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8/10/11 01:03![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scarletmorningReal life first: I've been to a psychiater today. It was.... okay. I'm not too sure if I like her yet. I'll see how the next few meetings go and decide then.
Now, today I come with a rant. A rant about Golden Sun 3: Dark Dawn and why it sucks. As a sequel to the other games and on its own. All of the following is only my opinion, of course. Also, full of spoilers.
Characters:
The characters are all pretty much one-dimensional and boring. Matthew is our typical silent protagonist, so it's no surprise that he hasn't much of a personality and I'm perfectly okay with that. Isaac and Felix were silent protagonists in their respective games as well (though it was pretty strange that they suddenly found/lost their voice XD). However, the others who have dialogue aren't much better. They are more or less all reduced to two or three traits. And unfortunately those traits are terribly annoying. Tyrell gets the worst, imo. He is reduced to The Idiot Who Has A Few Bright Moments and The One Who Always Disagrees At First. Garet had moments like this as well, but in contrast to his son, he actually shows other sides as well. Rief... I couldn't even really tell you how he is, what his characteristics are. He either just agrees or disagrees with someone or repeats what someone else said (which all do, really, but he doesn't get to do much more). Karis... she is painted as the bright one and yet they still all act stupid so I'm really not buying it. It is unbelievable how long they need to figure really obvious things out. The other characters... are even less "memorable". Only Eoleo by virtue of me remembering him from GS2 and because he is a pirate. And he doesn't get much more characterization than that anyway.
One highly annoying thing that more or less all characters do is repeating shit over and over again. I already got what we have to do the first time you said it. You do not have to repeat it three times with everybody agreeing that, yes, we should do that and it's a great idea and we love each other so, so much. Yes, they are all happy all the time and immediately become friends with everybody a few minutes after meeting them. They distrust almost no one and always tell them what they do and no, nobody could EVER trick you, oh no. They are annoyingly naive and Tyrell, the only one who voices distrust sometimes, gets beaten down for it by Karis. Only when Karis agrees with the distrust, Tyrell is not chided. Unfortunately, the hard facts have to slap her in the face until Karis and the others get that, you know, maybe someone is tricking you and using you.
There are, unfortunately, also no side characters that could balance that out. Most of them are on the same level of smartness and charisma.
So, first conclusion: I hate the main characters and want to slap them. Hard. Also, they were in deadly peril and I contemplated to let them die just to see if it would really happen = very, very bad sign for me. (I just didn't do it because I would have to do the dungeon again and I DESPISE this fucking dungeon)
Villains:
The villains, Blados (Truco in German), Chalis (Jass) and "Arcanus", are average. They are not that bad (well, Arcanus is, but more on that in a minute). They're incredibly annoying (in a ... okay way) and I hate them with a passion. More because of the fact that they're puppetmasters and not the best at that so that I as the gamer obviously see that those fuckers are using me while my party STILL hasn't got it. And I can't circumvent it because the game is linear so I have to follow them and I. Hate. This. So. Much.
And yet, even though they're not that bad they still have no real personality and are just "annoying". They have by far not the depth of Saturos and Menardi or Karst and Agatio (though those last too were skirting the border too "one dimensional boring villains" a few times as well) nor do they seem to have any kind of interesting backstory or goal. They just... want to take over the world or something. Which seems to be EVERYBODY´S and their grandma´s plan anyway. It gets tiring after a while.
Now, "Arcanus", my dear, dear friend... Reusing Alex as the mastermind villain is incredibly cheap. You should've seen my face the first time I played it and I noticed "Fuck, this is really Alex". I was able to deal with much of the other shit because the game has a few good sides. But that was the last straw. That is such a cheap way to get a super awesome villain. Alex died in game 2 and it was awesome. I liked that end. I already hated Alex in the first two games because he was a smug asshole and not one of the "Asshole and yet somehow interesting and awesome" variety. I loved that he died. And now they bring the fucker back? The story writer gets all of my hate.
