#there were A LOT of issues with pacing and some characters got waaay more time than others | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pkmatrix · 1 year

Text

New Fan Editing Project: Godzilla (1998)

Yep, I’m at it again with fan editing!

I recently completed my third fan edit, an edit of The Relic (1997) (if you’re interested in checking it out, just send me a message), and started thinking about what I could work on next. I considered returning back to my Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla fan edit, but that got me thinking instead about Godzilla (1998).

G’98 is a movie with issues.

I’ve had a bit of a roller-coaster relationship with G’98. I saw the movie in theaters when I was 12, but unlike most I’d actually already seen EVERY Godzilla movie (including the then-recent and not yet released in America Heisei movies, which my parents had bought me imported fansubbed bootlegs of) and walked of the theater having thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t until I read the next issue of G-Fan and saw that every other Godzilla fan in the world had hated it that I suddenly switched gears (so fast my parents were confused) and decided I hated it too. It wasn’t until five years later that I revisited it and my opinion softened, deciding I didn’t hate it after all but just didn’t care much for it. The last time I revisited it - now almost a decade ago - I was struck by how boring a movie it is, and that that’s its greatest sin. Not Godzilla’s radical redesign, not Godzilla’s personality - frankly, nothing to do with Godzilla himself - but the story of the movie is just DULL.

Why?

Lots has been written about how much people dislike Maria Pitillo’s character and performance, but that’s just a symptom of the real issue: the movie WANTS to be a Romantic Comedy. From the start of the film until about 30 to 35 minutes in, the movie is deceptively...fine. More than one person has told me (and it’s happened to me too) that upon revisiting the first Act is actually quite decent and lulls you into thinking maybe you’ve been too hard on it. Then the second Act starts and the film decides it’s going to be a bad Romantic Comedy from now on, often forgetting about Godzilla for LOOONG stretches. Which maybe could be tolerable if Matthew Broderick and Maria Pitillo had chemistry, but they really don’t. What’s worse, neither character really DOES anything - all of the actual decisions in the movie and actual agency rest with the two main supporting characters played by Hank Azaria and Jean Reno. I’ve felt ever since that the movie would’ve been significantly stronger and more watchable had those two been the leads, and the Broderick/Pitillo story reduced to a subplot.

Part of why I hadn’t attempted this before was because, well, I didn’t think there was enough to work with. The movie’s only an 1h 50m, I kept telling myself, and if I made all the alterations I had in mind I’d be left with, what? An hour? There just wasn’t enough there. Except, I’M A MORON. It was while thinking about it again earlier this week that I actually stopped to check what the runtime is, and my jaw dropped:

Godzilla (1998) is 2h 18m long!!

That’s WAAAY too long, and means there’s over 40 MINUTES I could theoretically cut and still be an acceptable feature length (around 1h 30m)!

So that’s what I’m doing.

BROAD STROKES PLAN

Cut back on scenes with Matthew Broderick, Maria Pitillo, and their storylines to reduce them to supporting characters.

Rearrange scenes to improve pacing and create a greater focus on Godzilla, Hank Azaria, and Jean Reno.

If possible, radically reorganize the second half of the film to eliminate the Baby Godzillas storyline which always felt tacked on, derivative of Jurassic Park, and there to pad out the film.

Alter the ending to make Godzilla’s death more ambiguous, or maybe even change it so he lives (had the idea of ending with his eyes reopening, then cutting to black with the sounds of his roar and people screaming).

Examine the feasibility of changing the music choices, as I felt the musical tone is too...whimsical?

I was planning to work on this today but, alas, some stuff has gotten in the way. Still, I’m hoping to give this a try this coming week and see what I can do with the movie.

#godzilla #godzilla 1998 #fanediting

14 notes · View notes

i-am-vpelno · 3 years

Text

JUSTICE LEAGUE SNYDER CUT SPOILERS!!!

So, due to the nature of this film my opinions are going to be all over the place and admittedly biased. I am a huge Justice League fan, I hate Zack Snyder, I hated the original Justice League by Snyder and Whedon and I’m not the biggest fan of Batman or Superman.

The Editing:

I’m kind of between the acknowledgment that this was Frankensteined together and wasn’t meant to be released and the fact that Snyder was given like 70 million to make this movie so what’s up? Let’s start with the negatives. This movie could’ve been waaay shorter by editing out SO MANY unnecessary scenes and slow mo. I can distinctly remember several scenes where I felt awkward just waiting for a character to hurry the fuck up and get where they’re going. This is especially prevalent with the Flash as almost every scene with him is in slow mo despite him being a speedster??? Then there are just “walking scenes” where it was just so so so uncomfortable and pointless watching the characters walk from point A to point B with nothing else interesting going on in the scene. There are strange scenes that don’t really add anything or lead anywhere like the Icelandic lady smelling Arthur’s shirt????? And Steppenwolf getting “permission” from Desaad to interrogate the scientists even though we knew he was going to do that already. A lot of these extra scenes interrupt the pacing as well which is a shame because I think the time would be less daunting if you cut them. I think the worst part though was the soundtrack. They only play Wonder Woman’s theme once in the beginning but then every time an Amazon is on screen they start playing this “lamenting tune” over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again!!! If it’s not the same exact clip from the same exact song I will genuinely be surprised. A lot of it just doesn’t fit the film, I definitely prefer Icky Thump to whatever Snyder had Arthur drinking to.

