Duck Tales

Watched a couple of episodes of Duck Tales with the swedish dub. Just beautiful and hilarious as I remembered, or even more so when I now get references like Walter Kronduck and other small references here and there. The swedish dub is just so good, although the original english at least had the scottish accent which made the episode where Fenton Crackshell takes on the role of Scrooge McDuck a bit more realistic, in the dub he just changed tone a bit so I never got that when I was young and that is still hard to correct in localization. Of course it wasn't just nostalgia this time since I actually were able to look at one of the episodes that never aired in Sweden for some reason: Scrooge's Last Adventure. Why I don't know. All I know is that it isn't because the subject it was about.

Spoilers here, but anyway. The nephews crash a clock, take it to the "doctor" who calls Scrooge by mistake who got home from a checkup and believes he is doomed since it is impossible to fix. So depressed Scrooge begin thinking of the future and what to do with his money. So he put it in banks (finally) and just by a freak accident all money gets lots to a glitch and Fenton and Scrooge transport themselves into the computers to fight the glitch. So, when I watched it I got the feeling I've watched it before even though I haven't. The answer to this mystery is... Disney had recycled a "a doctor calls telling about a critical condition, but really means  some other thing"-story that aired one month earlier on Tale Spin, Bearly Alive. They even use the same joke about wanting the spare parts. The other part of that story is the inside the computer which happened in the Darkwing Duck episode Whiffle While You Work a year later (a show by the way that they stopped airing on swedish television because it was "too violent and encouraging violence" after some mothers complained).

Other fun facts about Duck Tales in Sweden is that it has two different names in swedish and therefore also two intros, both great actually. First is Ankliv (Duck life more directly but it is a valid direct translation of Duck Tales) with very close direct translation of the lyrics:

The second one being Joakim Von Anka och tre knattar (Scrooge McDuck and three nephews (?), I'm a bit uncertain about my translation there) with lyrics that pretty much has nothing to do with the original. It emphasis more on the characters than Duckburg and the things that happens there and especially mentions the nephews more often than Scrooge, but it is still good. Oh yeah, and the series name here was Knatte, Fnatte och Tjatte på Äventyr (Heuy, Dewey and Louie on adventure or is it Adventures with Heuy, Dewey and Louie?):

This is also the one that got the extended version if someone is interested. Which is my favorite? I don't actually know and I can't even lean toward nostalgia because I can't say which I heard first without looking it up (it's the Ankliv one if you are curious). Still a great show 25 years later. It's almost as old as I am.

Dragon Quest VIII

 

Have been playing Dragon Quest 8 since I finished Tales of the Abyss. At the moment I played around 144 hours and of those 40 hours are a second playthrough. Somehow I find myself enjoying this game more that I can spend over 10 hour playing a damn bingo game with a cheating little slime giving me wrong numbers all the time. Hate that slime. So I have wasted around 2 days straight just playing in the casino to get some special items and extra cash cause you are constantly in need of some extra money, leaving gambling as the only viable option.

But why do I find this game so captivating? Could be to the simplistic story which reminds me of fairy tales, meaning it's pretty cliched. You, the only survivor of a curse that has befallen the Kingdom of Trodain has been tasked by King Trode (who turned into a troll like creature) to find the jester Dhoulmagus who is responsible while protecting the king and his daughter Princess Medea (who was turned into a horse and pull around the wagon). On the road you meet the legendary cockney-speaking bandit Yangus, the femme fatal Jessica Albert and the womanizing, card-cheating templar Angelo, all with personal motives to hunt Dhoulmagus (well, except Yangus who just follows "the guv"). On the quest you encounter dragons (well, it is a Dragon Quest-game), sages, ghosts, bunny girls, slimes, a giant technicolor bird and more when you try to lift the curse and bring the culprit to justice... at first glance. True to Dragon Quest formula the main villain changes half way through and a larger plot of darkness unfolds in front of you.

Really, you can see the plot as early as the first town and this is gonna be spoilers. You are in hot pursuit of the criminal  when you gather information in a town where one person died, Master Rylus, Dhoulmagus teacher and apparently a descendent of a sage according to a priest. And there is 7 of them, who would have thought? Could they possibly sealed some evil away? Haven't I heard that before? Yeah, so the story is cliched, but with good characters it doesn't matter and here the game shines bright. I actually care for them and with the good voice-acting it really feels worth it helping them. The only one I had problems with was Angelo regarding his voice. He's to silent most of the time, but when he shows stronger emotions or just speaks a bit louder it feels perfect. I just have to mention that I love Yangus dialect. This in contrast to, say, Baiten Kaitos where the voice-acting more or less sucked. 

