Moments when a piece of entertainment completely rocked you.

Vnonymous · Post by **Vnonymous** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:43 am

Maxus wrote:
Vnonymous wrote:I've been playing Tales of Phantasia recently, and the times when Dhaos completely blew my face off were great. He's got great voice acting and is really hard. If you're not attacking him constantly and with good timing he will ruin you.

Even doing that is a challenge, and he wiped me out several times, something which hasn't really happened in most jrpgs in the history of ever. He's one of the best villains I've ever seen come out of japan. In the end, he has an incredibly good motivation for doing what he does, and while he's still a villain, he's one you can respect.

He's also very stylish.
Which version? The Gameboy Advance Phantasia?

Thankfully no, the playstation one.

Vnonymous · Post by **Vnonymous** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:44 am

Maxus wrote:
Vnonymous wrote:I've been playing Tales of Phantasia recently, and the times when Dhaos completely blew my face off were great. He's got great voice acting and is really hard. If you're not attacking him constantly and with good timing he will ruin you.

Even doing that is a challenge, and he wiped me out several times, something which hasn't really happened in most jrpgs in the history of ever. He's one of the best villains I've ever seen come out of japan. In the end, he has an incredibly good motivation for doing what he does, and while he's still a villain, he's one you can respect.

He's also very stylish.
Which version? The Gameboy Advance Phantasia?

Thankfully no, the playstation one.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:04 am

Vnonymous wrote:
Even doing that is a challenge, and he wiped me out several times, something which hasn't really happened in most jrpgs in the history of ever. He's one of the best villains I've ever seen come out of japan. In the end, he has an incredibly good motivation for doing what he does, and while he's still a villain, he's one you can respect.

I feel the same way about Dhaos the way I feel about Luca Blight.

When they tried to give him a motivation it hurt the character. In Luca Blight's case it just (slightly) deflated his badassery. In Dhaos's case I was pretty fucking pissed that they pulled a Chrono Cross on you.

K · Post by K » Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:36 am

I can't say I was rocked, but I was fascinated by Tower of Druaga (currently playing on Hulu and therefore free to watch). For the first time, it was a piece of fiction that both lampshaded and took seriously the quirks of a MMO without resorting to "we live in a video game world" syndrome like Reboot.

I'm also not sure how old some the main characters are supposed to be, which made some of the romantic scenes.....mmmm, creepy.

Why is anime so creepy?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:46 pm

I saw Alice with my girlfriend. Having Alice grow up to become an Opium Warlord was not what I expected.

-Username17

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:33 pm

I've been trying to play Tower of Druaga.

Man, even with an interactive cheat guide it's tough.

-Crissa

NineInchNall · Post by **NineInchNall** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:45 pm

Going back in the day a bit: Doom rocked me when I first played it. I was actually scared, like no fuckin' around, dread forming like a ball of ice in my stomach terrified because of the sound effects, atmosphere, demonic imagery, etc.

Unreal's first level rocked me. The first FPS with scripted events, it used them well during the intro level. And then you crawl out of the downed ship to see a bright, lush, wide open (for the time) world. It was amazing.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:54 pm

Crissa wrote:I've been trying to play Tower of Druaga.

Man, even with an interactive cheat guide it's tough.

-Crissa

I had a racing game on nintendo or something that had a Tower of Druaga ad on it. I remembered this when I saw the anime while playing with my Namco Museum.

Vnonymous · Post by **Vnonymous** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:58 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote:
I feel the same way about Dhaos the way I feel about Luca Blight.

When they tried to give him a motivation it hurt the character. In Luca Blight's case it just (slightly) deflated his badassery. In Dhaos's case I was pretty fucking pissed that they pulled a Chrono Cross on you.

You obviously missed something. The game was almost constantly hinting that Dhaos had a reason, and they even stopped the game at points to wonder what it is. There's a moment where Arche takes the entire party back to her house so they can figure out exactly why Dhaos is attacking the places he is.