I didn’t mind Snyder’s color palette this time as I feel like the colors are punched up just a bit. I am so glad they chose to change the entire scenery for the final fight, it was so much more pleasing to look at. Albeit it was dark so...not much visibility lol but it’s understandable. I caught myself catching chills from the suspense and the emotional scenes in this. The emotional heart of this film is definitely there! I love the fight scenes!!! Other than some awkward moments with Batman and the Flash they were amazing!!!! Everyone looks great but I think the cgi shines the most here. I can actually see the parademons clearly now and I like their design. Steppenwolf had the biggest improvement, he was kinda blurry before but he looks great and I LOVE how they chose to show off the armor and his anatomy throughout the film. For this film specifically, I enjoyed the “Part One” things because it fit well in explaining part of Snyder’s vision AND was useful when I needed to take a break from the film. I kind of enjoyed the lack of a wide screen. Like Evangelion, I got the sense that there was more happening around the characters off screen and it greatly added to the mood. One of my favorite scenes is the Barry saves “Iris” (I don’t know if that’s actually Iris West.) This is one of the only times I thought Ezra Miller’s Flash was not only charming, funny and had a neat interpretation of his abilities but this is probably the best use of the weird music and slow mo in the film. I thought it was really cute.

The Story:

By far the biggest improvement upon the original, the added context is not only done well but probably the most interesting part of the film. Though not without its own issues, it adds much needed context, stakes and characterization that wasn’t available in the original. I could summarize that “everything makes sense now” but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We learn so much about Darkseid, his followers and his purpose. The whole “science so advanced it’s like magic” thing was so interesting!!! Cyborg finally has a really well done and AMAZING origin story here!!! I love how Cyborg talking to Superman’s ship and the Mother boxes is used to explain the Injustice future and how dangerous the Mother Boxes really are. It’s really hard to put it into more words than I already have!

There are still a lot of issues but they’re not too big, just pacing and preference things. For instance we didn’t need the first scenes with Lois getting coffee but we did need the ones with her and Martha. However it’s not Martha, so what’s the point? We don’t know the Martian like that yet and we have no context showing that he knows Lois is “the key.” The Flash tends to over explain his abilities at awkward points but that’s an issue I’ll expand on later. The entire “Diana explains Darkseid to Bruce” scene is good but goes on far too long and we didn’t need to see them make the boxes even though it was cool. I hated the Injustice epilogue and the intro to the Martian. We didn’t need to see the entire “break into the lab” scene or the entire convo about bringing back Superman, some of that could’ve been cut. I don’t like how they handled Black Suit Superman. From my own knowledge and reading I know that the context for the black suit is that Superman was weakened and not killed so he wears the black suit to gain his power from the sun slowly, more or less. However it’s just a fashion choice here as Supes only lost his memory. Also, no matter how hard they try this movie is not funny. Besides the jokes we’ve already seen, very few hit and I can’t even remember them. I didn’t laugh once.

The Characters:

I wanna jump into it with how bad the Flash is here. Like I said, him saving “Iris” was pretty damn good but everything around that is awkward, bumbling and forced. My biggest issue is that I’m biased towards the CW’s Flash, who is my preferred live action Flash and I completely disagree with how they’ve treated the Flash’s origin and his father. The best part of the Flash is that he’s kind of like Spider-Man in that he’s super smart and strong but lives humbly and spends most of his time helping his community. And like Spider-Man he has great quips but is easily weakened by his arrogance. This Flash is barely above a hobo and only shows the faintest hints of competence. How did he even get his suit???? Did he steal the parts to make it??? The guy who plays his father is so close to being perfect actually, if they could stop him from sounding like a high frat boy. Seriously there’s “My dad is my best friend” and then there’s “I smoke up with my mom’s sperm donor Fred.” I didn’t even like him in the original however I ever so slightly prefer him to this.

Let me tell you I’m not one to get sincerely mad over a movie, it’s all calm critique over here. However, what they did to my man Martian Manhunter is mildly infuriating. Like I said, him being Martha completely ruins that scene and makes no sense in this film. Why doesn’t he help the justice league???? His formal introduction is so blah and lacks the punch that his character deserves. I was hoping he’d get his own movie or at least something similar to Cyborg in this film. So sad!

Cyborg is obviously the star of this film AS IT SHOULD BE. Again, I’m biased but from my reading and watching of the Mother Box story from the comics, ALWAYS had Cyborg heavily involved somehow because it’s connected to his origin. But goddamn does Ray Fisher absolutely shine and I’m glad Snyder saw that in him too. The depth they go into Cyborg’s origin was great and so entertaining to watch. Hands down consistently the best part of the movie. And he was funny!

I’m going to put Batman and Wonder Woman together because I ship them but also because my critique is fairly similar. I was absolutely shocked by both of them, Diana being faithfully more brutal and Batman being to a point off color by being so soft and hopeful. BUT I ADORED BOTH. There is a balance that many people misunderstand when writing these two characters. They both have the capacity for cold calculation but have big hearts and care a lot about saving people. I hope to see more of this characterization from them. Also, we love to see Alfred being the smart capable father we know he is. I do wish they kept the thing about Bruce confronting Diana about being hung up on Steve because it’s annoying and needs to be addressed.

Superman is boring again here, but it’s the way Snyder writes him so I’m not sure what else I can say. I just don’t like how inhuman Superman seems despite his upbringing. Aqua man was shockingly boring as well. I though he was giving a decent performance, being the laid back, giggly badass from the first film.

I think Steppenwolf was amazing, a few weird flops here and there but a compelling performance that really let us get to know him! Desaad was surprisingly intriguing, mostly due to the vocal performance. Eh Darkseid was definitely different. I was missing his almost regal authority, I always thought of him as an evil emperor and I was a little sad that he didn’t act more like it. Even the Harley Quinn show captured his well founded self righteousness.

The Dreams and Epilogue:

Here’s the thing, I already know this stuff was added for sequel bating but I’d like to address some questions and concerns that I still have. I still prefer Arrow’s Deathstroke to this one, but we’ll see. Jesse Eisenburg simply doesn’t fit as Lex Luthor, even that trick he pulled was poorly done. I wonder if Lex’s body guards are Amazon’s like in the comics. Jared Leto continues to try way too hard as the Joker but actually has some intriguing lines here. Kind of alludes even more that he’s a Robin turned crazy or something. Is this leading to Injustice or APOKOLIPS War?

Anyway, it was a good film! I recommend it!

#justice league Snyder cut #justice league #dceu #Snyder cut #justice league spoilers

3 notes · View notes

th3okamid3mon · 4 years

Text

La Liga de los 5, México has their own heroes [SPOILERS]

Superheroes are very popular now days, kids love them very much, so let Anima Studios jump into the opportunity to tell the story of group of heroes with unique and not orthodox superpowers. Mexicans have a new group of heroes and they are spicy!

Sinopsis:

After their parents passed away, Chema and Dolores have been living together while hiding. After using her powers and getting the attention of the main villain, she gets kidnapped and is held to be used for a ritual that brings back the worst evil the world has seen. Now Chema has to look for his parents´ comrades to save his little sister before it´s too late.

Art design and animation:

Let me get something out of the way: people always talk shit about this studio and about any animated Mexican movie. Mexican movies tend to be either gross humor and obscenities when it comes to animated movies, at least the ones with Huevo Cartoon, even Mexicans talk shit about their own studio! I hate that. Animation here is complicated to take out, people get inspire and do try to give something, to tell a story they believe in and show their creativity. People inside and out of the country have to understand we dont have the same resources but we do try to make something good. Ana y Bruno might not have looked pleasant but what it doesnt have in animation it has in character development and story. La leyenda de la Nahuala might have looked awkward, but the story and the effects (at the time) looked and gave slight horror to the kids who watch it. It´s a try and fail, it´s been a REALLY long time for animation in Mexico and this creators are trying their best, the main things they are using to tell stories might be viewed as over the top but those are practically the main parts of our culture. Of course there´s more, there are legends and places and such but for the love of god give the studio and the creators a break. They are trying to entertain you, they are trying to tell a story of bravery, of family, of accepting one self. STOP SHIT TALKING ABOUT MEXICAN MOVIES AS IF THEY ALL SUCK. THERE ARE PLENTY OF GOOD MEXICAN MOVIES, OLD AND NEW. SAYING MEXICAN MOVIES SUCK IS NOT A PERSONALITY TRAIT, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM EXIST, YOU ARE NOT COOL FOR HATING A MEDIA.

Now where was I? Right.

As always, Anima Studios amazes me with their different animation skills and artwork. Maybe for some people who are used to Pixar or Dreamworks this doesnt look appealing, but hey, it looks way better than I thought, this is actually an improvement from previous works. Their style is recognizable and distinguish. If you dont know which studio is Anima or what they´ve done, maybe you´ve heard of La leyenda de la Nahuala. No? How about Legend Quest? Yep. They made Legend Quest.

The character design is always a treat, everyone look different from each other and always pop in their own ways. Even the background characters look different from each other, this people actually take care to make sure everyone looks unique. For some reason they didn´t use as many models as they used too, it look pretty empty in comparison to their other works but considering this is AN OPERA PRIMA from Maverick Núñez I think they did a really good job.

The main protagonists also come in different shapes:

Just... Look. You can tell everyone apart.

The backgrounds are really eye catching to being waaay too different from the main characters animation, that´s like they common thing now. I dont really mind, they capture what A MEXICAN CITY LOOKS LIKE NOT LIKE OTHER USA OR WHATEVER OTHER COUNTRY PORTRAYS IT. I can´t find many pictures since it has been almost a week after it came out.

The animation looked very fluid, one thing that is really awesome is that they use different types of animation, you have the main 2D and they mix up the 3D animation for villains and other models of backgrounds. Sure it pops up but it doesn´t do it as awkward as before, they made sure to blended a bit better. The effects are fitting and blend WAY better than other movies they´ve done. It looks part of the characters and part of the animation than a separated after effects thing. Anima Studios has improved a lot.

Sound and editing:

I don´t know if you know this, but sometimes some Mexican movies have troubles with sound, general sounds. Sometimes they are way to loud, other times way too low, then it has too much noise or sounds like a sound taken from the internet. This is one of the reasons some people don´t like Mexican movies, though the ones I´ve seen so far have improved more (And let me tell ya, Hollywood movies sometimes have sucky sound too. Really bad sound design sometimes, specially for horror movies and they HAVE A BIGGER BUDGETS! For example: The Conjuring used 20 000 000 dollars, Belzebuth, cost around 191 500 dollars. Like... Bruh).

