Persona 5

I have been a fan of the Persona series ever since I got Persona 3 for my PSP many years ago.  I love the music, the stylish character designs, the storylines, and the use of mythological imagery for the plot and monsters.  I'm also a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor series, which the Persona series spun off from.  When Persona 5 was announced, I eagerly awaited updates on the game.

It was the second Persona game I'd ever completed.  The first was Persona 4: The Golden, but I didn't get the "true" ending to the game and have yet to go back and complete my New Game + run.

Persona 5 uses the themes of outlaws, imprisonment, and corruption in places of authority.  The protagonist is accused of assault and battery of a man who apparently has a lot of power over small-town police, and is shipped off to live with a friend-of-a-friend in Tokyo to live out his 1 year probation sentence.  At his new school, the protagonist is subjected to social rejection as other students have already learned of his criminal record (though not the unjust part), and both the students and teachers are hesitant to get to know him.  To make matters worse, the student body and faculty seems to be under the thumb of an absurdly overly-important athletics department - in particular a rather sleazy volleyball coach who treats his female athletes like eye-candy and male athletes like cannon fodder.  After accidentally stumbling across a strange castle run by a speedo-clad version of the volleyball coach, the protagonist discovers that he has the ability to step between the real world and the "Metaverse" and to take on a Persona, specifically that of Arsene Lupin the famous phantom thief of French literature.  The protagonist decides to use his newfound powers to fight against corrupt adults around him by stealing their Metaverse "treasure" to change their behavior.  He's joined by several other teens with similar motives, but the Metaverse is full of more dangers than just the odd boss-battle - there's some real political conspiracy going on here and if the protagonist and his friends aren't careful, they're likely to end up in some serious hot water.

I loved the stylishness of the game - from character design to menu design to music, this game is just dripping with style.  The controls were also pretty easy to get the hang of.  I also liked how timely and relatable the storyline was - it's not just teens tired of corruption in positions of authority.  It's nice to be able to "fight the power" and see immediate change in the hearts and minds of the corrupted, even if it's just in a fictional world.  Unfortunately, solving problems in the real world isn't as fun or easy as stealing a "treasure" and fighting a boss-battle with a kickass soundtrack in the background. 

I only have a few complaints about the game.  They all occur at about the same point in the story - the Big Bang Burger storyline.  Not only is the inter-group conflict poorly written, but the dungeon related to that part of the storyline has one of the most frustrating puzzles and battles out of the entire game.  Plus, you are given your final party member at this point, but in order to max out the social link with that character, you have to be really, really good at managing your time in-game or have maxed out other relationships earlier in the game to the detriment of non-party (but still valuable) relationships.  Basically, they could have established a social link with Haru a lot earlier in the game and had it change to a party-relationship later in the game (like they did with Akechi).  I mean, Haru was introduced before the class trip to Hawaii, and that would have been a great time to squeeze in a social-link establishment scene. 

A lot of people complained about Mementos, the underground dungeon that basically serves as a level-grinding dungeon.  I actually didn't mind the Mementos dungeon, and I liked how it was worked into the overall game.  It gave me a chance to get Personas I missed in the boss-level dungeons (which become inaccessible once the boss is defeated, unlike the dungeons in Persona 4). Plus, I liked being able to correct small social wrongs as well as tackle the big ones like corrupt politicians and businessmen. 

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this game.  And, perhaps this game will get a similar treatment that Persona 4 got with The Golden, only instead of introducing another character storyline, they smooth out the existing flaws with the latter part of the game.

Blackout - Mira Grant

Because I'm something of a completionist, I am reviewing the third of the Newflesh series. I thought it was just a trilogy, but apparently it's four books now, plus a collection of novellas.  Anyway, this review will contain spoilers for the last two books because, well, when you're reviewing the third book in the series, it's hard not to spoil stuff.  So, if you haven't read Feed or Deadline, don't read this post.  Or do.  What am I, your mother?

So, first spoiler - They cloned George.  I'm actually rather upset about this.  It would be like somehow George R.R. Martin brought Ned Stark back from the dead and sent him out to go talk sense into Stannis or something.  It just...look, if you kill someone, leave them dead and figure out how to get along with them.  Or, y'know, don't kill off someone that's important to the continuation of the story.

So, yeah.  George is alive.  Ish.  Her brother is still acting like a crazy, violent jerk, and he's currently being studied by one of the local Mad Scientists to figure out how/why he became immune to the zombie virus.  Second spoiler - his exposure to George has magically made him immune to the zombie virus because...reasons?  I'm assuming it's because of his sexual relationship with his adopted sister, as I doubt that people that are just regularly in the same room with someone who has dormant zombie virus in their body will trigger the same immunity.

And, yeah, the sexual relationship is confirmed.  I know that they're adopted and not blood-related at all, but it's still kinda squicky to me.

Really, this book should have been chopped up into two shorter books.  The first "half" covers Shaun's team attempting to break into the CDC to get evidence to support their findings about the zombie virus and the CDC's complicity in the spread of the most recent devastating mutation.  In the mean time, Clone-George is trying to figure out how to get out of the CDC's clutches after she discovers that she's going to be used for Nefarious Purposes.

The second "half" of the story is the newly reunited siblings and their friends trying to break the story about the CDC's involvement in the zombie virus's spread and continued evolution, as well as the truth about the possibility of a cure (spoiler: there isn't one, but humans are evolving to adapt to the virus's presence in their DNA).

I'm not going to give away too much more of the ending.  Honestly, it's not going to be a happy one since, y'know, zombie plague.

This book, like the last one, has a lot of repetition and over description of mundane things.  However, when there's something really awesome that could be described, such as the zombie bear attack, the author chooses to gloss over things and scurry on to the next mundane thing.  I mean, how can you introduce a goddamn zombie bear and not have an epic battle?!  I felt cheated by that scene.  Sure, it's minor in the grand scheme of things, but if you're going to introduce something like that for tension, then do it right!  However, the author does choose to describe fights between humans with more tension and detail - I guess they are trying to suggest that humans are a far greater threat and enemy than nature could ever be... but still... zombie bear.

Overall, I felt like I was just slogging through this book to get it over with.  I won't be picking up additional works by this author.  Feed was great, and I really think that expanding the story with these characters as the central focus was a mistake.  I think it would have been better to have each book in the series take place with different characters in different regions, and maybe have a final book where the government and CDC's Nefarious Plans are revealed and dealt with.  But, that's just me.

The Silenced

I stumbled across this movie on Netflix one day.  It sounded like a ghost story - and I am a sucker for Asian horror ghost stories - so I eagerly queued it up to play.

During the 1930s, South Korea was under Japanese control.  During this time, the Korean people were forced to adopt Japanese culture and language.  This is actually pretty important for the plot, and not just some random piece of trivia I'm spouting here.

The story focuses on a young girl who has been sent to an isolated private girls' school outside what is known at the time as Keijyo, but we now call Seoul.  The girl goes by the Japanese name Shizuko, and she is suffering from what appears to be tuberculosis.  However, under the headmistress's specialized treatment, her symptoms quickly disappear - in fact, she seems to be even healthier than she'd ever been before - but it becomes clear that all is not as it seems at this sanitorium/private school. Students are acting strangely and disappearing, and then there's the peculiar way that Shizuko's body is getting stronger...

I don't want to give too much of the story away.  It's not really a ghost movie as I first thought, but there are definitely some supernatural elements going on here.  It's really more of a mystery-thriller with a strong critique of the Japanese occupation of South Korea.

I enjoyed this movie, despite it not being what I thought it was.  It takes a little while to really get moving, but the breadcrumbs of mystery strewn throughout the film keep your curiosity piqued while it builds up steam. I didn't really think that the ending fit with the rest of the film, but then again, I don't know how they could have possibly resolved everything.  The only real complaint I have is that the supporting characters never get a chance to develop beyond "girl bully clique that's prone to violent emotional outbursts", and they're largely interchangeable as far as personality goes.  It's hard to get worked up about the disappearance and possible death of a character that's never done anything particularly notable in the short time she's on screen.

Overall, this movie was about average in terms of horror.  It's not a supernatural thriller like it was trying to appear to be, and I'm a little disappointed on that count, but it wasn't a bad mystery-thriller.  I wouldn't mind watching it again, though.

Rabbits episode 3

It takes me a while to get to these Rabbits posts because I usually have to listen to each episode twice to really catch what's going on.  So, although episode 4 is out already, today's post will be about episode 3.  Anyway, spoilers ahead and let's dive in.

So, in this episode, Carly plumbs the depths of pirate radio while pursuing a lead on an older iteration of Rabbits in an attempt to understand what kind of game it is.  She also recovers a mysterious, impossible photograph from her friend Yumiko's password-locked laptop that holds a secret message encoded within.  And if that's not enough, Concernicus gives Carly some information about her parents' death that....well, let's just say that things haven't been as cut and dried as she once thought.  The episode ends with a dramatic in-person meeting with Concernicus Jones and a cliffhanger (argh!).

All right, so let's look at this impossible photograph first.  The photograph is considered impossible because it shows Carly and Yumiko in a Starbucks that had only been in a specific location for a year, and yet Carly is wearing a distinctive t-shirt that she lost three years ago.  Now, you could argue that the picture is doctored, but then doesn't that make it even creepier?  I mean, sure, you could splice a couple of individual photos together, but unless you were a photo editing software genius, I doubt that you could get the lighting and everything just right to make it look right.  Why that specific, distinctive shirt in that specific place?

But the weirdest part of this impossible photo isn't the subject matter, but the extra information encoded within.  Someone has created a "version" of a painting called Christina's World, a painting that Carly has a deep, personal love for, and hidden it within the "impossible picture" of Carly and Yumiko.  Now, like the impossible photograph, this picture of Christina's World is also subtly wrong, but unless you really  knew the painting the way Carly did, you probably wouldn't even notice.  Carly seems to think that these pictures were sent to Yumiko, but, what if someone is trying to get Carly's attention?  Could these pictures be from Yumiko?  Or is someone else trying to draw Carly into something?