Second conclusion: The villains stink. The other games had far better and more sympathetic villains. I was sad when Saturos and Menardi died (also because I started to ship them because of their final words and then falling together <3), even more after playing GS2. They were great villains. I also felt sad when I had to kill Karst and Agatio. They were also good villains. They had interesting backstories and motivations. Those three above? They suck and I enjoy killing them.
Worldbuilding:
Expanding on an existing world can be hard, I know. You have to watch out that it fits with the feeling of the previous games. After lighting the four light houses, the world was bound to change, just because of the amount of psynergy. And I can take a certain amount of change, I was prepared for that. However.
This does not feel like Weyard. Not in the slightest. If I hadn't known that this is Weyard and Golden Sun, I would not have guessed it.
Let me expand on this. During the first hour or so this is not the case. The design and feeling of the first two towns fits with the first two games. The third town is also still in the range "believable". But then my ability to suspend my disbelief steadily disclined. Suddenly there was some strange "backstory" about an ancient folk named "Jenei", there was an obviously Chinese inspired town (which is not a bad thing in itself, I'll come back to that in a minute), then the town on top of the mountain, the mountain and the folk we haven't heard before about in the other two games EVEN THOUGH we have seen most parts of the world? Then we hear about Sana and a bunch of people with Chinese sounding names from even another country turn up, whose country seemingly has existed for more than those 30 years and yet we haven't seen even a hint of them in the other two games? And don't get me started on the Islands! Where did this come from? Where could they have hidden?
No, I'm sorry, but you can't just throw an ancient folk at me and tell me "Oh, they existed the whole time, yes, yes" and expect me to swallow that like that?
Also, coming back to the Chinese inspired thing. Yes, there was Xian in GS1 so it would no surprise that towns like that could turn up again. And if Xian or only one of the new towns had appeared, it would've been awesome. However, the problem is that a whole lot of diversity was lost. Every town in the other games was different and seemingly inspired by different cultures and styles. But in GS3 I found far less diversity. Also because you seem to have less world and towns than in the other games. I liked the design of the towns. But if I look at all of them together, they are much more boring. And this lacking diversity is one of the things that make it feel so... not-like-Weyard.
The second big thing: the animal people.
Let me preface with saying; yes, there were werewolfs in GS2. However, these animal people are different and kinda come close to the Laguz, actually.
And that might tell you exactly why I have a problem with them. They do not fit. Now, it is not as if they are not "explained". They changed because of psynergy, just as the people in GS2 became werewolfs because of psynergy. However, this has seemingly barely any bearing on anything. There is a little mention here and there that normal humans distrust the animal people and stuff but that is, what, 2 or 3 times? And in such a long script it's pretty little. So they are just there. And I as the gamer am expected to just swallow and accept it. Yeah, no. If it had been more plausible or interesting, maybe I could've accepted it as an extention of the werewolf thing. It would've still been a stretch of my disbelief, but I could've done it. But. It was not properly handled so it stuck out.
Third conclusion: The worldbuilding was done badly and this is not the world I've travelled through in the other games. In a negative sense.
Storyline:
This is probably the point where most of my problems lie. Of course, characterization plays into this as well.
So, you have more or less two big "plot threads": 1. Get a Roc feather, 2. Save [Person X/Country Y] on your way there. You have to do 1, because big black holes made from psynergy are threatening the world and swallow all psynergy and kill people. Sounds interesting? Yes it does and boy, did I want to find out. Number 2, now, is used to distract the gamer from 1. Which is number 1 of my reasons for not liking it.
Unfortunately, plot thread 1. is forgot pretty much completely very early in the game, which was a big disappointment for me. Every now and then someone would remember that Hey, we have a feather to find. Not WHY this is urgent but just because they have to do that. In the beginning Isaac and Garet even stress that this is urgent, because those black holes are REALLY dangerous. We even see two instances, ini which they show their danger. And yet our party dallies around everywhere.
