Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2017-02-18 10:30 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2017-02-18 10:30 am
Entry tags:
This Is Who I Am, Just Remember Me.
Embarrassingly, I can't stop listening to 'Theme of King JJ', the song that JJ skates to in Yuri on Ice. At first I just went 'oh, my God, this is the most hilariously arrogant thing I've ever heard, I must listen to it fully to get a better idea of the ridiculous lyrics,' and by now I actually dance along to it while I listen. I LOOK IN THE MIRROR, THE KING LOOKS BACK AT ME. I'M BRAVE ENOUGH TO FIGHT THE ENEMIES.
Then again, I've been nostalgically listening to a lot of Linkin Park lately, so this might actually be an improvement.
(I typed this and then went back to dramatically mouthing along to 'Leave Out All the Rest', whoops. SAVE ME, KING JJ.)
In honour of my terrible taste in music, I've titled this entry with a line that could plausibly come from either 'Theme of King JJ' or a particularly angst-fraught Linkin Park song (it's the former).
I've been replaying Uncharted 4: A Thief's End recently. I like it more than the first Uncharted, but I definitely love the second and third games more, which is a shame; I'd have liked the series to end on a higher note (although most of my issues with A Thief's End are very subjective, so I imagine it was a good ending for many players). I'm going to grump about Sam under the cut, so you may not want to click if you're a Sam fan.
This replay was largely in the hope that I'd learn to resent Sam less, and unfortunately I think I've ended up resenting him more, now that I'm no longer going 'so what happens next?' and instead going 'I already know what happens next, and it's another extensive Sam section when I could have been hanging out with Elena or Chloe instead, sigh.' (I also love Sully, but Sully gets a reasonable amount of screentime in this game, so I'm less bitter on his behalf.)
WHY ARE YOU IN SO MUCH OF THIS GAME, SAM
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SUDDENLY PARACHUTE INTO THE FINAL GAME IN A SERIES AND GO 'OH, NOW I'M A REALLY IMPORTANT CHARACTER, I'M GOING TO TAKE UP ALL THIS TIME THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DEVOTED TO CHARACTERS YOU ALREADY CARE ABOUT'
It's so frustrating! Because I love siblings being devoted to each other! If I'd played A Thief's End before the rest of the series, I'd probably have enjoyed the Nate-and-Sam relationship! But it just wasn't what I wanted from the end of this story.
During the scene where Elena accosts Nate in Madagascar to go 'you lied to me for weeks and also YOU HAVE A BROTHER NOW, WHAT???' I could think of only two things:
- I am Elena in this scene. You have a brother now? What?? Why???
- I'm furious with Sam on a replay. YOU ALMOST BROKE UP MY OTP. On my first playthrough, I could go 'well, they have to try to find the treasure to save Sam's life, so I can't really blame him for this.' BUT NO. HIS LIFE WAS NEVER IN DANGER. YOU ALMOST BROKE UP MY OTP BECAUSE YOU WANTED CASH, SAM.
Despite all my problems with Sam, I can't stop seeing Sam/Sully and I'll forgive Naughty Dog (well, maybe) if they go 'oh, by the way, Sam and Sully got married.'![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
th_esaurus brought up how uncomfortable Nate would be, torn between 'I should be happy for them' and 'BUT IT'S MY BROTHER AND THE GUY WHO'S PRACTICALLY MY DAD, THIS IS WEIRD', and that's something I would love to see.
In addition to the fact he definitely got married to Sully, there are a couple of other things I enjoy about Sam: him and Nate giggling after they narrowly manage to escape death, and the fact that his time in prison has left him fifteen years out of step with the rest of the world ('Can we pick this lock?' 'No, it's electronic.' 'You see that building with the radio tower?' '...you mean the cell tower?'). Being imprisoned: like slightly rubbish time travel, in a way.
The sting of Chloe's absence from this game has been eased by the news that The Lost Legacy is going to be about her (and Nadine, who's by far my favourite new character from Uncharted 4), too. I was convinced the DLC would be about Sam, so this was a delightful surprise!
OKAY, COMPLAINING OVER. Here are some great things in Uncharted 4 to balance it out:
- The opening credits are gooooorgeous. You can see them over here. No spoilers for Uncharted 4; they're a beautiful look back at the previous games in the series.
- 'A Normal Life' is possibly my favourite Uncharted chapter ever. I exclaimed aloud in delight multiple times.
- Sometimes, if you put Nate in front of a mirror and zoom in on it, he'll check to make sure nobody's looking and then do finger-guns at himself.
- Nate and Elena have a combat move where Nate lifts Elena up so she can kick the enemy in the face.
- The environments are so, so pretty.
- At one point, you blow up a door with dynamite and Nate goes 'Take that, door!'
Then again, I've been nostalgically listening to a lot of Linkin Park lately, so this might actually be an improvement.
(I typed this and then went back to dramatically mouthing along to 'Leave Out All the Rest', whoops. SAVE ME, KING JJ.)
In honour of my terrible taste in music, I've titled this entry with a line that could plausibly come from either 'Theme of King JJ' or a particularly angst-fraught Linkin Park song (it's the former).
I've been replaying Uncharted 4: A Thief's End recently. I like it more than the first Uncharted, but I definitely love the second and third games more, which is a shame; I'd have liked the series to end on a higher note (although most of my issues with A Thief's End are very subjective, so I imagine it was a good ending for many players). I'm going to grump about Sam under the cut, so you may not want to click if you're a Sam fan.