In this case the sound design was on well done, it wasn´t over the top and the sounds made sense. effects for the cars and the steps do sound like they were done. The designers really tried and accomplish, the dialogues were at the same volume and never were uneven. I liked they didnt use a lot of popular songs, Pachuco was actually a good song for the car chase scene. The music? BOI. I loved it. For some reason they have this whimsical and epic music and I have no idea where they got it. Even in La Leyenda de la Nahuala they always had this type of music: really well made, fitting to the scene, perfect between events and its not over used, letting the silence spaces to be silent and/or letting the background sounds do the job.

The editing had a really fast pace. I´ve notice lately that a lot of animated movies are really fast now or feel really fast, this was way too fast. There´s not exactly enough time to breath, the events pass so quickly you have to pay attention to what´s going on. Even at moments where there has an emotional moment it passes so fast because of a next action. At some point they slow it down but then it makes it fast again. I think the main problem is the time, it is a 1:30 movie like many others but I feel this movie was longer than that so they had to reedit it to make it go faster. Plot is understandable, just fast.

Writing and Characters:

Ah, shit! Here we go again. I like this studio, I like the movies they´ve made (not all of them. Agente -P2? seriously, guys? That was a dark time...), but the writing has always been slightly awkward for me. Sometimes they have too many pauses or what they say doesn´t land correctly. I thought it was the voice actors but no, guys. The voice actors are really good, we have a lot of talent. In general is the writing. They did improve a lot, the pacing and the dialogues were cleaner and sounded natural but for some reason this one has the same problem in certain parts. It´s not like people dont talk like this I think its the pauses that make it weirder. Other than that, the story of the origins of the main 2 is not really original. Then again, as I said before, Originality is a lie. The characters and their powers are the original part. The tale of two siblings that become orphans and have to hide because the main villain is looking for them is old, its what happens around and how the characters act that matters.

It could have used a bit more of a build up, maybe more interactions between the siblings to know them better. The opening scene and introduction was great, it shows you the characters, what happened to the parents and then you flashforward to the main two in their... teenage years? I think they are teens. It´s perfect, but other than that we don´t know Chema or Dolores that well, we know Chema is careful and gets worried a lot while Dolores is a bit more carefree and cheerful, and they interact and you can tell their personalities. i just think it could have used a bit more of their relationship. Dolores powers involve turning into a ghost, flying, going through walls and apparently, being a vessel to bring the evil Dr. Vampire.

The other 4 characters are La Tuna, Catrina, Tetlepanquetzal and Tin Martin.

Tin Martin is kind of annoying to me. He is smart and builds the different gadgets the heroes use, he is really useful and also the comic relief though he actually shows he cares about what I presume are his nephews. Its really competent in his area, all the gadgets he provides work perfectly which is odd to me, its usual for this type of guys to have something that doesnt work. It´s a nice change.

La Tuna is a wrestler and has a goofy look, but this guy knows how to fight and really well. He is extremely strong, as strong or more than Tetlepanquetzal, and he actually has a soft side that isn´t shown as a weakness. He gives advice to Chema when he is down and encourages him to be brave and to believe in himself. Chema is really insecure because of his powers that are to make everyone get spiced. I´m not kidding, his power is to make the air spiced, like if you take chilli peppers and throw them in peoples faces, he does that without having any peppers around. Tuna tells him to believe in himself because his powers dont define him, Tuna had issues too because of his short stature and his powers are becoming prickly and secreting slimy substance (you know, like a nopal. Tuna is a prickly pear) but tells him his father told him that non of that matter, what really matter was who they were inside. Its a really nice and touching scene, Chema is a kid who had to grow fast and misses his parents and now he has a couple parental figures to help him with whats troubling him.

Catrina is kind of a fresa? Like a rich queen or something, or its portrayed like that. Stylish and such, but she is loyal and does care about his friends and dont diminish them, she only teases them because they´ve known each other for a while. She is powerful, summoning bones to be use as armor and to kick the bad guys butts. Catrina has a strong personality, not taking shit and trying to focus on every situation, she is practically the glue that keeps the team on track.

Tetlepanquetzal is the most left out character there is. He is silent, his expressions are ok but he doesn´t provide with any remarks. He does his job, his power is really cool too. He transforms into any animal he touches for a certain amount of time. He is the extra muscle, Tetlepanquetzal is smart but really goofy, due to having animals characteristics from the transformations he does lot of goofy stuff but other than that its just like a silent wall. Strong wall that is.

The villains... We have 2 which one of them I have no idea how it´s called. They never called him by his name in the whole movie. One of the henchman calls him boss so I will call him by that. Boss is a pyrotechnic mastermind, he controls the fireworks and uses that to destroy everything. He is the one that wants to use Dolores and open a portal to bring Dr. Vampire (which is the second villain). The reason? He used to have a daughter, and her daughter died in his house because of fireworks going off, she was burned or suffocated. The Dr. Vampire promised him he would bring her back if Boss brought him back.

