Short Review: Jack Vance - Dying Earth

While listening to some videos on Dungeon Crawl Classic, the autoplay feature led me to a video on the Dying Earth campaign setting. It immediately struck a chord. Even the artwork looked like it's just my cup of tea. The kind of postapocalyptic world that is so far in the future that it's unrecognizable to our society, where fungy grow as tall as trees, the sun has become a red giant, Mutants roam the land and human society has regressed to feudal societies. Stuff that looks like a mix of Morrowind, Nausicaä, the Saga Games, Gamma World, even Elex and Numenera. In the video I learned, that both the campaign setting and the original Dungeons and Dragons was inspired by a book series that is collected under the title "Tales from the Dying Earth". Written by Jack Vance, it has a lasting influence on tabletop and video game rpgs, since it's impact on original D'n'D. 

The first book with the title Dying Earth containes 6 short stories that mostly stand on it's own with only few overlapping things. Each has it's own protagonist, mostly pretty shady characters, cruel magicians and rogues, vat-born creatures and pilgrims. The theme of the stories connects them, life has little worth, technology has been forgotten and is now seen as magic, the sun could burn out at any time, so the future is literally in the dark. Their connection to classic RPG's lies in the details: Spells have to be prepared before they can be cast, which influenced how magic worked in old D'n'D and old JRPG's like the first Final Fantasy. They even use spells which made their way into the Spell Books of the table top games like Prismatic Spray. The stories read mostly like small RPG campaigns, the protagonist has some kind of goal, be it ancient knowledge, a beautiful woman or the quest given by a king. 

Here lies the weakest part of the first book - the fact, that the stories feel somewhat simple and the characters one-dimensional, there is barely anything deep about their struggles. Even overcoming the challenges is often done by the casting of one spell or one strike of the dagger/sword. Still, the atmosphere of the work was able to draw me in and keep me going despite all the problems. This bleak yet weirdly colorful world ruled by anti heroes and mad man, living plants, ghosts and ancient flying cars is able to rouse my imagination and makes me want to create something of my own in that setting, a short story, a tabletop campaign or a RPG Maker Game. Let's see if my criticisms get corrected in the other 3 books.  

TFW NO 2D PKMN (PLAY CASSETTE BEASTS!!!)

I'm a longtime fan of old school JRPGs, especially Dragon Quest. I just love how they try to portray a world in simple or even abstract 2D graphics. Thats one of the reasons, why I am on my third playthrough of Pokemon RBY this year. (first the english version of Red on my hacked N3DS, then japanese Green Version and now the german version of Yellow with relatively bad Pokemon). Thats also the reason, why I am playing Dragon Quest XI Definitive Edition S strictly in 2D, I didn't touch the 3D mode once. Not only does the 2D mode get rid of some of the fluff that comes with 3D games that are relatively open world, I also love the dedication of the games creators to include that much effort into a mode, that will be skipped by most players, or only looked at for a chapter. This much extra work just for the old crowd of Dragon Quest fans. It helps too, that the 2D mode is quicker to finish, so it's more likely that you can complete it even if you don't have that much time anymore to play video games (I stopped Tears of the Kingdom because it's just too goddamn long, and I don't have time for such a commitment). This made me think "Why is this only a thing in Dragon Quest?" Why isn't there a 2D mode in new Pokemon games?

