Ugh, I've put off writing in here for too long again. I had this whole essay about Japanese samurai vs. Chinese kung fu movies, but since I have some other things I wanted to mention, I'll keep it short. I saw the 2004 remake of Zatoichi last weekend, and well, I highly recommend it, if you can get ahold of a copy and aren't too distressed by ultra brutal violence (as well as tons of fake-looking blood - think the black knight scene in The Holy Grail). The ending is incredible, and I got a kick out of the whole soundtrack. The western influence was fascinating and the way they mixed the music with the various farmworkers was really different.
Max later told me that he was surprised by how short the final battle was, and that's what got me started thinking about the difference between Japanese and Chinese fighting movies. Both styles really go for artisticness - Zatoichi had this whole 'fighting in the rain with sunlight everywhere' thing going on, and I saw Hero a while ago and man, if you can see that too, go watch it! It's gorgeous. You can't get much more artsy than that (take the bamboo forest fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and multiply it a hundredfold XD).
Zatoichi was very Japanese in the way the fight scenes played out - short and brutal. It reminded me a lot of the book Musashi, which had plenty of fighting, but the fights were always very short. In fact, you could look at it as being 1000 pages of leadup to the final battle, which is only a couple of pages long. Well, of course, it's far more complex than that, but, if you want to get down to basics... So I've seen this trend across Japanese movies, books, heck, even anime. The old samurai fights were all about landing just a few blows and having a battle be decided by that. Swords are sharp - they kill.
Chinese kung fu movies, on the other hand, are all about the action. Fights are drawn out, people take forever to die, and maybe it's just been like this recently, but wire work appears to be a requirement. This certainly allows for more special effects and general prettiness, but, hm, people seem to die less. Maybe because swords usually aren't involved. :P Anyway, I think the difference between the two was pretty interesting.
I was randomly lucky and ended up getting a World of Warcraft beta account, so I've been playing that this weekend. Oh man, it's so much prettier than EverQuest. Haha, those were the days... I've got a night elf rogue and an undead priest. The rogue is cool, and I love the damage she can deal out, but I really get a kick out of the priest. Not only can she tank, but she's undead! How awesome is that? When she gets hit, her blood is green. XD I think it's great.
The animated emotes are pretty amazing. The 'bow' emote leaves me in awe every time I use it. I mean, it's just gorgeous. The 'sleep' emote is cute too. Plus, when you 'laugh', you can actually hear the character laughing. ('Dance' is scary though - talk about utter sluttiness). Also, when you talk or deal with merchants, your character gesticulates appropriately. I think it's a really nice touch. MMORPGs have come a long way since EQ. The scenery is breathtaking and the death system is pretty cool (when you die, you come back as a ghost and have to find your corpse to return to life - I mostly like it because the world is wispy and in black and white and it makes me think of LOTR... like I'm wearing the One Ring XD). I also really like the quest system. I'm more of a solo player, so I like to work alone, and the quests give me some purpose. Plus, they actually seem to have a point, unlike most of those in EQ. And with WoW, there's a bit of storyline.
The one thing I'd complain about (besides the awful lag, but that's because it's beta) is that the game is a little bit too easy. I remember the first time I played EQ, I accidentally started on a PvP server as a half elf druid in Kelethin and getting murdered by high level mobs and falling out of the trees and dying and getting horribly lost. Hahaha, I was such a newbie back then. It took me a long time to figure out how to play properly and even then, after two or three years, I had only made it to level 25. Of course, I only played on weekends, and never during the summer, but... it was hard. I remember being furious when Sony made it so much easier for newbies later on down the road, because I had it rough when I was new.
WoW on the other hand, is very user friendly. I appreciate that. But I think the game is really designed for people who don't have too much time to put into MMORPGs and takes out a lot of the inconveniences and frustrations. I mean, not losing XP for death? That's pretty much a standard. Their death penalty isn't nearly as harsh. As long as you know where you died, it's not so bad. Magic-users are more solo-able. You get very specific quests that point you in exactly the right direction. In one day of play, I had both a level 5 rogue and a level 7 priestess. That probably would have taken me a month in EQ. It's easy, it's great. It's a little too easy. That, plus the fact that I'm in college and really don't have time for stuff like this are the reasons that I will never buy and play this. I never came close to hitting the endgame in EQ, and I feel like I'd hit it too fast in this. I don't know - I feel like everyone's a bit overpowered. Maybe it gets a bit harder further down the road.
Anyway, kudos to Blizzard. The game looks great. I hope they can maintain it.
I was going to go book shopping this weekend, but since my little sister wants me to take her book shopping when I'm home for Thanksgiving, I decided to put it off. I need to sit down now and do some research for my MIT Japan internship. I need to decide which comapanies I want to apply to. This program sounds excellent - I want to spend a summer working in Japan! I'll supply some more details later, but for now, I think it suffices to say that this is the opportunity of a lifetime and I'm going to pursue it for all I'm worth. ^_^
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Kamelot - Karma (Whoo! Kamelot is totally different from anything I've ever listened to before - I believe the term is 'symphonic metal'. It's pretty cool. :D)
Current mood: A little bit brain-fried
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