Turns out the vampire lied and kind of turn his back on Boss, who now felt like an idiot and wanted to save Dolores. (There´s a point where Dolores enters Boss´ mind with the help of an obsidian mirror and sees the flashback of the daughter dying, so both characters do kind of have a mild bond)

Dr. Vampire is the weirdest, dumbest looking villain I have ever seen. He looks like a edgy teenager but looks old as fuck. It´s super weird and is completely evil, bringing certain Mexican monuments to live and bring havoc to Mexico City. like... Holy shit, he has red messy hair, long face, nose and teeth, wears A FREAKING GOTH CLOAK AND BOOTS and has a trident. It´s a weird design for a vampire. We don´t know shit about this character, only that he was supposed to be brought back by Boss and that´s all. BUT HE IS PURE EVIL!

They manage to defeat the villain by fighting each of the monuments and then fighting against the vampire, Chema and Dolores have a special combination that not only provokes an explosion but also gives the other 3 characters a power boost. I dont know why that happens, there´s no explanation. If there´s more of it I WISH AND HOPE THERE´S A SERIES. THIS!!! THIS RIGHT HERE:

THIS CAN BE TURN INTO A SERIES. PLEASE, NETFLIX: YOU ALREADY TOOK LA LEYENDA DE LA NAHUALA, TAKE THIS ONE! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!!

(If you take a closer look you can see the aura is in a pepper form, its so funny to me. The big pictures at the movie theater glow at a certain angle if they are stroke with a light)

There´s something I like a lot and that´s that there isn´t a separation moment, they never get separated because of ¨I have to prove myself¨ or ¨i need to do this alone¨. They get separated due to circumstances like following a truck while others take care of a fallen comrade, but Chema is never alone. He is with at least one of them, mostly La Tuna (that´s how we get their emotional talk) and IM SO GLAD THEY DIDNT DO THAT KIND OF CLICHE. Chema never fights with them for stupid things or misunderstandings, they all work whatever misunderstanding right then and there and always stick together because THEY KNOW HOW DANGEROUS IT CAN BE. AND THEY LISTEN TO EACH OTHER! ITS GREAT! THEY ARE GREAT!

Also the last scene, which parodies marvel movies:

Tin Martin: OH NO! A giant snake is eating Trompa´s wall

La Tuna: Let the snake eat it.

(People call Trump El Trompas, trompas has several meanings like trumpet but we use it to also refer to the duck face)

Conclusion:

Superheroes are really overdone. Marvel, you are ok I guess but please just let yourself die (At least after you give me Black Widow and the next Guardians of the Galaxy). In México the close to a superheroe we had was Santos and Blue Demon, being really popular wrestlers and movie stars and all in the silver era. Sure, we also have Villainous that explores villains and heroes that TO ME ARE ALL MEXICAN UNTIL PROVEN THE CONTRARY, but this is a movie not a web-series (that has probably being cancelled ´cause Ituriel doesn´t seem to know how to administrate his company and properly treat his workers).

Anima Studios took the chance with Maverick Núñez and they really made a good job. As an Opera Prima it looks and sounds awesomely, the writing could still use some work but other than that it is an entertaining movie. It has a nice message, the characters are really well made from design to voice acting and the story is interesting. From what I read it had a really good opening, but it didn´t quite made it in the box office. Still, I think you should give it a watch, not because it´s a Mexican movie, but because it´s a superhero movie that just takes place in Mexico. It´s different from Marcianos vs Mexicanos because that one was full on ridiculousness and comedy while this one is drama with comedy. If you followed Anima Studios, you will see how much they have improve and advance. This company was and is the start of animation in México and they are becoming better.

Now I´m waiting for their next movie: Las Leyendas: El origen. And you know why I am excited? Because it´s 2 movies from the same Studio in 1 year, they are really becoming bigger.

Animation has never been this amazing, and Mexican Animation is growing faster and better. Please, be objective but supportive. Don´t be destructive for the sake of being destructive. People are trying their best and it is paying off in my opinion.

Sincerely, a Mexican with hopes for more animations in her own country.

51 notes · View notes

aqvarius · 4 years

Note

If the MC from rmd was more mature and if rmd wasn't a love choice story with less episodes, would it be better? Or is there more stuff that needs changes?

yeah i do think so! so i think they tried to emulate hlitf (and mpd maybe? i’m not familiar enough with mpd to be able to say). in thinking about rmd and its future (in response to another ask which i’m still working on bc i lost my whole essay the other day lmao), i kind of theorise that they wanted rmd to be the next Big Title with a full lineup of “ensemble cast” type characters, instructor-student type dynamic (which can then ‘progress’ to colleague level), lots of lore/backstory, potential for lots of substories. the backlash against love choice has been strong in both japanese and international fandom as far as i know so i really think that was a big hindrance in terms of drumming up success for a title that is set up to have a LOT of content. hlitf has always had a leg up bc from the start, it rode off the success of msb and the demand for more public safety content, which is why right from the very start, they tried to push crossovers with hlitf/mpd. the very first rmd substory is a takado/kirisawa crossover, and then they had that extremely gratuitous cameo in ayumu (aka voltage’s king) season 3 in both the ms AND his pov. they keep pushing these crossovers, like with the vip room event which just came to love 365.

