Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

It's taken me a while to get around to this, probably longer than it should have, but I have had a few other things to do. Any way, I finally got around to readign Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the rehearsal script for the eighth Harry Potter story. First of all, I really want to see this play just because there are scenes that I do not know how they did on stage. For the most part it is written as a stage script with great attention to how it can be on stage, but every now and then it appears that J.K. Rowling jumped in with some old school hard core magic with no regard to how it could actually happen on stage, and the fact that the trolley witch could transfigure claws, polyjuice potions could change actors, engorgement charms could be cast to make people inflate, dementors could suck out misty souls and witches can levitate, all on stage, just the effects, even the attempt to make them with this being the final draft, would be well worth the price of admission.

The story begins exactly where it left off with the epilogue from th Deathly Hallows. What changes is that the point of view shifts to Albus Potter, Harry's young heir on his first trip to Hogwarts. He meets Scorpio Malfoy on the train, the son of Draco Malfoy. What follows is very interesting as rather than history repeating itself with the Potter Malfoy feud carrying on to the next generation, the two become very good friends. The story then skips through to their third year where all of the action takes place. In their first two years the boys have bonded, not just in spite of their heritage, but in large part because of it. Both boys carry heavy burdens because of their fathers, and even though this should make them enemies, it gives them empathy for each other's plight. Scorpio is actually the nicer one, the end of a line of dark wizards he has had enough and just wants a friend. Albus is coming at it from another angle, he has two older siblings, famous parents, a famous aunt and uncle and two cousins that all make the family legacy clear and his middle name is Severus after Snape, the Half-Blood Prince, and he has also had enough and just wishes he didn't have to deal with all of this. Albus is even more complicated because he ends up in House Slytherin, but nobody, not even Albus himself, sees that he was meant to be there for no other reason than to be friends with Scorpio.

After Cedric Diggory's father bad mouths Harry and mentions an illegal time turner, Albus gets the crazy idea that he can use the time turner to save Cedric and make the world better. He gets the time turner but ends up making things worse, first inadvertently breaking up Hermione and Ron to make sure his cousins are never born, then saving Cedric but getting Harry killed to create a dark world where Voldemort rules and Albus is never born. Scorpio is then tasked briefly with settign time right but subtly stepping in and countering the spells they used the first time to allow time to return to normal. By the end of Act 3 everything is set right but then a surprise enemy comes along who actually wanted time changed and is not at all happy about Scorpio fixing time.

The narrative is kind of twisty, but it does allow for important scenes to play out on stage while also telling us what happened to our favorite characters. For the most part, the OGs seem to be consistent with who they were, while the new characters fit in the story in a believable way showing the touch of J.K. Rowling making sure the story stays true to it's roots. It's nice to see how everyone is doing, though in the middle it's jarring to see everything undone, even if only temporarily. Strangest of all is how this story was only released in script format, so unless you can actually attend a stage production, reading the book that has been released to the public makes for an awkward read, at least at first. The stage directions made me think of a stage production, sterile, quiet and with an unbroken but definitive fourth wall. Eventually I got used to it and I was able to read the story within the same reality of the first seven books, it helped alot once they got to the third year. The first few scenes skip through the the first two years at an uneven and accelerated pace, but once they hit the htird year, the pace settles down and as events unfold at a slower pace, the format relaxes into a dialogue that tells a good story. It's like if you never knew Harry Potter and were introduced to it with the Prisoner for Azkaban with a synopsis of the first two books hastily scrawled on the fly page, once you get past that awkward exposition, the story plays out quite well. This is probably best for Harry Potter fans or aspiring playwrights, anybody else is going to be flustered by how awkward the whole thing is, but for those of us who can decode this mess, it's a wonderful ride, not to be missed.

Open world vs linear

I've been hearing a lot from gamers about open world vs linear style games, and frankly I feel it's time I have to speak up on behalf of linear games. I understand open world games make them seem more real and more lived in and it's annoying when you're in a linear game and hit some invisible wall that we know only exists because the programmers just didn't put anything over there, probably due to lack of time. However, I recently had the opportunity to make my own game and found out just how hard it is and I understand why programmers need to make boundaries to hold players back, and also as a player for years I have preferred knowing where I am supposed to be and not just run off in random directions wasting hours exploring and not knowing where I was supposed to go.

