rionaleonhart | PS DON'T TELL ALISON

Something that struck me whilst playing Shadow of the Colossus: ~~A COLOSSUS'S FIST~~ if you call Agro whilst fighting a Colossus, Wander's cry is much more urgent than it is when you call her in a Colossusless situation. It's a tiny detail, but a rather nice one.

Also, if you're not holding a weapon and press Circle whilst riding Agro, Wander will pat her neck. It is sort of adorable.

The eleventh Colossus is so tiny I am not sure it really counts as a Colossus! Many months ago, I dreamt that I was fighting a 'Colossus' of about the size of a cow and was amused when I woke up by how thoroughly my subconscious had missed the point of a 'Colossus'; I hadn't realised it was foreshadowing.

Then I fell off a waterfall twice on my journey to the twelfth. It was embarrassing and rather horrible. Struggling helplessly against the current! I'm sorry, Wander.

After defeating the twelfth Colossus, I managed to swing the camera at such an angle that it gave me a close-up of Wander, and then paused, puzzled, when I noticed that he appeared to have black veins on his face. Had those always been there? He seemed quite young; it struck me as an unusual character feature.

Then I read up to where I was in

twilit_wanderer's gamelogs and realised that she'd been commenting on the weirdness of Wander's appearance for some time; I'd kept thinking, 'hmmm, I didn't notice anything, but I'll check that out the next time I play,' and then completely forgetting.

So I reloaded the game, steered Wander into a corner so the camera could have a good look at him, looked up an image from the opening for comparison, and, no, I'm not imagining things. His hands and face and neck are veiny; his clothes are dirty and tattered; his hair is matted and almost black (it was red when the game began). With every colossus Wander kills, his appearance deteriorates just a little more. His girlfriend, meanwhile, is looking far more vibrant than she used to.

I think this is basically the awesomest thing in the world. It's horribly unsettling, of course, but it's such detail in such a minimalist game. I'm trying to think of another character whose appearance gradually evolves over the course of the game, and the closest I can come up with is Seifer's trenchcoat becoming tattered in Final Fantasy VIII.

(I was terrified that one of the effects of Wander's slow transformation was that he NO LONGER AFFECTIONATELY PATTED AGRO WHEN HE DIDN'T HAVE A WEAPON EQUIPPED, OH NO, but then I realised he just didn't pat her when she was actually moving. Thank goodness. Wander's love for Agro is so true, and I would be immensely distressed were he to stop caring about her.)

On the subject of awesome details in videogames: I've never played Left 4 Dead, a zombie apocalypse first-person shooter, but I've looked at screencaps, and this made me laugh really hard. Even in a world of immense danger and no Internet, you can't escape anonymous trolling.

(image source:

cowgirlmaxwell's comment in

zarla's L4D picspam (fascinating, but beware of many, many, many large images).)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Changing appearances... I think Eileen's appearance deteriorates in Silent Hill 4 the more she gets hit. (I have never played it, but I have seen it played.)

And less of the same thing, but characters change clothes a bit in Persona 3 FES and Persona 4... depending on seasons, whether it's a schoolday etc. That's quite cool.

Ooh, in the original .hack games, Mia's appearance and character deteriorates everytime you defeat a phase (though it's more posture and so on than the actual appearance). It's quite cool: at one point she becomes unable to speak properly so everything is written in phonetics. It's hard to explain.

Assuming you never plan to play a .hack game, here's an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqdQaZ2tTEU

Oh, those all sound pretty cool! Really, all Silent Hill protagonists should look more damaged as the game progresses. It would be very annoying if towards the end of the game the 'run' command became 'limp at a fair pace', but it would do wonders for the atmosphere.

Haha, I can imagine. "OH GOD SCARY THING. MOVE. MOVE MORE QUICKLY."

That'd be particularly horrible for the me and

yumiboo Silent Hill 2 playing team - she'd rather hit things than run. We had lots of fun with her smacking EVERYTHING with the plank with a nail in it, and we had no health drinks. It was hilarious. (Shockingly we got a good way through the apartments without the red flashing health bar letting us know we were screwed, too.) That would inevitably end up very beat up though.

Speaking of Silent Hill, if you've got half an hour, you should watch this Quick Look:

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-silent-hill-shattered-memories/17-1774/

I believe it's the wii remake of the first game? The first 30 minutes as a preview (it does have commentary).

Left 4 Dead is hilarious, I played it one time at a friend's house! The zombies are annoying, but whee, shooting them!

I'm really not a first-person shooter person, but all the graffiti and little details just look ridiculously cool.

It's a very fun game!

That Left 4 Dead screencap is glorious!

Also: I GOT YOUR CARD AND LOLED FOREVER. Thank you! ♥ Have you requested something on my Christmas request post (http://zeitheist.livejournal.com/348595.html)?

I love it! Another piece of graffiti in this game just says 'I miss the internet'.

And yay, I'm glad the card could amuse!

YOU, MADAM, ARE TRULY THE BEST CARD SENDER IN THE WORLD.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

Shadow of the Colossus and Ico are enough to make me want to buy a PS2.

I (think I) noticed his clothes getting more tattered but I never noticed Wander's face... Must buy a PS2 and these games now!

You can now buy a used PS2 from Amazon for about fifty pounds, which, for a console boasting such a huge collection of excellent games, is ridiculously cheap. (Should you buy one, I'd strongly suggest getting Final Fantasy X, Ōkami and Kingdom Hearts (...er, you may want a used copy of that one, as new ones are apparently now eighty pounds), if you haven't played them already.)

I've been forgetting to play Ōkami. Are you like me, do you put quite a lot of unnecessary effort and detail into your brush strokes?

Left 4 Dead is a wonderful game that is not at all like most of fps games. It is also a sadistic bastard that toys with your hopes and laughs as they are crushed underneath hordes of zombie.

...I want you to play it because your distress will be funny. XD

As I really don't like most horror and really can't play most shooters, my distress would probably be considerable. (You are cruel for laughing, but I can't blame you.)

Ah, then this is probably not the game for you. XD It may or may not make people sleep with the light on and flinch when going around corners.

i think the guy with the skateboard from quake 3 accumulates scars or something as you progress.

That's pretty cool! (I, er, was going to say 'especially for a game made a decade ago', and then remembered that I am no longer thirteen and 'a decade ago' is very nearly still in the twenty-first century. All this passing is getting confusing, time.)

if you call Agro whilst fighting a Colossus, Wander's cry is much more urgent than it is when you call her in a Colossusless situation.

Oh my gosh, really? I just started playing this yesterday and I'm so in love with all the little details like that.

Really! And it will attract the attention of the Colossus as well as the horse. The details in Shadow of the Colossus are fantastic. (Where are you up to?)

Oh, that's so cool.

I've beaten number 5!

Dear Riona,
I got your card. It is adorable and made me laugh and thank you. Also I think you might enjoy reading this (http://measuringlife.livejournal.com/496278.html#cutid3).

<3<3<3<3<3<3
Saaski

PS DON'T TELL ALISON

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject