, but I feel there's more leeway now with the expanded inventory system and three “armor” slots that let you beef up defenses if you feel the need to. Cloth wraps for flat armor rating boosts are now joined by armored shin guards to protect against getting tripped and things like that.

Something I felt major enough to warrant its own mention like this has to be the game's backend because tech has been greatly improved and no longer do you have to stare at loading screens before battles for an extended period of time. Basically every individual aspect that felt lacking earlier has been tightened and plays as-intended. Major props to the team for this when you take into account it's still running on the same hardware.

Cleaning house, part deux.

Trip to Osaka, while short, is a game changer.

I wasn't aware people were lining up for bokken spanking...

Storage, save point and a friendly face – is there something this bar can't do?

She drinks bears and is in-sync with your combat routine. Put a ring on that one, Kiryu.

Digging past all the additions and more into the game itself you will find Yakuza 2 very similar to the first Yakuza. Too similar for some, myself included. This is still an action adventure styled after Japanese TV dramas with a ton of optional content. So optional, in fact, that unless the gambling and hostess activities interest you personally you'll find yourself with millions of yen and nothing to really spend it on except for some pawn shop curios. Game fully expects you to get into that stuff and get brand name perfumes, clothes, etc as gifts. Good news is none of that is ever forced on you and acquiring money from semi-random encounters will do you just fine for your needs. Semi-random? Oh yes, tough guys and other Yakuza members will challenge you in the middle of the street for a quick beat 'em up session. Unless you run into them, which tends to happen quite a bit honestly, you can work your way around them as they'll signal the encounter. There are still fast food places you go to recover health, fine pubs to drink actual authentic drinks the team got product placement rights for and I still can't get used to buying medicine at mom and pop's places.

For all the negativity the first Yakuza game got for its dub I'm sure going with Japanese-only voices could detract from the experience for a lot of people unused to reading subtitles. Thankfully game keeps a database of characters for you to check up on if you forget who's who and there's a much clearer way to tell what you should be doing now, especially when your map fails to convey specific pointers. Voices may be different, but the soundtrack is still absolutely kickass ranging from mellow bar and soothing emotional moments to really pumped combat. It suits to have an appropriate tune when you're busting someone's head open with a traffic cone, wouldn't you agree?

So, in closure. Go play the first game. If you're capable of playing Yakuza 2, whether on original PS2 or through emulation, there's no reason to jump into the second game. If you're just here for my recommendation though, it's a firm YES. Successor improved a lot of the first game's shortcomings and yet it still feels very much alike. You'll be right at home.

P.S.

For those interested these screenshots were taken with the PCSX2 emulator. While Yakuza 2 does support 16:9 display it does not look nearly clean native.

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₪ Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure
☑ Publication date: October 1973
⇲ Pages: 127

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Second book in the Cap Kennedy series, but entirely friendly to a new reader jumping in blind, Slave Ship from Sergan is definitely a throwback to how Science Fiction used to be written some decades ago. Does that make it good or bad? As usual, we're here to figure that out so let's get to it.

Probably the most surprising thing in the book is that despite having a Gary Stu protagonist, I'll get to that when I talk about characters themselves later down the road, it doesn't actually open up with him and his shenanigans – instead we're treated to the novel's antagonist and how he's dealing with his own hardships. What hardships? Well, being the youngest reptilian spawn of a ruling family on Obrac governed by his father, former and now deceased ruler of the planet, making light of him in the will by leaving him desolate planet Sergan while his brothers got the good inheritance and rule back home. As he is raging away on a desolate good-for-nothing planetoid his sly feline adviser proposes a plan where they might exploit Sergan for its precious stones. Which would be a reasonable plan if not for two tiny problems; Obrac denizens are lizard warrior people who live for fighting and pleasure, and they have no money to get the excavations going. Being the ruthless people that they are our two villains come up with a plan on how to get what they want with minimum investment and reap all the profits...

Getting back to the characters is where things kinda fall apart, though.