I know I've been talking about FFXV a lot but it really is a great example of what I'm talking about. The first part of the game is open world and I've heard complaints about how it becomes mor linear towards the end. I haven't gotten too far in the game so I don't know how true it is, but frankly I'm actually rather looking forward to it gettign more linear because I feel that while the open world format makes the game world seem more real, the amount of time they spend in such a relatively small portion of the game world starts to actually work against the realism that they were able to provide. The biggest problem is that there is a great story with a sense of urgency that is undermined by the sidequests. In chapter 1 you're trying to get to your wedding, which you would think would be important but your car breaks down so you need to mae some money to pay for repairs because nobody thought to bring money before leaving home, Noctis' first line is "What's a gil?" Seriously? The prince doesn't know money? Anyway you need to get to a port only to find out that the ferry has stopped running though a shady fellow named Dino can help you out, only after you do your part, you find out your father has been betrayed, your kingdom has fallen, and now you must save the world. This is a big deal because it means you have to retrieve thriteen royal arms, bond with six gods, fight an evil empire and bring down an army of demons, and to top it all off, Noctis has known about this since he was five. But first, let's go fishing! And play pinball! And pimp my ride, the last memento of my dead father! And Prompto says we should check out the chocobos! And Gladiolus wants to add something to Cup Noodles! And Dino wants us to help him launch his shady jewelry business! And Takka wants us to go grocery shopping for him! And Sania wants us to help her catch frogs because she's oblivious to the nation collapsing! Most of this has to be done just ignoring that there really is something more important to do but you do it anyway. It's jarring that the same characters that face things as dramatic as fighting the empire, facing gods, and collecting relics can make light of sidequests and act like the world isn't literally collapsing around them, especially with their constant dialogue that takes on two completely different tones that make it hard to believe they are happening simultaneously.

To give another angle, let's go back in time to where Square Enix began, with the original Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest was pretty open world, which was actually pretty annoying because you could try to make a mad dash for the end of the game and get yourself killed before you even make it halfway. The game leads you off tellign you that your main goal is to rescue a princess, and retrieve the ball of light, defeating the dragons guarding each. The first of these quests has no deterrents except your level, which means grinding until you're strong enough to fight the dragon. The second main quest requires three lesser quests to collect the items necessary to build a bridge to the final dungeon, but two out of three quests will require a fair amunt of grind ing and one of those two requires you to finish the princess rescue main quest. There are about four optional sidequests, if you can even call them that, and all requirea fair amount of grinding before you can attempt them, which means you have to do a lot of nothing before you can actually do anything, There is a certain amount of joy in freedom, but it comes with confusion and ultimatley boredom when you realize how much time you're wasting on the grind wandering aimlessly. Final Fantasy on the other hand beat that problem by creating a series of minor quests that open the world slowly which can seem annoying, but it also allows you to be kept where you belong for the part that the story requires. The downside for critics is that the game is linear. My counterargument is that you don't have to waste time grinding as you explore an open world, you just keep moving forward through the entertaining story which if you haven't experienced the tedious boredom of Dragon Quest, is much better than you can imagine.

Ultimately my point is that a good game is probably going to be more linear than open world, but only as long as they can make it serve a story that is good enough to make you forget whether it's open world or not.

For the love of Final Fantasy

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Make sure to get your copies of the Magic of Rochester Trilogy from Amazon, including Red Ellen, Waking Dream, and the recently released conclusion Riding the Dragon! Perfect for the paranormal romance fan you forgot to get a present for. Or if you're alone, get 7th Moon the RPG from Steam in the RPG Maker MV workshop.

Meanwhile for me, the only Valentine I've got is Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII(see what I did there). I did try, but unfortunately, I haven't had as much success when I'm preoccupied with four Final Fantasy games. I've already talked at length about Final Fantasy XV which has about a week left of the Moogle Chcobo Carnival and I'm hard at work fishing to try and get the event rod and reel, or at least get my fishing skill up, but I did everything else so I'm ready for it to be over so I can get back to the man story. I'm also playing Final Fantasy Record Keeper which doesn't have a whole lot of newsworthy content, although it is the most fun piece of nostalgia even though it's nothing new, just a trip down memory lane.

Mobius Final Fantasy has gone hardcore recently, like I said last week, it's on Steam so it can be played on the PC and wow, the graphics are even better than I thought. I expected it would just be bigger, but the animation is smoother too. The only complaint I've got is regarding the interface, which I'm fairly used to by now having played this game for months and the transition wasn't all bad, but it's painfully clear this was not originally for PC. While the interface is convenient for on the go gaming with a phone or mobile device, it comes off as simplistic on the PC. All that said, the game is still pretty solid, especially with the new FFVII event they started the day after the Steam release, for the next two months you can fight through the Mako Reactors with Cloud in a special region of Palamecia. One cool thing is that you get to use Wol and all his special abilities, and it gets worked into the cosmology of Mobius as you and your fairy companion Echo try to figure out how he and his world got here. I'm a little optimistic that they are calling this the FFVII Remake event, not just FFVII but Remake is in the title as well, which I hope means that since they ofte time tribute events in apps with the release of the actual game that his might mean that around the time the event ends April 1 we'll finally get FFVII remake or at least a definitive release date.