ANYWAY, the more i think about it, the more i’m convinced that they’re trying to emulate some of the successes of hlitf, so i find it a pretty useful point of comparison to see the things which i find are lacking in rmd.

so yes i definitely think that i wish the rmd mc was more vulnerable and maybe more romantically inclined and just generally more emotionally mature? i’ve said i wish she made more mistakes but i when i think about it more, i do see some parallels between dr mc and hlitf season 1 mc in that they go into a new learning environment with a certain set of values that get challenged. so i am willing to acquiesce on that point i’ve made before about her errors, since i do think that her values and the choices she makes because of those values get called into question (coming off the back of reading matsunaga’s routes, i do see this happen). also i’ve said this before but just to reiterate, i do also think that there’s a tone shift in the translation that to my perception (re-?)characterises the mc as being blase which i feel comes at the expense of genuine emotional connection between the reader and the heroine. however, i do also think that this tone perception thing is very subjective bc it reads as being quite american to me which is something that (1) is foreign to me as a non-american and (2) gives me a feeling of incongruence bc i’m very aware that this is japanese media. either way, i think in a long form title, there is potential for her to grow/develop when it comes to emotional maturity and romantic development, which leads me to my second point...

ANYWAY, the biggest (writing) issue that i find with rmd is its lack of romance FOR SUCH A LONG ROUTE. generally the main point of otome games is the romantic aspect, which i find to be super lacking in a game where romance is literally right there in the title. so one of my favourite things about hlitf is that we have the whole “meeting him” route before the “falling in love” route, and that generally each season is split into two halves in which the first half feels complete as a route on its own, but its strengths in setting up plot and character/relationship development become highlighted in the second half of the season (i know i talk about this a lot but kaga’s season 2 is the PRIME example of this). hlitf’s “meeting him” stories all tend to have abysmal ratings (which.... i pretend i do not see it) because of people not getting that they’re just introducing the characters and setting up their dynamic first. because of this, we essentially get a (relatively) slow burn romance that takes 20 chapters (or in tsugaru’s case.... 60 chapters lmao, or we’ll say 30 bc he has shorter chapters) to get to fruition.

so romance md has 30 chapters to get the job done, which SHOULD mean that there should be better pacing to get to the relationship stage, right? rmd does a similar thing to hlitf’s split routes where there’s generally one “introductory” case which introduces a moral dilemma, which then ties into a second case. in hlitf, the introductory case in ms1 serves to introduce us to the love interest’s personality and way of working as well as helping the two characters become closer by spending more time together. then it links to ms2 in that it tends to lead into wider criminal activity that may or may not be related to the love interest’s primary negative characteristics, and most importantly, the mc is instrumental in helping the LI overcome that issue (e.g. goto’s paranoia about losing colleagues/partners, kaga’s problems with internal corruption within the NPA, soma’s trust issues and devaluing of those around him, ayumu’s unrequited love). so let’s say that a full rmd route is equivalent to ms1+ms2 in hlitf.

rmd does a very similar thing in terms of plot structure with the main difference being that the medical cases tend to align explicitly with the LIs’ traumatic pasts, where in hlitf it’s a bit more indirect (only goto and soma have had their primary vengeance arcs complete). so why does the pacing feel so off? i think that the reason for that is that there is just so little energy put into romantic development. one thing to note is that the mc has already fallen by episode 10 of ms1, i.e. halfway through the ‘full’ route. the only rmd route that i’ve read where the mc has already caught feelings at that point is hosho’s route, where she realises in chapter 15 (which is why i did write in my review that i thought the pacing was better). secondly, it’s a LOT harder in rmd to see not just the mc’s feelings developing, but the progression of the love interest’s feelings. imo this is because they basically treat her uhhhh the same from start to finish??? she runs her mouth from day one and even during very intimate conversations, so i feel like there is no sense of increasing emotional closeness - it’s more just that we (the third person reader) get to know more about the love interest’s past and i guess we see them becoming friends? rather than seeing two people growing closer with romantic attraction. contrast this with hlitf, where they were never ‘friendly’ and the relationship that starts blossoming between them was always overtly special and romantic relationship and the way in which the love interest softens for his mc is already evident by the end of ms1. this means that we get a whole 10 more chapters for this development to really take its time to get to where it needs to go. this also means that we actually see obvious burgeoning attraction (or special treatment) before we get to any sort of climax confession scene. i feel like the mc’s lack of manners/impertinence familiarity with the LIs from the very start means that it’s a lot harder to see the dynamic between the two of them changing. just compare the way that dr mc and takado talk to each other in ch1 and ch29 vs the way that hlitf mc and kaga talk to each other in ms1 ch 1 and ms2 ch 8. i would argue that the action scene in the collapsing building in takado’s chapter TWENTY SEVEN is about equivalent to the action climax scenes that happen in hlitf ms1 chapter NINE.