Back to silent, once again you have a silent protagonist and I don't mind that. Also notable how good this game is are the dialog where the character chosen names are mentioned and they just ignore it or use a stand in word like hero, he and so on making the dialogue run smoothly. Compare again to Baiten Kaitos where they just left a pause around your name completely throwing you out of the fantasy. Your character, a palace guard with close bonding to the princess since 10 years back. Sweet romance, but she is promised away to the prince of Argonia, Charmless... I mean Charmles. Yeah, you can see that's not gonna hold, but how could you, a mere guard ever take the hand of the beautiful princess? Well, I would have asked that question if I hadn't found out that the king of Argonia have an older brother who disappeared long ago searching for his true love and the first thing the king does when he sees me is saying he was reminded of someone. Come on, really? You going that way? All right, suits yourself.

The ending then? How did it go? It is a beautiful ending that would have brought tears in my eyes if it wasn't a small tiny bit that nagged me. The scene goes I'm escorting the princess to her wedding with Charmless who is ever so annoying, her disdain and sadness for this current event shows through and you can't even attend the wedding since you and the others aren't noble enough, forgetting that they consist of one descendent of a sage and a noble already before the game as well as saviors of the world (it doesn't count for anything does it?). So the other pushes you to do the right thing, crash the wedding with the princess happiness in mind. A peer pressure session later it's on. You storm the cathedral and prefer to challenge the templar guarding it when news come that the princess been kidnapped. Charmless accuse you so now it 's on. You escape and tries to reach the princess. Your friends have your back while you run down the stairs finding King Trode fighting of the guards with a twig (he would have been a bit more helpful if he had fought with us thinking about it than complain about it) making sure that Medea doesn't have to suffer. you arrive, she wants you to take her hand and you run of, eloping together. Damn, I'm weak for these love stories. 

And then the credits roll and it is afterwards the small problem arises. Back in Trodain you are finally home and the king apologizes for having forced Medea into this against her will and say he will respect her own choice, but it wouldn't be easy now that she rejected a prince. First thought is, who cares, she wants the handsome steadfast guard who have guarded her for over 10 years, took care of her and... what do you mean "who cares we are finally home. THE END"? WHAT, no statement like "who would want a prince when I have my personal guard, savior of the world, destroyer of Darkness"? What more do you ask for? No, apparently I have to be a prince, what kind of message is that? So now I have to play a second game since I screwed up my skill leveling system to be able to beat the bonus dungeon so I can get the happy ending. Oh well, beside from that little bit, it's a good game.

Tales of the Abyss

 

Finished playing Tales of the Abyss yesterday, the sad ending accompanied by rain falling upon my window while the credits rolled on the 3DS. While I saw it fitting I don't know if the people across the lake appreciated  the rain that much during the camping (sorry about the Swedish, but the music festival is probably to small to garner any English fans). A fun game, a bit short though with just 50 hours, but then I didn't search for every single side quest or that sort. Compared to Tales of Symphonia it's not that good. I quite prefer Symphonia with its very good story and tragic characters that you have to fight. You actually feel for them and their plight and goals, but at the same time you see the evils they commit. In that game the main character is quite one-dimensional, he's the idealistic youth who strive for a better world. Same as the main antagonist, but he's pretty much a communist with all the Homo Sovieticus thinking.

In Abyss on the other hand the main character is deeply flawed. He begins as a spoiled aristocratic brat, but due to a traumatic event that changes his world upside down he starts to reform. You hate him in the beginning, but after playing through those events you begin to feel sorry for him. He feels like a real character and that's pretty much one of the main themes of the game. The main antagonist on the other hand is just set on destroying the world to "free it from itself". In Symphonia that was pretty much the same goal for Mithos Yggdrasill, but the character felt much more alive and logical (in a... twisted kind of way). A great part in that story was also when his ancient friends tried to push him toward a different path instead of that idea he clinging on to in hope to bring a better world as well as revive his sister. In the very end all that you saw was a former hero that regressed to nothing but a lonely scared child with a dream of a better world, who pushed his friends and loved ones away. No wonder you feel sorry for him.

Van Grants then? He's not alone. He has people who believes in him to their very end and dies in order to protect them. He doesn't even seem to care. Yes, he has a tragic back-story as well as he was forced to be a weapon that destroyed his home, but it's not the fall from grace story that Symphonia used. Van's plan felt more like vengeance upon the world for what it did to him while Yggdrasill tried to make it better, but due to insanity would let it burn.

Other things? 3D was kinda useless. Yes, it gave depth, but not in the animated cut-scenes so why do it? Music on the other hand was beautiful and certain themes really puts tears in my eyes (or would if it wasn't so damn hot that they evaporate before they leave the eyes). And why would it not when it was partially composed by Motoi Sakuraba, the composer behind the Golden Sun-games (didn't think I would sneak that in would you)?