Tales of Shiranai
The Nonsensical Geek Blog!
Record of Lodoss War (OAV)
Jul 9th
We just re-watched the Record of Lodoss War OAV. It has been many years since I have seen this, and it is definitely a trip back to a different era… both a different era of anime, and a different era of RPGs. Old school fans will remember this show from way back in 1990, when anime was still an extreme oddity in North America.
Record of Lodoss Wars is a pure fantasy anime that lacks a lot of the tropes of modern fantasy anime and modern JRPGS. There are no mecha, guns, or other sci-fi elements that tend to get peppered into stories nowadays, mainly as a result of everyone trying to copy Final Fantasy 7. People may be are aware that the origin of Lodoss was actually a Dungeons and Dragons campaign ran in 1986, before it became a series of light novels, manga, and anime. For a full overview of the history of the Lodoss setting, I suggest reading the Wikipedia Article. It has a lot of interesting information in it regarding the origins of the story.
The age of this show is clearly apparent in this OAV. Despite the DVD re-release, there is no widescreen mode or Dolby 5.1 surround sound available. The animation is fairly poor compared to a modern show, and it is complemented with a heavily synthesized soundtrack. Truly, watching this made me feel like I was back in the late 80′s/early 90′s, swapping fansubs with the other nerds who were into anime or paying $25 for a single licensed episode on VHS. The character designs themselves, are , in my eye still pretty cool. The colors are drabber than what is typically used nowadays, but the proportions are more realistic, and some of the armor looks badass without being extremely ridiculous. It works very well for the type of setting that Lodoss is, which is basically the type of world that you’d see with First Edition or early Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
Despite the fact that Deedlit (the iconic elf character in the show) is still somewhat well-recognized, I doubt that newer fans of anime or your typical gamer who has only played a modern FF game or WoW would really appreciate this show. However, if you enjoy old school D&D, I recommend renting this and watching through it. It’s a pretty fun view of how things were back in the day, both for RPGs and for anime.
Rumored list of all planned WoW expansions.
Apr 7th
Note on 8/21/2009: The Details of the new expansion, Cataclysm, has been revealed at Blizzcon. The details of this expansion seem to invalidate the below list. This means that either this list was fake from the beginning, or Blizzard has moved away from their original plans and has decided to take things in a slightly different direction. I am still maintaining this post for historical purposes.
…………….
Interesting post here: http://wow.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=21;mid=119012268058738816
The poster claims that the information he has is from 2003, but he posted it in 2007. I’m not sure if this post is before or after the WOTLK zones were announced. If it was after, then this post is highly suspect. If it was before, then this guy could be on to something. It’s all a rumor and unverified, but it seems to go along with how Blizzard has implied the expansions will go.
If the list is accurate, then the following may be expected:
As widely speculated, the next expansion will focus around the seas of Azeroth. The Goblin areas, as well as the Maelstrom, will be explorable. Gilneas will finally open up as well. Queen Azshara would be the presumed big baddie of this expansion, being that she’s supposedly still down there on the ocean floor.
The fourth expansion will include Pandaren and Worgen as playable races, and will focus around the Emerald Dream being the endgame. Ysera and/or whoever is responsible for the problems in the Emerald Dream (potentially an old god or the Burning Legion) would likely be the baddie for this expansion.
The final expansion may be raid content only (no new levels), or will take players up to level 110. It doesn’t seem even this list is clear. It will presumably have everyone going to Argus to put an end to the Burning Legion once and for all. I imagine that Sargeras would be the ultimate bad guy of WoW.
I’m very surprised there are no overt references to Deathwing anywhere. But the list only reveals regular zones and not instances.
For convienience, here are the posted zones, with additional commentary.
Draenor Set (TBC)
Azuremyst Isle – 1 to 10
Bloodmyrk Isle – 10 to 20 (Bloodmyst)
Eversong Forest – 1 to 10
Quel’thalas – 10 to 20 (Ghostlands?)
Hellfire Peninsula – 58 to 62
Zangarmarsh – 60 to 64
Terokkar Forest – 61 to 65
The Deadlands – 63 to 67 (Speculated to be the Bone Wastes, which is part of Terokkar.)
Nagrand – 64 to 68
Blade’s Edge Mountains – 66 to 70
Netherstorm – 67 to 70
Shadowmoon Valley – 69 to 70
(Note that Quel’Danas/Sunwell is not listed…)
Northrend Set (WOTLK)
Borean Tundra – 67 to 70
Howling Fjord – 67 to 70
Dragonblight – 69 to 72
Grizzly Hills – 70 to 73
Crystalsong Forest – 72 to 75
Zul’drak – 73 to 76
Sholazar Basin – 75 to 79
Storm Peaks – 76 to 80
Icecrown Glacier – 78 to 80
(The DK Starting zone does not seem to be represented… though that’s an extension of EPL technically… Wintergrasp is also not there.)