So you walk around, help people and save people and get used by the villains and activate machines you know nothing about, which will bite you in the ass later, and help just about everyone and then cause to activate machines that can/will destroy the world, etc. The usual fare. Which was ALSO terribly disappointing, because I did not give a fuck about the fate of those people. I wanted to know more about plot thread 1. But the game didn't let me. Is this a fail of the writer or is it just a matter of taste? I don't know. I just know that the plot thread was dropped after an hour and replaced.
And suddenly picked up again one minute before the end. Yes, it is a cheap trick to make you buy GS4. And I hate this. I'm sorry. I understand trying to make a cliff hanger so that the audience wants to buy the next game. But this cliff hanger is so... badly made it's unbelievable. It made me so fucking angry that they stop when it becomes interesting. After I spend 20+ hours trying to get through the rest so that I can finally investigate the vortexes? Fuck you. Dropping a plot thread like that is shitty writing.
That said, the plot thread 2 is not that bad. If they hadn't pulled the stunt with plot thread 1, I might have enjoyed PT2 a bit. It could've happened. It would never become a favourite, but I would also not believe that this game was mostly a waste of money.
Positive Things:
Because there are some. I did like many of the dungeons. I love the dungeon with the 12 zodiac signs and the Kolima Forest and a few others. Some of the riddles were pretty easy, but still enjoyable enough. The fighting system is the same as in the first two games, so it was still good. The psynergy was modified and works a bit different, which makes new types of riddles possible. I like the new system, though I'd say it's on the same level as the old system. The design of the charaters is overall pretty (Nowell looks really cute and I like Karis´ outfit) and the animations are good.
Also, adorbs Djinns. They look a bit cuter in GS3. And they get a little text. Oh, and the talking earth djinn you get in Kolima is funny.
Conclusion:
Golden Sun 3 could be a good game. Maybe if they had taken more time or looked at the old games more often and maybe thought a bit more about the plot, it were better. Unfortunately they didn't.
So, to cheer us up after such a long rant, here have a link to some Golden Sun 1 4koma 8D
Now, today I come with a rant. A rant about Golden Sun 3: Dark Dawn and why it sucks. As a sequel to the other games and on its own. All of the following is only my opinion, of course. Also, full of spoilers.
Characters:
The characters are all pretty much one-dimensional and boring. Matthew is our typical silent protagonist, so it's no surprise that he hasn't much of a personality and I'm perfectly okay with that. Isaac and Felix were silent protagonists in their respective games as well (though it was pretty strange that they suddenly found/lost their voice XD). However, the others who have dialogue aren't much better. They are more or less all reduced to two or three traits. And unfortunately those traits are terribly annoying. Tyrell gets the worst, imo. He is reduced to The Idiot Who Has A Few Bright Moments and The One Who Always Disagrees At First. Garet had moments like this as well, but in contrast to his son, he actually shows other sides as well. Rief... I couldn't even really tell you how he is, what his characteristics are. He either just agrees or disagrees with someone or repeats what someone else said (which all do, really, but he doesn't get to do much more). Karis... she is painted as the bright one and yet they still all act stupid so I'm really not buying it. It is unbelievable how long they need to figure really obvious things out. The other characters... are even less "memorable". Only Eoleo by virtue of me remembering him from GS2 and because he is a pirate. And he doesn't get much more characterization than that anyway.
One highly annoying thing that more or less all characters do is repeating shit over and over again. I already got what we have to do the first time you said it. You do not have to repeat it three times with everybody agreeing that, yes, we should do that and it's a great idea and we love each other so, so much. Yes, they are all happy all the time and immediately become friends with everybody a few minutes after meeting them. They distrust almost no one and always tell them what they do and no, nobody could EVER trick you, oh no. They are annoyingly naive and Tyrell, the only one who voices distrust sometimes, gets beaten down for it by Karis. Only when Karis agrees with the distrust, Tyrell is not chided. Unfortunately, the hard facts have to slap her in the face until Karis and the others get that, you know, maybe someone is tricking you and using you.
