07.24.07
It’s Still Japanese To Me
So, at the con, I managed to pick up two import PS2 titles I’d been looking forward to for a while– Air and Super Robot Taisen Alpha 3. SRT, oddly enough, is the easier of the two to play; I have the additional experience of knowing more or less what the commands are and how to do what needs to be done from the OG series, so I’m not completely lost. I have to admit, of course, that being on the PS2 seriously increases the game’s enjoyability; the explosions are much more dramatic and the music is just far and away better. Not that SRT really had that much more to improve on, as the GBA titles are solid to begin with (but, as I’ve said, I’m biased), but being on rotatable battlefields really helps. Think of it like FFT with giant robots. Yeah, you can imagine how much I’m digging it.
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s AIR (capitalized as such on the case… I’d rather just leave it as Air but in this case I’m emphasizing it, see?). Now I am capable of reading only a few key bits of kana, specifically some game-centric snippets like “button”, “save”, “load”. Every once in a while I’ll get a flash of inspiration and be able to read a character’s name– witness a moment in SRT when, after such an epiphany, I shouted “Amuro! That’s the Gundam guy!!” (Maybe given that particular context, I should call them “Newtype Flashes“? …sorry, yeah, that one was awful.) Kanji are more or less completely inscrutable to me as of yet. Knowing this, I still fired up Air and went through to a little ways into the Dream scenario, just long enough to see the opening movie– which is quite fascinating in and of itself. Now, granted, overall I had almost no idea what was going on. Only by virtue of having seen the series was I able to “get” what was transpiring as Yukito stepped off the train. Having done that, and gotten my feet ever-so-slightly wet, I put the game away for the time being until such time as I can actually read some of what’s there. (Incidentally, I had examined the manuals for SRT and one of the DS titles I’d picked up and found that they had furigana above most of the kanji… I had hoped that this would be the case in the games themselves, but I suppose my luck had to run out sooner or later.) I don’t count it as a waste of money– I had wanted the title anyway, and now I have a solid reason to want to learn Japanese.
…to play a girly game. Shut it, Misuzu is still cute. (Though I really had sort of wished that Mad Gear had had Kanon instead… bah, I’ll talk more about MG in the con report.)
ANYWAY. The con report is coming along nicely– day one of four is written, and I’ve been recalling more and more bits to add on. Also, the good news from last week (get the bottle ready, Pez) has continued, and with any luck I will be able to do the big anticlimactic reveal soon (assuming I don’t blow it). Catch you tomorrow, probably with some thoughts on the DS titles I snagged.
Ismail Saeed said,
07.24.07 at 4:06 pm
I hadn’t heard you had picked up AIR. I have the PC game, but the extent I’ve actually played of it is about what you’ve done for the PS2 version. I went as far as to get to Misuzu’s house and meet her mom, but I was “listening” more than I was reading.
You know, there are some con stories we just haven’t even told each other. Kris told me about the Pokemon tourney miss for Rick when we were on the way home together.
… Though I think that says we needed to communicate more than we did, I think that also says it was a freaking awesome con.
Ismail Saeed said,
07.24.07 at 5:13 pm
(Meaning that there was just so much to do that we couldn’t possibly share all our escapades)
John said,
07.24.07 at 7:26 pm
I didn’t pick up Air (or Daigasso Band Bros, the other DS title– though I’m not sure if I made too many folks aware of my earlier purchases) until Sunday afternoon, after we had all dispersed. Rick was with me, and consequently was the only one who knew.
I felt horrible about the Pokemon miss… I still feel a little responsible for that one, as I’d missed not one but two stops (and very nearly got sick on the way!). I realize, of course, that it was largely a consequence of our late start more than anything else but… bah, I’ll tell the whole story soon enough. I’ll also say why I felt it was disappointing but at the same time the best con yet. Patience; I’ve been doing a lot of reading over the past two days and am finally ready to do some hardcore writing.