Austin returns to the podcast after a few weeks of thinking about mechs, and finding rest and relaxation by staying up until the wee hours of the morning while—well, thinking about mechs. He’s joined by Patrick, Cado, Rob, and Natalie to revisit Kingdom Hearts III as everyone nears the ending (no spoilers!), while also touching on Daemon X Machina, Betrayal Legacy, Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee, the medical world’s recent decision to inflate Patrick’s stomach, and the THQ Nordic/8Chan fiasco from last week. Oh, and for some godforsaken reason, we spend a long time talking about Joe Wright's Pan movie from 2015.
There’s a definite change in the way Kingdom Hearts handles the Disney worlds ever since the first game. In the first game, the worlds and their stories were clearly all part of the overarching plot with the villains from the movies being all in cahoots, trying to achieve their KH specific goal while Sora looks for his friends as well as the keyhole to each world. The stories in each world never quite hits the same story beats as the movies, too. Sure, you have Jafar wishing to become an all-powerful genie after claiming the lamp, but there’s no magic carpet ride in the night. Sure, you have Ariel and King Triton bickering and Triton being turned into one of those creepy things, but you also have Triton being one of the few people in the KH universe who actually knows about the existence of the keyblade and the other worlds at that point. Him knowing about that stuff existed both to deepen the mystery of the keyblade but also the more immediate goal of having him serve as the stern father figure he is to Ariel, but to Sora instead.
In KH2, though, Agrabah just makes you go through Return of Jafar and Atlantica’s there to serve you the musical highlights from the movie. And they’re by no means out of the norm. It’s a real shame.
I love when Joe Wright is on his bullshit. When he enters full craft-fetish mode, theatrics and technique push plot and characters out of the way to take center stage, from which they scream “HEY LOOK AT HOW FUCKIN COOL I AM!!!” and I don’t mind because it is legit incredibly fucking cool to behold.
When I think of Atonement, I think of an incredibly strong wartime tragedy, but I also think of the nearly six-minute long take on Dunkirk Beach, which (as with any long take in cinema history) exists partly in an effort to impress the viewer, who knows it must have been hard to pull off. When I think of Anna Karenina, I literally don’t think of anything else besides the replication of theatre stagecraft, as the camera dances and dips through sets sliding out of frame and characters changing wardrobe mid-sentence as they transition into a new scene. I don’t think that the stagecraft angle supports the story in any meaningful way, but it sure is neat! His work is shamelessly self-indulgent, and I just don’t mind. Check out this transition in Anna Karenina for a taste of how that movie ‘works’:
Apparently the lore reason for smells like teen spirit being there is black beard kidnaps children all through time, so at some point he nabbed modern era children and now its a sea shanty for time travelling pirates.
I’ve been meaning to remark this:
It seems to me ever since Lobby 1 was taken away from Waypoint and they shuffled from bunker to bunker, an energy or spirit has inhabited all of the staff to a wondrous, heightened state that is perfect for our absurd (to put it mildly) times.
Thank you Lobby 1 for your sacrifice, and thank you Waypoint.
P.S. I had a good time with Daemon X Machina - Prototype Missions, and I hope Marvelous Games’ First Studio will be able to smooth the frame rate for the Unreal Engine 4 game. I took the survey Nintendo hands out, but I missed my chance to complain about the frame rate since there wasn’t an explicit box to voice graphics or performance concerns. Lastly, it seems the demo will be unavailable after March 11th, 2019. I wonder what happens if I keep the download past that. Maybe it will phone the eShop and block me from playing it.
Also, in case anyone was interested that 99% conviction rate statistic is absolutely a real thing. There’s a bunch of reasons for this but essentially if you’re being taken to court in japan it’s because the prosecution is convinced you have no chance of winning.
I’m telling you. 5:00AM wake up is where it’s at (If your job / family life / situation allows it). I get up nice and early every day and spend 1.5 - 2 hours doing personal activities before work. I love it.
I’m dying to know what Gundam 'Cado built. I’m just finishing up F-91.
That’s a pretty good reason tbh.
I wrote a very good joke here about Bioshock Infinite getting one of its best ideas from Pan then fact checked myself and Pan came out after that game and it’s less funny the other way around.
But maybe the devs borrowed that idea from the future
Im curious how much the process differs in Japan compared to the US. Is there a fairly lengthy process before someone is brought to trial and how many cases are thrown out because they aren’t clear cut?
Thanks for linking it. Talking about a video clip for nearly 12 minutes and then not linking to it in show notes is not really user friendly for a podcast.
As a father of three, I was very amused by Patrick’s silence while the rest of the crew discussed their varying approaches to when they feel like waking up and when they choose to go to sleep. Oh, how I long for the days when I had any role in those decisions! The best I get now is to decide whether to go to bed around 1030 and be only slightly sleep deprived, or if I will play video games until around midnight and really regret it when I’m feeding an infant at 3AM and trying not to fall asleep while holding him.
Nice one. I’ve got the Nu-Gundam Ver. Ka all set and ready to roll. I’m just finishing up the base for the original F-91. I’ll post a pic in the appropriate thread when it’s done, I think it looks quite good if I may say so myself.
I can’t wait to see! I have the Nu Ver Ka too, it’s been taunting me for a 3 years now. I need to get a few more kits under my belt before I tackle it.