There are, unfortunately, also no side characters that could balance that out. Most of them are on the same level of smartness and charisma.
So, first conclusion: I hate the main characters and want to slap them. Hard. Also, they were in deadly peril and I contemplated to let them die just to see if it would really happen = very, very bad sign for me. (I just didn't do it because I would have to do the dungeon again and I DESPISE this fucking dungeon)
Villains:
The villains, Blados (Truco in German), Chalis (Jass) and "Arcanus", are average. They are not that bad (well, Arcanus is, but more on that in a minute). They're incredibly annoying (in a ... okay way) and I hate them with a passion. More because of the fact that they're puppetmasters and not the best at that so that I as the gamer obviously see that those fuckers are using me while my party STILL hasn't got it. And I can't circumvent it because the game is linear so I have to follow them and I. Hate. This. So. Much.
And yet, even though they're not that bad they still have no real personality and are just "annoying". They have by far not the depth of Saturos and Menardi or Karst and Agatio (though those last too were skirting the border too "one dimensional boring villains" a few times as well) nor do they seem to have any kind of interesting backstory or goal. They just... want to take over the world or something. Which seems to be EVERYBODY´S and their grandma´s plan anyway. It gets tiring after a while.
Now, "Arcanus", my dear, dear friend... Reusing Alex as the mastermind villain is incredibly cheap. You should've seen my face the first time I played it and I noticed "Fuck, this is really Alex". I was able to deal with much of the other shit because the game has a few good sides. But that was the last straw. That is such a cheap way to get a super awesome villain. Alex died in game 2 and it was awesome. I liked that end. I already hated Alex in the first two games because he was a smug asshole and not one of the "Asshole and yet somehow interesting and awesome" variety. I loved that he died. And now they bring the fucker back? The story writer gets all of my hate.
Second conclusion: The villains stink. The other games had far better and more sympathetic villains. I was sad when Saturos and Menardi died (also because I started to ship them because of their final words and then falling together <3), even more after playing GS2. They were great villains. I also felt sad when I had to kill Karst and Agatio. They were also good villains. They had interesting backstories and motivations. Those three above? They suck and I enjoy killing them.
Worldbuilding:
Expanding on an existing world can be hard, I know. You have to watch out that it fits with the feeling of the previous games. After lighting the four light houses, the world was bound to change, just because of the amount of psynergy. And I can take a certain amount of change, I was prepared for that. However.
This does not feel like Weyard. Not in the slightest. If I hadn't known that this is Weyard and Golden Sun, I would not have guessed it.
Let me expand on this. During the first hour or so this is not the case. The design and feeling of the first two towns fits with the first two games. The third town is also still in the range "believable". But then my ability to suspend my disbelief steadily disclined. Suddenly there was some strange "backstory" about an ancient folk named "Jenei", there was an obviously Chinese inspired town (which is not a bad thing in itself, I'll come back to that in a minute), then the town on top of the mountain, the mountain and the folk we haven't heard before about in the other two games EVEN THOUGH we have seen most parts of the world? Then we hear about Sana and a bunch of people with Chinese sounding names from even another country turn up, whose country seemingly has existed for more than those 30 years and yet we haven't seen even a hint of them in the other two games? And don't get me started on the Islands! Where did this come from? Where could they have hidden?
No, I'm sorry, but you can't just throw an ancient folk at me and tell me "Oh, they existed the whole time, yes, yes" and expect me to swallow that like that?
Also, coming back to the Chinese inspired thing. Yes, there was Xian in GS1 so it would no surprise that towns like that could turn up again. And if Xian or only one of the new towns had appeared, it would've been awesome. However, the problem is that a whole lot of diversity was lost. Every town in the other games was different and seemingly inspired by different cultures and styles. But in GS3 I found far less diversity. Also because you seem to have less world and towns than in the other games. I liked the design of the towns. But if I look at all of them together, they are much more boring. And this lacking diversity is one of the things that make it feel so... not-like-Weyard.