Pokemon is one of the most profitable franchises in the world, while Dragon Quest is really only a cult hit in Japan, so it can't be a budgetary reason. Most longtime fans would even say that Pokemon started going downhill when it hit 3D (me as well, I think that Gen V with Black and White 1 + 2, was the swansong of the entire franchise with beautiful 2D Pokemon sprites that were even animated in battle). Especially the bad performance of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet could have been avoided, if the game was not a 3D open world but 2D. The company has shown, that they can handle 2D games, while the 3D games have been laking. Also, since the games are always coming out on Nintendo consoles, which are behind the other consoles and PC on a technical aspect (which I think is a good thing, since there is no technical arms race and more experimental games can be made on a budget), it would be better not to try to ape other AAA titles, especially as a company that can't handle bigger games. The complexity should lie in the games mechanics and the interactions with the world and NPCs (maybe story too, but we are talking Pokemon here), not the graphics/dimensions of said world. I'm thinking HD versions of the design of the DS games, also kinda like the PSOne version of Dragon Quest VII, which means topdown perspective and 2D overworld sprites, but polygonal trees and houses (and a camera that can rotate like DQ VII), while the battle screens are fully 2D but with gorgeous animated HD Pokemon sprites. No more Youtube Videos about why the newest Pokemon game looks like ass/Ocarina of Time, no more bitching about framerate, when the 2D sprites move in smooth 60 fps without setting the Switch on fire.  

There would be two options for Gamefreak to reintroduce 2D into the franchise. Either as a full standalone 2D game, riding on nostalgia or a game that combines both 3D and 2D like DQ XI. And here comes the first problem: Gamefreak is never going to run the extra mile of including an extra 2D mode  into their 3D game. That would only take time of the development team and make the 3D mode even worse and the 2D mode probably lackluster too. Also, since they still target mostly children, who they think would hate anything not cheaply animated in 3D (see Disney refusing to make feature films in the old hand drawn style, since they claim it would make way less money than the 1000st 3D animated Frozen sequel), we likely will never see a new sprite based Pokemon game. The remakes of Gen V are going to look like the remakes of Gen IV and might be just as bug ridden. 

To end this post on a somewhat postive conclusion, at least there are independent Developers making new 2D Pokemon-like games. Either fan-games like Pokemon Uranium or actual new IPs like Cassette Beasts. Play Cassette Beasts!!!

It takes an idiot to do cool things... 

Let's start this thing off with an Anime review. FLCL Grunge. The animation was bad, but I could tolerate that, if the story was fine. You could say it was a mistake to split the seasons and make them 3 episodes each, but I beg to differ. Do you really think, that this bloodless, boring stuff would have been any better, if it was 3 episodes longer? We don't need any FLCL-"lore", if you are even kind enough to call the things in FLCL Grunge lore. Haruko does weird things that make no sense, she hunts after Atomosk, she rides the Vespa, same as it ever was. Claiming that FLCL Grunge is a prequel to the original is absolutely pointless, nothing in it justifies any kind of chronology, we learn nothing new of the big players that makes us view the original in a different way. Not, that this would be desirable, the creators shouldn't try to give us any explanation on the symbolism of the original, it would only deminish it Star Wars prequel Trilogy style. I'm just trying to counter some of the comments online about how it was great to see FLCL lore and learn more about Haruko and Medical Mechanica. We saw no lore and learned nothing, it failed as a prequel. 

Yet FLCL Grunge also brought nothing new. Yes, there are Stone People now (who conveniently don't have to move their mouths all that much while talking, I wonder why...) and there is a planet were Iron is rare and people are hopeless, but what does this really add? The protagonists are in similar situations as Naota, disappointed by the adults in their lives, just 1000% more melodramatic. The original accomplished the difficult act of combining a weird and energetic tone with the troubles of being/becoming a teenager to create a story that is both fun and melancholic and, despite it having robots that come out of foreheads, weirdly realistic and insertable. You didn't even have to watch it as a teenager to be able to see yourself in either Naota, Mamimi or Ninamori. Who will be able to see themselves in the characters of FLCL Grunge? What is even the point of the first episodes protagonist Shinpachi? That he wants to feel hope again because his Town is taken over by the Yakuza? That he wants change in his boring life? And how is any of that accomplished by the end of episode 3?  

Songs by the Pillows were inserted just for nostalgia, they didn't even fit all that well to the situations, unlike in the original, where they were absolutely on point with the action on screen. Even FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative managed to do that better. And as a last point of critique: the Yakuza Guys having no animated faces wasn't charming or symbolic, it just felt incredibly cheap. Let's see if FLCL Shoegaze is any better at bringing something original to the table. My hopes are close to zero.