There's also the scene at the Yggdrassil - Dhaos had a motivation and reason for what he was doing the entire time.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 4:43 pm

TVtropes, Dethroning Moment of Suck wrote: The "reveal" of Dhaos' true intentions in Tales Of Phantasia. Not only does it come completly out of nowhere, but the game seems to expect us to believe that it completly justified him launching a genocidal war against mankind. (Hint: it DOESN'T) It actually makes Dhaos less sympathetic, since it makes it appear that Dhaos brought his end on himself by never bothering to explain his actions when he had multiple chances to. The Tales series has many sympathetic villains, but Dhaos does not deserve to be one of them. Wanting to help your own world is no justification for wanting to cause the destruction of another.

Go play some Chrono Cross.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:20 pm

Yeah, Tower of Drugua is fucking awesome in som ways. I really watched that and thought about making a stupid D&D module based on the same premise.

It's really really really good.

Also, I was super fucking confused then spoilered, because my first introduction was to season two, and I watched like 2 episodes, and so I already knew the entire ending of season 1 before watching it. But it was still worth it.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:15 am

The Protector: there's this scene where a bunch of guys show up in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the abandoned warehouse district and start fighting Tony Jaa, only they're all on rollerblades and bicycles. And while they're fighting, they're doing crazy bike tricks. Not just doing crazy bike tricks and fighting in two slightly different moments in time; they're doing crazy bike tricks while they're fighting.

Parthenon · Post by **Parthenon** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:48 am

I can't remember that as well as Ong Bak- was that before or after someone threw an elephant through a window?

But yeah, almost all the fights in Ong Bak and a lot of The Protector/Warrior King/Tom Yun Goong were fucking awesome. Tony Jaa is brilliant, even if he can't act for shit and is completely fucking insane. He's got the old school willingness to set himself on fire in order to make it a cooler fight.

Vnonymous · Post by **Vnonymous** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:49 am

Lago PARANOIA wrote:
TVtropes, Dethroning Moment of Suck wrote: The "reveal" of Dhaos' true intentions in Tales Of Phantasia. Not only does it come completly out of nowhere, but the game seems to expect us to believe that it completly justified him launching a genocidal war against mankind. (Hint: it DOESN'T) It actually makes Dhaos less sympathetic, since it makes it appear that Dhaos brought his end on himself by never bothering to explain his actions when he had multiple chances to. The Tales series has many sympathetic villains, but Dhaos does not deserve to be one of them. Wanting to help your own world is no justification for wanting to cause the destruction of another.
Go play some Chrono Cross.

Whoever wrote that was obviously on crack. Dhaos tried multiple times to explain what he was doing. The party questioned his motivations several times, and when you first confront him he asks you why you're attacking, and even flat out says that he's been trying to negotiate with Midgard but they kept attacking him, even after he tried to negotiate. Dhaos did tell people what was happening, but the people who were profiting from that technology obviously didn't listen.

Its' hardly genocidal, either. The only places he attacks were places that were performing research into the technology that would destroy the world, or were holding him prisoner.

As for causing the destruction of another, the people who were destroying mana and the world were actually the midgardians, not Dhaos. Looking at what he did, everything makes sense. Is a country really going to believe that some guy who shows up is an alien warning them about the horrible consequences of their awesome new technology?

Think of how we react to global warming, only now make the science less impressive and the only person talking about it an alien.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:12 am

Parthenon wrote:I can't remember that as well as Ong Bak- was that before or after someone threw an elephant through a window?

But yeah, almost all the fights in Ong Bak and a lot of The Protector/Warrior King/Tom Yun Goong were fucking awesome. Tony Jaa is brilliant, even if he can't act for shit and is completely fucking insane. He's got the old school willingness to set himself on fire in order to make it a cooler fight.

