- ”...She kicks high.”Male gamer, Dead Or Alive 3 ad
Episode 57
Timecode: 0:13: The long trailer for Lost Odyssey (2007, Xbox360), an RPG from Mistwalker, the company founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy fame.
The trailer shows a handsome, slender, long-haired mercenary named Kaim helping out one side of a war on a dismal, bleak battlefield. It's a fantastic scene with some cool and meticulous stuntwork. The battle comes to an unexpected end when magical magma starts pouring onto the battlefield. Unlike many of the soldiers, who desperately try to escape, Kaim just stands there, waiting for the lava to overtake him. For he has faced oblivion countless times over the last thousand years, to no avail.
He is an immortal – possibly an invaluable tool of war and for mercenary work, but plagued by a lack of meaning in his endless centuries of living. His is a past forgotten, impossibly fragmented until he begins to work with a female immortal and a mortal, ne'er-do-well wizard, setting him on a quest to uncover the past and the nature of his immortality.
With music by the original FF composer, distinct, realistic character designs by the creator of manga such as Slam Dunk and Vagabond, some tough gameplay, and an emotionally compelling story (not in the least helped out by the “Thousand Years of Dreams”, miniature stories written by a Japanese novelist, many of which are moralizing tear jerkers), Lost Odyssey is possibly one of the most underappreciated games on the 360.
What I'm saying is, I like it.
What's interesting, though, is that in my shallow impatience at the time, I was bored with this initial trailer. After I had seen both this and Mistwalker's other game, Blue Dragon on Nocturnal Emissions, I had decided that Dragon looked to be the better title. But who won in the end – the immortals, or the dragons? The extremely complicated answer will come in a future installment!
5:01: The strange Japanese broadcast ad for some game called Devil May Cry (2001, PS 2). It shows some guy taking pictures of a hot Japanese chick, and, oh, yeah, some footage from the game, or something. At the end of the ad, it shows the guy taking a picture of the girl in a black bikini, who is posing with Dante's sword (Alastor), just like how Dante would have it strapped to his back. A woman trying to be a stylish hero like Dante? Like that would ever happen successfully!
5:15: A long, lingering look at Lisa during downtime in DOA Xtreme Volleyball (2003, Xbox). The bathing suits look kind of uncomfortable; Lisa wears a golden version of the thing that Borat wore, only smaller, and then there's the infamous swimsuit that looks like string with strategically-placed jewels. I recall Electronic Gaming Monthly claiming that, once they saw it in the game's store, they “just had to unlock it”.
Points for the music that sounds like a suspiciously similar substitute for Santana. The guitarist, not the character from Glee.
11:43: The intro for Remote Control Dandy S{cience} F{iction} (PS 2), from Konami. It shows giant robots of various size, shape, and weaponry fighting each other. It also shows a diverse cast of cutesy pilots, with somewhat improbable names:
- Uni Kawara, pilot of the Bellvelle
- Mimi Newton, pilot of the Bigibum
- Nickey Clip, pilot of the Sundance-Kid
- Arlene Slowl, pilot of the... “Nilgiritalir”?
- Doctor Y, pilot of the Haugzen
- Sanjyuudan Kawara, pilot of the Goliath System Hope
- Dan Kawara, pilot of the Tell-Bell Series III
- Custom-Model Special Labor
- Laura Sevenbridge, pilot of the Guardian Freedom
Where would we be without giant robot stories and the occasionally ridiculous names they give their pilots and robots?
16:59: A clip of the wood cutting minigame from the esoteric minigame-game WTF: Work Time Fun (PSP, 2006). The game will end if you accidentally chop an animal, not a block of wood, in half. If you do so, the old lady that sets the wood up recites a Buddhist prayer.
Comments