My new game is Final Fantasy Brave Exvius which I was debating for a long time and finally took the plunge for Ariana Grande. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but for some reason of all possible celebrities to be the first to become a final Fantasy character, Ariana Grande was chosen to become Dangerous Ariana. To ecxplain how she fits in, first I have to explain what this game is. Brave Exvius is a game that doesn't feel much like a Final Fantasy game and yet very much a great 16 bit era JRPG, the sort of game I wish they still made. The story follows two knights named Rain and Laswell who receive a supernatural cry for help from the shrine of the Earth Crystal and when they go answer it, it begins an incredible adventure to save the world and they are aided by the power to summon Visions, which are people from other worlds that and/or times that join your party. Visions are not to be confused with Espers which are summoned in battle as summons usually work in Final Fantasy and function in a completely different way. Visions are basically an excuse to drag in characters from every other Final Fantasy game as well as original characters that represent traditional jobs that are otherwise underrepresented. The one thing that kind of sucks is that Visions don't seem to have an actual role in the story, which is highlighted by how the half dozen main characters are very active and are very entertaining in their own right. Rain and Laswell have a hilarious rapport and the main story seems to be plenty of fun and almost seems to get dragged down by the gimmick of summoning Visions. That said, this is the explanation for Ariana Grande who is a Vision with minimal story but she will be part of your party permanently once acquired. Unfortunately she's not actually available anymore as she only came with a two week limited event that I didn't find out about until the last day and just barely got her at all. The reason I screwed up on this was that I hard about how she was going to be in the game from the same company who promised FFFVII remake two years ago and FFXV ten years ago when it was going to be FFXIII Versus, so while I'm waiting forever for what I really want, I was surprised to find this whole Ariana Grande thing came and went in less than a month.

Square Enix is making some good games, but seriously, if there is any chance this is getting back to the head honchos over there, can you take a break from free-to-play apps and focus on getting FFVII out already?

Mobius Final Fantasy on Steam

I already covered this game once before, but now there's a new development, it's coming to Steam to be playable on your PC as well as your mobile device. The awesome thing is both versions can play off the same account so you can play the game on top quality at home and then catch up a little on the road too, the bad part is that you need a wi-fi connection so you won't be playing this in the middle of nowhere, it's just basically if you couldn't drag your laptop around you might be able to fit in a few battles on your phone. Still, this game has exceptional graphics for a mobile game and I'm looking forward to trying it on my laptop to see how good it looks on a full screen.

As for the story, you are an amnesiac who remembers only his name, problem is, many others seem to answer to the same name, but only one will fulfill the prophecy to be the Warrior of Light, defeat Chaos and save Palamecia. The wierd thing is, it doesn't seem like there are many inhabitants in Palamecia, as you go through your adventure the only people are Princess Sarah, Garland, Mera the summoner of Sicari, moogles, and other blanks(aliens like you) and a few women that must also be natives given that blanks are all male.If you ignore the fact that you're saving a world where nobody really lives, the story plays out pretty well. So far the released material takes you from a wilderness plagued by basic dust fiends, lesser dragons and a Cockatrice to a desert that has more advanced dust fiends, mind flayers and a Lich, then to a battlefield where you face Chaos for the first time after proving yourself against a horde of recurring series monsters, and most recently a trial of elements before rejoining Sarah.

To fight your battles you use a deck of four cards, plus a fifth rental card from a friend, which are named for various monsters, both the ones you defeat and summons that are even more powerful that you get from an ability shop but actually represent traditional abilities such as Fira, Cure, Ultima, Cross Slash and Diamond Dust. The Sicarius represent actual summons, but unfortunately the ability is activated without a full manifestation so they all get pretty lame. There is still some strategy because of the elements system, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light and Dark. Every monster has one of these elements and so do your attack skills, they are paired off so they are strong against themselves and can sometimes even absorb their own element, but are also weak against the opposite element. Also, you only get three elements based on your job so you have a fifty percent chance of having an advantage. Jobs are again recycled from old games, but Light and Dark are new elements just recently added which can make the game harder because it complicates the simple element system and reduces your chances you are prepared to handle any particular enemy.

In addition to the main story, there are also challenge events including cactuar bonus rounds and the battle tower which most recently hosted a visit from Gilgamesh, who was hilarious breaking the fourth wall like never before. The Sicarius summons are in a special multiplayer arena where you have to collect the parts to craft the cards, so it's a pain, but can be worth it. There's also exploration areas where you get daily bonuses to skillseeds that enhance your job and the Pleiades Islands where you can collect components that augment your cards. There's always something to do and beautiful graphics to do it in and the voiceovers make the cast come alive on this surreal existential adventure. Try it February 6 on Steam.

One last thing, while your at Steam, check out the RPG Maker workshop and pick up the beta version of my game, 7th Moon.