Yeah. Besides, a movie where you're silent almost all the time doesn't require much in the way of acting so it's no big deal.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:38 am

The eight-minute long take was a particularly good sequence. But really, when the first fight opens with a flying knee from 20ft up, you know the movie is going to be badass. The story was just a frame for awesome asskicking.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:46 am

If you haven't looked it up, the Tower of Druaga is a quarter-eater which is basically a one-player Gauntlet: Except you don't get told how to find the secret on each level, and the secrets improve your chances on subsequent levels. Basically, it became a huge cult success in Japan as people banded together to write down how to reveal the treasure on each level and then shared when they'd make attempts at the higher levels.

But even with the secrets, I can't get past a handful of levels!

-Crissa

angelfromanotherpin · Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:48 pm

Whenever I hear about Tower of Druaga, I can't help remembering Azure Dreams, which is another game about climbing a giant monster-filled tower. Man, I played the hell out of that game.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:59 pm

Crissa wrote:If you haven't looked it up, the Tower of Druaga is a quarter-eater which is basically a one-player Gauntlet: Except you don't get told how to find the secret on each level, and the secrets improve your chances on subsequent levels. Basically, it became a huge cult success in Japan as people banded together to write down how to reveal the treasure on each level and then shared when they'd make attempts at the higher levels.

But even with the secrets, I can't get past a handful of levels!

Not sure if you watched the TV show, but they actually play that exact game in the TV show for like, and episode or two, as a minor quest.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:32 pm

The video game in the tv show is far funnier than the real game.

-Crissa

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:49 am

FrankTrollman wrote:Having Alice grow up to become an Opium Warlord was not what I expected.

Wow, I had not idea that you were being serious. That movie had some fucked up morals.

Ganbare Gincun · Post by **Ganbare Gincun** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:48 am

angelfromanotherpin wrote:Whenever I hear about Tower of Druaga, I can't help remembering Azure Dreams, which is another game about climbing a giant monster-filled tower. Man, I played the hell out of that game.

That's the one where you have a dragon pet that helps you climb the tower, right? I believe that it came out around the same time as Monster Rancher, if I recall correctly.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:00 am

CatharzGodfoot wrote:
FrankTrollman wrote:Having Alice grow up to become an Opium Warlord was not what I expected.
Wow, I had not idea that you were being serious. That movie had some fucked up morals.

did I miss something? Maybe it's my fucked up morals, but I saw it as being about believing in yourself and the impossible, and taking down tyrants... and I don't recall Opium being mentioned at all...

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:52 am

Prak_Anima wrote:
CatharzGodfoot wrote:
FrankTrollman wrote:Having Alice grow up to become an Opium Warlord was not what I expected.
Wow, I had not idea that you were being serious. That movie had some fucked up morals.
did I miss something? Maybe it's my fucked up morals, but I saw it as being about believing in yourself and the impossible, and taking down tyrants... and I don't recall Opium being mentioned at all...

At the end of the movie, her big accomplishment is heading off to open up China to extensive trade with the East India company, which will then begin smuggling opium from the near east colonies.

Also, the White Queen was clearly just a more cynical and intelligent version of her sister. She makes Alice drink piss and spit and then thank her for it. What plays out in Wonderland is a bit of an analogue for Alice's choosing the father over the son: a powerful and subtly evil master over a boorish idiot with inheritance, but in both cases she end up serving someone else's will.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:54 am

The expansion of trade from Hong Kong to the mainland is a historical event. Alice gets on a boat to go do that, which is the opening of a period of history called "The Opium Wars." Specifically, she is apparently setting sail in 1856 at the start of the Second Opium War, since her forces already have a foothold in Hong Kong and she is going to expand mercantilism into the mainland at the head of a warship. Specifically, she is about to sail up the Pearl River and attack Guangzhou.

In order to force the Qing dynasty to allow her to sell Opium from her operations in Bengal to get silver to use to purchase silk and tea. to sell back in England for a profit.

-Username17