Maelstrom Set
Gilneas – 77 to 80
Grim Batol – 78 to 81 (Zone to the East of Wetlands)
Kul Tiras – 79 to 82
Kezan – 81 to 86
Tel Abim – 83 to 85
Zandalar – 84 to 87
Plunder Isle – 86 to 88
The Broken Isles – 87 to 90
The Maelstrom – 89 to 90
Plane Set
Pandaria – 1 to 10
Hiji – 10 to 20
(Pandaran Starting Zones. Hope these guys are Alliance!)
Wolfenhold – 1 to 10
Xorothian Plains – 10 to 20
(Worgen Starting Zones. These would technically be in a different world than Azeroth. Since Worgen seem to be wholly evil, I’m not sure how they could join either faction. However, that won’t stop Blizzard from pulling something out of their rear ends. Either way if this is true, I hope they are Horde.)
The Green Lands – 88 to 91
The Dying Paradise – 91 to 94
The Emerald Nightmare – 94 to 97
The Eye of Ysera – 97 to 100
Deephome – 88 to 91
Skywall – 91 to 94
The Abyssal Maw – 94 to 97
The Firelands – 97 to 100
(The last four zones represent the Elemental Plane of the Warcraft universe.)
Legion Set
K’aresh – 96 to 99
Argus Meadowlands – 97 to 100 (Argus is the homeworld of the Eredar/Draenei.)
Mac’Aree – 99 to 100 (Mac’Aree was the capital city of Argus. Presumably now a Legion base!)
Maw of Oblivion – 100+
The Burning Citadel – 100+++ (Probably where Sargeras is waiting for us to kill him so we can take his epix.)
Again, this entire thing is suspect, but it is feasible and is in line with all of the other various rumors out there. The rumor mill successfully predicted the first two expansions, the Blood Elf playable race, and the Death Knight class. I’d say that it’s at least 50-50 that the rumor mill is right about the next expansion being Maelstrom-related.
Star Trek: The Experience Closes Down
Sep 2nd
This is pretty sad news…
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/09/01/star.trek.voyage.ending.ap/index.html
I was there in 2000 or so with my parents, and it was a really awesome and immersive attraction. My mom was even having a conversation with Klingons at Quarks bar when we went! It’s very sad to see it go.
It sucks that it had to be in Las Vegas in the first place… hopefully something similar will open up elsewhere.
You Spoony Bard! (FF4 DS)
Jul 27th
I just completed Final Fantasy 4 DS!
As many gamers know by now, FF4 was originally released in the United States in 1991 as “Final Fantasy 2″ in order to keep the numbering consistent (The real FF2 and FF3 for the NES were not released here). Many people also know that in the process of localization, the difficulty of the game was reduced. (Contrary to what most people believe, the FF2US release is not exactly the same difficulty as the FF4 “Easy Type” that was released in Japan. FF2US was still more difficult than the FF4 Easy Type.) When Square re-released the game for the Playstation in the US, both the original title (Final Fantasy 4) and difficulty were restored. Regardless of this, all incarnations of FF4 are more difficult than Final Fantasy 6 and later.
This DS version is not just a simple port, as past re-releases have been. This time, we’ve gotten a complete remake with voice acting, expanded plot elements, and 3D graphics. While I was obviously excited when the DS version was announced, my largest fear was that Square-Enix would reduce the difficulty to cater to newer gamers (many of whom did not play any RPGs before Final Fantasy 7). Fortunately, they did just the opposite. FF4 DS is actually harder than the original release of the game. I’d even go as far to say that in a couple spots, it is almost too hard for most current RPG fans. I was quite surprised at this, since I figured that Square-Enix had long forgotten how to make games that were beyond “press circle to win” in difficulty level. (There are new skills called “augments” that can potentially make the game easier, but the most “broken” one is hard to get without following a FAQ/Strategy Guide.)
This remake is great, and not just because of the difficulty. The new script, translation, and voiced events add a new layer of depth to the timeless plot and many of the characters. Towards the end, we receive further insight into the events that lead Golbez down the path of evil. Apparently, these were part of the original script for the game, but had to be cut due to space limitations. Plot-wise, the DS remake is the definitive version of the game. This is a must-play for anyone who has played through a previous release of the game.
For the old-schoolers, they did decide to keep the most well-known localization quirk intact, despite all the other script changes. It appears that bards are still spoony, even 17 years later.
Unfortunately for US fans, we will likely never get to play the new “sequel” to FF4, which is only being made available in increments for Japanese Cellphones. Oh well, at least we can look at the cool art.