The second big thing: the animal people.
Let me preface with saying; yes, there were werewolfs in GS2. However, these animal people are different and kinda come close to the Laguz, actually.
And that might tell you exactly why I have a problem with them. They do not fit. Now, it is not as if they are not "explained". They changed because of psynergy, just as the people in GS2 became werewolfs because of psynergy. However, this has seemingly barely any bearing on anything. There is a little mention here and there that normal humans distrust the animal people and stuff but that is, what, 2 or 3 times? And in such a long script it's pretty little. So they are just there. And I as the gamer am expected to just swallow and accept it. Yeah, no. If it had been more plausible or interesting, maybe I could've accepted it as an extention of the werewolf thing. It would've still been a stretch of my disbelief, but I could've done it. But. It was not properly handled so it stuck out.
Third conclusion: The worldbuilding was done badly and this is not the world I've travelled through in the other games. In a negative sense.
Storyline:
This is probably the point where most of my problems lie. Of course, characterization plays into this as well.
So, you have more or less two big "plot threads": 1. Get a Roc feather, 2. Save [Person X/Country Y] on your way there. You have to do 1, because big black holes made from psynergy are threatening the world and swallow all psynergy and kill people. Sounds interesting? Yes it does and boy, did I want to find out. Number 2, now, is used to distract the gamer from 1. Which is number 1 of my reasons for not liking it.
Unfortunately, plot thread 1. is forgot pretty much completely very early in the game, which was a big disappointment for me. Every now and then someone would remember that Hey, we have a feather to find. Not WHY this is urgent but just because they have to do that. In the beginning Isaac and Garet even stress that this is urgent, because those black holes are REALLY dangerous. We even see two instances, ini which they show their danger. And yet our party dallies around everywhere.
So you walk around, help people and save people and get used by the villains and activate machines you know nothing about, which will bite you in the ass later, and help just about everyone and then cause to activate machines that can/will destroy the world, etc. The usual fare. Which was ALSO terribly disappointing, because I did not give a fuck about the fate of those people. I wanted to know more about plot thread 1. But the game didn't let me. Is this a fail of the writer or is it just a matter of taste? I don't know. I just know that the plot thread was dropped after an hour and replaced.
And suddenly picked up again one minute before the end. Yes, it is a cheap trick to make you buy GS4. And I hate this. I'm sorry. I understand trying to make a cliff hanger so that the audience wants to buy the next game. But this cliff hanger is so... badly made it's unbelievable. It made me so fucking angry that they stop when it becomes interesting. After I spend 20+ hours trying to get through the rest so that I can finally investigate the vortexes? Fuck you. Dropping a plot thread like that is shitty writing.
That said, the plot thread 2 is not that bad. If they hadn't pulled the stunt with plot thread 1, I might have enjoyed PT2 a bit. It could've happened. It would never become a favourite, but I would also not believe that this game was mostly a waste of money.
Positive Things:
Because there are some. I did like many of the dungeons. I love the dungeon with the 12 zodiac signs and the Kolima Forest and a few others. Some of the riddles were pretty easy, but still enjoyable enough. The fighting system is the same as in the first two games, so it was still good. The psynergy was modified and works a bit different, which makes new types of riddles possible. I like the new system, though I'd say it's on the same level as the old system. The design of the charaters is overall pretty (Nowell looks really cute and I like Karis´ outfit) and the animations are good.
Also, adorbs Djinns. They look a bit cuter in GS3. And they get a little text. Oh, and the talking earth djinn you get in Kolima is funny.
Conclusion:
Golden Sun 3 could be a good game. Maybe if they had taken more time or looked at the old games more often and maybe thought a bit more about the plot, it were better. Unfortunately they didn't.
So, to cheer us up after such a long rant, here have a link to some Golden Sun 1 4koma 8D
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