This replay was largely in the hope that I'd learn to resent Sam less, and unfortunately I think I've ended up resenting him more, now that I'm no longer going 'so what happens next?' and instead going 'I already know what happens next, and it's another extensive Sam section when I could have been hanging out with Elena or Chloe instead, sigh.' (I also love Sully, but Sully gets a reasonable amount of screentime in this game, so I'm less bitter on his behalf.)
WHY ARE YOU IN SO MUCH OF THIS GAME, SAM
WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SUDDENLY PARACHUTE INTO THE FINAL GAME IN A SERIES AND GO 'OH, NOW I'M A REALLY IMPORTANT CHARACTER, I'M GOING TO TAKE UP ALL THIS TIME THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DEVOTED TO CHARACTERS YOU ALREADY CARE ABOUT'
It's so frustrating! Because I love siblings being devoted to each other! If I'd played A Thief's End before the rest of the series, I'd probably have enjoyed the Nate-and-Sam relationship! But it just wasn't what I wanted from the end of this story.
During the scene where Elena accosts Nate in Madagascar to go 'you lied to me for weeks and also YOU HAVE A BROTHER NOW, WHAT???' I could think of only two things:
- I am Elena in this scene. You have a brother now? What?? Why???
- I'm furious with Sam on a replay. YOU ALMOST BROKE UP MY OTP. On my first playthrough, I could go 'well, they have to try to find the treasure to save Sam's life, so I can't really blame him for this.' BUT NO. HIS LIFE WAS NEVER IN DANGER. YOU ALMOST BROKE UP MY OTP BECAUSE YOU WANTED CASH, SAM.
Despite all my problems with Sam, I can't stop seeing Sam/Sully and I'll forgive Naughty Dog (well, maybe) if they go 'oh, by the way, Sam and Sully got married.'
th_esaurus brought up how uncomfortable Nate would be, torn between 'I should be happy for them' and 'BUT IT'S MY BROTHER AND THE GUY WHO'S PRACTICALLY MY DAD, THIS IS WEIRD', and that's something I would love to see.In addition to the fact he definitely got married to Sully, there are a couple of other things I enjoy about Sam: him and Nate giggling after they narrowly manage to escape death, and the fact that his time in prison has left him fifteen years out of step with the rest of the world ('Can we pick this lock?' 'No, it's electronic.' 'You see that building with the radio tower?' '...you mean the cell tower?'). Being imprisoned: like slightly rubbish time travel, in a way.
The sting of Chloe's absence from this game has been eased by the news that The Lost Legacy is going to be about her (and Nadine, who's by far my favourite new character from Uncharted 4), too. I was convinced the DLC would be about Sam, so this was a delightful surprise!
OKAY, COMPLAINING OVER. Here are some great things in Uncharted 4 to balance it out:
- The opening credits are gooooorgeous. You can see them over here. No spoilers for Uncharted 4; they're a beautiful look back at the previous games in the series.
- 'A Normal Life' is possibly my favourite Uncharted chapter ever. I exclaimed aloud in delight multiple times.
- Sometimes, if you put Nate in front of a mirror and zoom in on it, he'll check to make sure nobody's looking and then do finger-guns at himself.
- Nate and Elena have a combat move where Nate lifts Elena up so she can kick the enemy in the face.
- The environments are so, so pretty.
- At one point, you blow up a door with dynamite and Nate goes 'Take that, door!'
no subject
I would not have pictured you as a Linkin Park fan. I tend to assort you with words like "Sweet, cheerful, bubbly", and Linkin Park...not so much those things. Then again, you do enjoy dark fiction, so I suppose there's no logical reason music needs to be different.
Finger guns? Kick-lifts? "Take that, door!"? I am very charmed by these characters.
no subject
I never listened to Linkin Park in a 'yes, this song expresses the ANGUISH in my SOUL' way; I just enjoyed the music! I tend not to get along with songs that are shouty all the way through, but Linkin Park's work often shifts between RAA SHOUTY and catchy melodies in a way that really works for me. CRAWLING IN MY SKIIIIIIN gets mocked a lot, perhaps deservedly, but the riffs and the verse and the bridge are actually pretty pleasant to listen to.
The charm of the characters is most of the reason I love the Uncharted series so much! It took me a while to warm up to Nate at first, but I found his habit of talking to himself (which he does to some extent whenever he's alone and does constantly when he's hurt or afraid) irresistibly endearing.
no subject
I totally get that! There are certain kinds of shifts in songs where I'm all "Okay, never mind the genre or the lyrics, I love this now!"
...okay, can you talk them into making a movie or a TV show or something? Angry Birds got a movie,so this should! I very much want a scene where Nate gets worryingly injured and talks to himself as he struggles through.
no subject
Curiously, two strands of our conversation come together here: in The Last of Us, if you look very closely at some of the old newspapers littering the environment, you can just make out an advertisement saying 'UNCHARTED 13: A LUSH MOVIE - Justin Bieber as Drake'.
I very much want a scene where Nate gets worryingly injured and talks to himself as he struggles through.
YES. Uncharted has a grand tradition of sequences like this, and they're always amongst my favourites: Nate slowly dying of a gunshot wound in the snow, Nate dragging himself through a fierce storm after being shipwrecked, Nate lost and wandering in the desert, Nate drugged and losing his mind...
no subject
That sounds amazing! And my internet is terrible, so I can't even watch cut scene videos!