(oh and i also think that the whole talking about how physically beautifully they are to their faces from day one also hinders the sense of growing mutual attraction.)

another GIANT hindrance is that a lot of the key bonding moments are actually paywalled behind heart scenes so you really don’t get anything if you don’t dish out THANKS LOVE CHOICE.

anyway, long story short is that romance md spends waaay too long and focusses way too much on plot stuff and character backstory (if you can even unlock it lmao) and leaves maybe 5% at the very end for romance rather than having a romantic element integrated throughout the story. if i were to try and compare it to hlitf again, i would say that to me, rmd routes feel like if hlitf ms1 was as it is but then there was one extra chapter at the end where it just goes straight to confession without the entirety of ms2′s development. but also like at least 2x longer. like imagine if we had ms1 and ms2 but there was no romantic engagement or indication of any romantic interest from the love interest in 20 whole chapters except you suddenly get one confession but only in the happy ending. actually matsunaga’s doctor ending literally FLOORED me like ???????? it’s literally like imagine if you only got through namba’s ms1 and half of ms2 (to that scene outside the dorms when you know what happens) and THAT’S WHERE IT ENDS LASKDJFLKSJ they finally had some early emotional awareness on the part of the mc and then they had to go and make it ENTIRELY one sided with not just zero but actually NEGATIVE romantic intention from the love interest i’m screaming

tl;dr: my biggest problem with romance md is that it’s literally SO LONG but there’s no romance

#wow i promise i did not intend to write this much but it all just came out #this took me a whole day to write too lmao thanks adhd!!!!#romance md: always on call #rmadoc #romance md #her love in the force #hlitf #voltage inc #otome romance #love choice #love 365 #meta #Anonymous #snow answers

3 notes · View notes

acradaunt · 6 years

Text

Wanted to gab about Monster Hunter World for a while. It's probably going to be really rambly and sound overly negative, but hey. I tend to be like that. Super negative. It's easier to pinpoint and hammer on a weakness than a strong point.

I guess let's start at the very, very beginning. While it doesn't bother me even slightly, the concept of Capcom pouring all this money and focus onto Monster Hunter, but then not even remotely trying any sort of lip-syncing for the very first cutscene was... jarring. I don't really get complaints about it being too hand-holdy, though. You're fighting Jagras by the third quest and maybe an hour and ten minutes, compared to like three for Jaggi/Jaggi/Maccao in the previous games. Yeah, that first hour is like 105% cutscenes and scripted as heck, but that's them trying to be 'cinematic'. It's not great, but it's better than kicking you back and forth between town and the plains level for ten missions of gather honey/bones/ore/Aptonoth. NPCs tend to feel kind of like completely worthless human beings, but that's just a global videogame issue. Of course nobody else could actually show up and fight something. I guess not showing up at all is better than the Huntsman/Field Leader/Ace Cadet getting bodied time and again.

While yeah, no loading zones are nice, and most of maps are absolutely stellar (though Forest has that confounding middle floors region and Coral Highlands has waaay too many huge pointless regions), I think weapon and quality of life changes are what matters the most. While I think I prefer Gen's (Guild style for both) SnS (World's feels a touch too spammy, and the backleap suuuucks now; Gen's SnS required some finesse) and Greatsword (in spite of the fact that MHWorld's GS is designed around my 'stay in there' playstyle and not running away like everyone else does), almost every other weapon feels at its best. I've found love for Dual Blades, Gunlance, Bowguns, the Bow itself, and even slightly the Katana in this one. Still hate Insect Glaive, but at least they fixed the bugs. I like the LBG and Dual Blades enough to break them into regular usage. Hammer is just so pure and powerful that it kinda makes the Greatsword's damage feel woefully inept. Lance is amazing with guard being worth a damn and being more mobile than ever. Switch Axe makes actual use of both switching and axing. All shields are good. Blocking Nergigante's dive with a SnS shield like it's no huge deal is glorious and refreshing, because that would NEVER have flown before.

Seeing the weapon tree is great, even if what's on the tree is a bit barren. Like, really, I'm not even gonna whine about the boring weapon designs; why are old designs like the Rathian Switch Axe and Dual Blades missing? Poor things don't even GET poison without Awakening. Lots of weapons have huge holes without Awakening. The clear winner is armour skills. It's just so simple and intuitive, it's honestly baffling they didn't do this ages ago. My only quibbles are that you might possibly get TOO many skills now. You're packing more goods than an endgame G-Rank character in 4U. Also, sometimes some Alpha pieces feel exceptionally dumb. Like, is anyone ever going to take the version with, like, freaking Entomologist on it over a free socket? I do think I'd have preferred seeing more Set Skills to scale things down slightly so you had to get a few subpar pieces to get a better, prominent skill, but hey. Set Skills only needing typically 3 makes them a lot more palatable to me.

I might be in the minority here, but I like the switching of decorations and charms. Getting that one good charm completely changed your armour sets, and the 5000 others you got until then were wholly worthless. With decorations, you can equip multiple at a time, sometimes nearly a dozen. You can actually get lots of use out of 'okay' ones. The weekly gold tickets for free gems is really fair. And kinda necessary for upgrading charms. A couple skills really stand out, which I guess isn't anything new. Health Boost went from wholly worthless to the single best skill, allowing for 200 HP, Fire Res stops fire's constant burn damage and near global usage (especially with Bazel and Rathalos' interruptions), and Stun Res is more useful than ever, with Stun taking thrice as long to recover from. I'm sure the 'metagame' is still herp derp handicraft and crit boost or whatever, but I prefer not dying. Ever. I can run all that stuff handily and still get a pricier skill like Elemental Crit or some serious Guard points and not look like complete clownshoes, so that's always a huge plus. Oh, however. Female armour design is at its all-time low. One of the plusses of switching primary genders every game is that I dodged that bullet. Course, in Gen, I knew going in that I wanted Tigrex for Hearing and Eating, so I could use the name Amber quite fittingly. Two armour styles helps sometimes, but. Just. Stop. Making. Everything. Be metal thighhighs and have random-ass patches of bare skin.