Not necessarily because they're badly written but rather because this was the intended model they were written in on purpose. Our protagonist is Cap Kennedy himself, a sort of James Bond, special ops and given full authority rolled into one package. He's the kind of guy who has the government on speed dial through secret contacts and is a master of various alien endurance and combat techniques which, combined with his general expertise in combat, makes him a very dangerous individual. Problem is now I've pretty much told you everything about Cap as a person. He's a hyper competent guy who can find a way out of everything, can read situations with ease and plan contingency plans on the fly, etc. He's a Gary Stu who never really grows or develops as a character, but like I said earlier I don't think making a humanized character was really the intention. We're meant to accept Cap is a notch above everyone else even if they do get a leg up on him couple of times. This results in no sense of danger as you know he'll find a way out.

Remaining characters don't really get much attention aside from Elgha Zupreniz, the rogue Obrac prince. Spotlight is focused on him couple of times but it mainly serves to show how cruel and honestly simple he is, but both of those may be traits of the Obrac people as a whole. Or at least their nobility from what we see. He is shown to have changed a bit under the influence of his adviser Sina Lahari as he adopts the “wait and let things sort themselves out” at times as opposed to just rushing in blindly. Which leads to a peculiar situation where the antagonist, as brash and vindictive as he remains, actually embarks on very minor character development when the protagonist does not. Odd, to say the least.

Having read the story synopsis and the title of the novel I'm sure you've put two and two together for what goes down, but it is this kind of archetypal and basic structure that lends itself to a novel of this type. Nothing complex, deep or extensively developed but it's a signature space opera adventure with some subterfuge, dangerous monsters to overcome and ultimately a personal combat to resolve the finale. None of these things are bad, mind you, I'm just saying to adjust expectations accordingly and account for the period Slave Ships from Sergan was published in. It is remarkably easy to read as it has a natural flow that doesn't get hung up on any details and then delves into unnecessary explanations, though.

In the end it's a mixed experience, but one I found leaning more to the enjoyable side of the spectrum. Take it as a one-off and with just over hundred pages it doesn't overstay its welcome.

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₪ Genre: Fantasy, Mystery
☑ Publication date: October 2010
⇲ Pages: 26

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There's no rule stating you can't tell a good story in as few pages as possible, but I don't thinkThe Lost Pathfinder exactly qualifies in this particular example. I'm kinda torn for words on how to review it because it's so damn short and, aside from the fact little happens in it aside from giving lots of descriptions, and essentially just sets up the events that proceed it.

I will point out this short story can be read completely for free by checking out the image to the left as it links to Paizo's official site.

Part honestly boring monologues of a noble turned detective, or is it the other way around maybe, Varian Jeggare and part pretty interesting snippet from a life of his bodyguard Radovan, this short piece reads exactly like you'd expect fiction along those lines to read. I wish there was more to this, but you can probably guess what each of the respective chapters goes like; noble is tired of his life, keeps getting drunk and yearns for something else as his social strata abandons him despite years of discreet favors – on the other hand a tiefling bodyguard is hired by said noble years ago, despite it being a largely unpopular decision for something of his rank to do, and is pretty damn loyal to his employer. That's the state of things until one day Radovan gets the news Varian is on the hit list and it's up to him to save the day. There. That's the summary of the entire short story.

Not to say The Lost Pathfinder doesn't do some things more right than others, though. It's very evocative with liberal use of descriptions and we do get to see inner workings of the two main characters, as cliché as they may be. Considering this is still a Pathfinder book you don't need to know anything about the setting and what you might miss, like who Hellknights are and various gods that get mentioned, is not that important. For those who are fans though, it is nice to see Cheliax more developed. I did expect it to be a lot more diabolical considering they worship Asmodeus over there. There are hints of this, but seeing as entire story is more of a low-key mercenary job, albeit with potential to develop further seeing as it's not really explained other than who must not> have ordered the assassination, it's never brought to front aside from some jabs and hints from Varian himself here and there..

Kinda short this one, but I suppose it's appropriate. I'm not saying this is a bad piece – just one working within its limited framework, and even then it's perfectly content to be generic. If you want a very short fix of fantasy, or just can't read a full length Pathfinder novels that also exist, this might be for you. Being freely available might also help.

