I did something last week that I can't recall doing to a video game in over 15 years - I yelled at it. I finally opened up that sealed copy of Fallout 3: GOTY that's been sitting on the shelf since I picked it up way-back-whenever on the cheap.

You start that game with very little to go on. All I knew was that finding my "dad" was the goal, and that the place off in the distance that may or may not be a city is as good a place to start my search as any. Not long after that, I'm getting murdered by a raiders with AKs or missile launchers. It's a bit annoying when I'm just level 3 and I'm attempting to go EXACTLY where the game's quest system told me to go. Why is this so hard? I just have this BB gun and a baseball bat! I've got the difficulty set to the default levels, so is the game telling me that I should just do side-quests until I'm strong enough to continue the story? In games, I equate the "side" in side-quests to "optional." In the game's defense, they totally ARE optional, but when your only other option is "head out, kill random stuff for XP, don't die or get totally lost," optional starts to blur into the realm of mandatory just so you can have a clear goal and sense of direction.

It's important that I tell anyone reading this that the point of this blog is not so I can just complain. I'm using this space to collect my thoughts. What you're reading here is pretty organic I'm typing it as I think it. It's basically a conversation with only one person (until comments, of course).

So, here's what I've come up with: I think, frustrations and all, that this is the only way Fallout can work. I HAVE to get mad at it. Did I really think I could just walk out of Vault 101 - the only reality I've ever known - and that I would fit right in to this post-apocalyptic society? How could I NOT get taken advantage of, beaten, screwed over and straight-up killed time and time again? I'm fresh meat, in-game and out.

Now I'm starting to think about other RPGs I've grown up on. Think about Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Compared to a game like Fallout, it seems rather odd that the enemies in those other games start out so relatively non-threatening and weak. We of course understand that to be a design mechanic to allow the player to level up and become more powerful, to in turn fight stronger enemies, to become more powerful, and so on ad infinitum. So maybe it's my years of JRPG experiences that are hindering my journey in the Capital Wasteland. When I see that a character gains levels for some sort of progression, I automatically assume levels equals power. In Fallout, while that certainly is true, power isn't limited to how well I can shoot a mutant in the head. Power isn't strength. Power is disarming a nuclear bomb, or sneaking around, or convincing people to do or say things they normally wouldn't.

So I originally thought that Fallout 3 was too hard? I'm finally starting to understand that this game is exactly as hard as it's supposed to be. No more, no less.

I think I might like this game. I want to yell at it some more.

Maybe someone's made this comparison before, but it's something that's been in the back of my mind for years now.




Don't you think they're pretty similar? Minus the tail, of course.

1) "K"

Okay, yes, both their names start with the letter "K."

2) Tossed aside

This is the main thing that ties these two men together. They were completely discarded by their respective creators. Just imagine that for a second. How insanely jealous and vengeful would you be if you were suddenly replaced the moment a better version of "you" came along. In this situation those other "yous" would be Zidane & Fei.

3) Villains? Final bosses? Almost.... No..

Sure, it's easy to make the assumption that Kuja would be your final triumph in FF9. But at the very last moment, right when you think it's over... Necron. I'm sorry, who is that?

As for Kahran, it's much more complicated. Xenogears is such a dense game, it's easy to lose track of who the true villain is. I suppose that's not unlike the real world. There's no such thing as the "one bad guy." No black and white, just shades of gray.

WRAP IT UP, YO.

So, yeah, three points. Not much of an amazing find on my part, now is it? In the end, I just really like that idea of the character who's sole motivation becomes destroying you simply because you're a better them than they are. That was really weird to type. Your thoughts? Are there other characters that might fall in this same thematic realm?

- B

I don't blog.

I mean, it's not that I can't blog or that I simply refuse to... It's just that I always seem to just forget about it and then never post and no one reads it blah blah blah same old excuses.

I made a pact with a friend today. Simple in concept - In 2010, we will expand our horizons. As it's hard to meet new people on a random Blogspot or WordPress site where you spend "too much time" talking about how you really really liked the Black Mages ver. of "The Extreme" from FF VIII (or how you've decided a decade later that FF Legend 2 might have had the best final boss music ever and now you've pulled a 180 and actually like the game).

That last paragraph was dense. My apologies.

Long story short: I'm moving my blog here, with the intent of actually BLOGGING. I assume it will all be gaming related, as no one cares what I had for lunch (answer: tacos).

I feel bad just treating my first blog on DTOID as some sort of bookmark for things to come... s'pose I should actually share something interesting about me. OOH! I found a copy of FF X International at a second-hand store this week. Pretty sweet. Later!

- B