A lot of the new monsters are mostly just rehashes. Which is... reasonable, really. There's only so many moves and so many ways to do stuff. Legiana is a less threatening ice Rathalos. Anjanath is a more aggressive, less burly Deviljho. Even Paolumu is Kecha Wacha with a few low-grade Kush attacks. Bazelgeuse certainly stands out among the crowd, because his moves are wholly unique, and he's actually a threatening party-crasher, unlike Deviljho. The fact he's mostly about area of effect makes him incredibly dangerous (and/or helpful) when you're preoccupied, but when the focus is on him, he crumples surprisingly easily. I think most people have a love/hate relationship with him and the 3-monsters in the field. It does spice things up, but it also sometimes turns into an absolute fustercluck.

What's less thrilling is the near universal amount presence of fire. It's one thing that ALL the old guys are fire (minus Diablos, Kushala, and Kirin), but the fact that several of the new monsters (Anjanath, Bazelgeuse, Xeno'jiiva) are fire too is just pouring gasoline on the, well, fire. Kirin, Paolumu, and Vaal Hazak are the only three weak to it, I think, while each weapon gets two-four trees for fire. The free DLC doesn't change matters, with both Lunastra and maybe Alatreon doing fire too. I don't actually remember if Alatreon can light you up. For the other elements, Thunder and Ice get two (plus Oroshi, later). Water has just Jyuratodus and nobody even does Dragonblight. This means if you want elemental weapons, you'll be killing a shitton of Jyuratodus, Tobi-Kodachi, and Legiana. It also makes Fire Res probably the second best general-purpose skill, but I've already been there.

One thing I really did like is how HR just opened up pretty completely. It was fun seeing if you could immediately tackle Rathain or whoever to get some solid HR armour right away. The only shortcoming was the sad, sad excuse at 'oh no, monsters are invading other envir-- Anjie and Pukei are the in desert. That's it. It would've been a nice change of pace to see different guys different places, not to mention it could better use certain otherwise barren rooms and cause 'party chambers' to sometimes be more or less dangerous. Because I've never once fought Dodogama without in the main crystal room without it being a four-way. Lavasioth won't go there, but the three others are mighty fond of the room, too. On this thought, why the hell doesn't Nergigante show in the desert? They had his AI working there for the beta, and you first find traces of him in the swamp. :|

Investigations, Expeditions, and Bounties are all nice enough ideas, but I really think it would've worked better if they reworked how they functioned. Expeditions are kinda... pointless? Other than stupid gather-y bullshit like the ultra-rare endemic life and tempered tracks only show up there. Bounties are an alright way to guide your hand to specific quests, but it's flow breaking early on, and once you don't need armour spheres, you can just forget all about it. Investigations giving bonus rewards with stricter demands is genuinely nice, although there's always the issue of running a quest dry before you have enough Jyuratodus Fins or whatever. I'd more prefer these be like sliders that you can play with to set it to be as hard and rewarding as you can handle, but hey. I'll take it any day over 4U's Guild Quests.

It's kinda a half-baked idea, but I could sort of see a revision of these ideas into one bigger thing. Like, you'd choose a set of three or so investigations at once (like bounties), and when you go to a viable locale, those goals slot themselves in. If it's 30 minutes for Rathian and 50 for Barroth, she'll leave at 30 minutes and Barroth will stay for 50. Or once room opens and Diablos shows, Diablos' timer starts. I'm not sure how death would work. Take ten minutes away? It's not perfect, but it would flow a lot better than having to reload the same map twice every ten minutes when something dies.

Tempereds are just the stupidest attempt at harder monsters yet. Frenzy wasn't great either, as they gave nothing better compared to their normal counterpart, but at least there was a mechanic beyond 'hits harder'. And I seriously think half the G-Rank monsters don't have non-frenzied quests, so it's not much of an option. Hyper was never explained at all, but its heads above the other two. Specific stronger attacks with weaker weak points. Further, with Hypers, you still needed to fight the appropriate monster to get their parts (with some more variety for semi-generic parts like Hyper Horns). With Tempereds, your goal isn't to get parts, but horrifically rare drops, so there's no reason to do anybody but the easiest guy of that tier. You gain nothing more from fighting Radobaan versus Jagras. While I can live with never getting those amazing decorations, streamstones and augmenting are just awful to be linked to luck. Yeah, it's post-postgame, but that junk alone makes me feel I'd rather see a new game that refines World's new ideas rather than it get a G-Rank expansion. Generations was content to have the end be the end, not involving any roulette crap. ...Double Cross might've done some wacky random-luck bullshit. I don't know, come to think of it.

I feel like I had other, nicer, things to say, but this is already waay too damn long and sounds bit too bitter, so I think I'll just stop. Oh yeah, and needing a subscription to play online sucks, so I haven't even attempted to enter or use an SOS out of curiosity. But from what I hear about it only having two scales, one for one player, and one for four, is really stupid. It reeaallly favours single player, which, hey, is working for me, but might've missed the point of the series. See? I can't even end this without sounding negative. :|

#Monster Hunter World

2 notes · View notes