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₪ Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
☑ Original run: February 2017
⇲ Episodes: 2

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This was a weird two-parter. Technically it doubles as a movie when you watch the two parts back-to-back, but I think it should be pointed out because there's a distinct difference in tone and structure between the two episodes. I'll get to that eventually as I attempt to review The Dragon Dentists. Let's just say strangeness extends beyond merely its title and intriguing premise. I should point out there was an 8 minute preview which I haven't seen, but I don't imagine it changes that much considering it's a preview and full episodes were made after that received favorable response.

We open to what appears to be a convoy of WW2 war ships as they're being surprise bombarded by something beyond effective firing range and they have no idea what's going on. Then a barrage straight from hell unleashes and as the last ship is going down, moments before impending explosion, we see one of the officers seeing something in the sky and cursing “that damn Dragon”. It is with this teaser that we move to a ridiculous place – city being suspended by ropes as it hangs from a Dragon lazily gliding across the sky. Young girl called Nonoko goes through her morning wake-up routing and grabs a strange crowbar/pickax tool and heads to her job. What's her job? Keeping the great Dragon's teeth clean from cavities that manifest themselves as these black spirit things crawling out of from his teeth during the night. This morning is different though, as she finds a young boy amidst the teeth. It is determined that he has been “resurrected through Dragon's teeth”, which is an ill omen signaling upcoming strife, and Dragon Dentists decide he is to become one of them. His training and destiny are about to begin...

That was a bit strange and read like a plot dump, didn't it? Thankfully that's the strangeness out of the way for the most part as majority of the first episode deals with fish-out-of-water character Bell getting used to the state of things in Dragon Country. This is a bit tricky because he's not from there and his own country is fighting them with Dragon's blessing tilting the odds for the opposition. Nonoko, being the energetic and loyal girl dedicated to her work, gets Bell as her junior and this is where a lot of the shenanigans come from. After all, hanging from ropes and swinging around as you wash the giant teeth, fight off spirit beings and get acclimated to working with the enemy, so to speak, can't be easy.

But there's a lot more going on in the background as all Dragon Dentists have baggage of their own, some more than others and that ignites the main story of the show, and Bell's reasons for getting on the Dragon are only part of it. This war between the Dragon Country, which is comprised of more than just the Dragon itself and settlement riding on top of it – entity that serves more as a mobile base and secret weapon everyone knows about but can't stop – and this other country Bell comes from is constantly in the background at what seems to be WW2 level of technology. Except there's a Dragon flying around and one side has a contract with it, giving them an advantage of some sort.

Ever been so unlikable even bullets don't wanna be around you?

Ummu-mmu-mmmuuu.

Dragons and typhoons? I'm sure nothing could go wrong!

Sometimes getting liquored up on high altitude is the correct course of action.

Good thing air traffic is so non-existent.

With all that put aside what really got me invested in The Dragon Dentists were the characters themselves. Nonoko and Bell are obviously our protagonists, but I don't think they see that much development as former is resigned to her fate, it comes with the job you see, and latter merely comes to terms with something he realized a long time ago. His wishy-washy indecisiveness does take center stage once or twice for directing the course of action, but that belief in free will is used very well to contrast determinism. Both of which are one of the central themes of the show and sadly one that doesn't get explored nearly enough. I think it's a fair assessment to state a lot of things are left ambiguous, half-said or just hanging in the air. There are also other characters in the show, like Shibana and Godo, who really come off as layered in their own right and at generally more interesting than our two leads. Hell, I really wanted to know more about Blanco and his backstory.

As you can see above the visuals are very competent with one exception – the CG Dragon which really stands out as a sore thumb. There is more CG, but considering it's used for machinery or obfuscated with quick action it comes off as more passable compared to Dragon being on full display and it could've been a lot better. Everything regarding Dragon Country is handled exquisitely, though. There's something awe inspiring about seeing all those giant teeth and how characters go about them like it's nothing special. Use of soft colors is paired up nicely with more robust and hard edge visuals of intense battlefields and non-fantastical aspects of the setting.

This one gets a middling recommended from me. It's a good two-parter. Competently done and within its scope, but I couldn't shake the feeling there's a lot more to this world we're not seeing. Xam'd flashbacks felt very vivid at times. I wonder if we might get a proper sequel one day considering it ended on this open finale and there were quite a few hooks left.