Then there are the death certificates that Concernicus sent Carly.  They're extremely suspicious, not just because of the obvious discrepancies, but because of his implication that her parents were involved in some kind of "mysterious underground plot" of some kind.  This, combined with the dramatic cliff-hanger ending, makes me really suspect Concernicus of suspicious shenanigans.  I mean, he's the one who sent Carly the pictures of Yumiko from that escort site in the first place, and he's been her primary source of information about the Rabbits game.  He knows way too much to be trusted at this point.

As for the pirate radio station - I am hoping that there will be more about the connection between Marigold and the game aside from one transmission.  Maybe episode 4 will have more to offer.

So, does anyone have any thoughts about episode 3?  Theories?  Corrections?  Leave me a comment.

Rakugo

A lot of my exposure to Japanese culture comes by way of Japanese anime, manga, and literature.  It's not the most efficient way to be learn - it's kinda like trying to look at a landscape painting through a keyhole.  One of the things that you typically don't get exposed to in the West is Japanese theater and comedy.  Part of this is probably because puns and certain comical trends just don't translate very well into English.

Most anime fans are probably familiar with manzai comedy, which relies on two-man teams.  Think of classic Western comedy duos like Laurel and Hardy - one man is the funny-guy and the other is the straight-man.  We're less familiar with a more minimalist form of performance comedy - the one-man skit performance known as Rakugo.

Rakugo is similar to stand-up comedian acts like Louie Anderson and Gabriel Iglesias.  One man performs the skits and plays all of the parts, using changes in his physical position on the stage, his body language and posture, and his voice and speech style to convey each character.  You may not have ever heard a full Rakugo performance, but if you've ever watched Fullmetal Alchemist, you've at least heard part of Jugemu Jugemu.

Rakugo acts should really be viewed rather than just listened to, but if you can't get to your nearest rakugo performance, you can at least listen to some translated stories here: Rakugo.  Some of the stories do require a little bit of understanding about Japanese culture, but the hosts do a wonderful job of explaining things like the festivals used for backdrops for the stories or cultural practices, and of course the actual performance of the rakugo skits is top-notch.

So far, I think that the podcast has been family-friendly, so it's a good way to expose kids to something outside of their usual culture.  If you have an interest in Japanese culture or stand-up comedy, or you just want something to listen to on your commute that doesn't require a lot of concentration, I think you'll enjoy this podcast.

Rabbits - Episode 1 & 2

I posted earlier about how excited I was that I was going to be able to listen to a new podcast from episode 1.  I did a short post about the first episode, but it was pretty skimpy.  There wasn't much to go on, but now that there's a second episode, I'm going to go ahead and talk a little more about episode 1 before going into episode 2.  There will be spoilers here.

In episode 1, we're meet Carly Parker and learn a little about Yumiko Takata, her missing friend.  She disappeared shortly after getting involved in a game called Rabbits.  (Well, Rabbits isn't exactly its "real" name, but it's the name that it's known by.)  Rabbits is, apparently, related to a category of games called "ARG"s (alternate reality games).  ARG's rely on immersive storytelling and role-playing to progress, and can sometimes trek into "conspiracy theory" territory.  It's a little hard to understand the connection between ARGs and Rabbits, but it seems that Rabbits steers a little closer to "conspiracy theory" than "immersive role-playing game".  Because of the secretive nature of the game, it's difficult to find much concrete information about it, but here is what we know:

• If you play, you cannot tell anyone that you're playing.
• There are Wardens that make sure that you are following the rules and/or honoring the spirit of the game.
• Consequences of breaking the rules while playing can result in serious physical or mental harm.
• The modern version of the game has been played eight times, and this is iteration number nine.

Presumably, the prize for winning the game is worth the potential dangers, but no information about previous winners has ever surfaced.  If Yumiko is involved in this game, did she catch the attention of a Warden? Or is she caught up in the pursuit of clues?  Or could her disappearance be completely unrelated?

The first episode focuses on establishing the relationships and histories among the different characters and giving background information about Rabbits and people that may or may not be related.  At this point, the only things that are known about Yumiko is that she has gone missing, she started acting strangely shortly before her disappearance, and that she visited the Natural History Museum before she disappeared.  Before its ending, Carly receives her first clue about Yumiko - a pin-up girl style photograph of young woman from an escort website - from someone called Concernicus Jones. 

But even as you get that clue, you're left with so many questions:  Who is Hazel, and how were they involved with the previous iterations of Rabbits?  What is Concernicus Jones's angle? 

So, episode two starts with a snippet of a conversation with the mysterious hacker Concernicus Jones.  But, before we can dive into that tantalizing little chat, it's time for a bit more background on the Yumiko situation.

Apparently, before her disappearance, Yumiko had become obsessed with learning more about people who had died while playing video games.  Yumiko herself became so absorbed in her research that, had Carly not had plans to meet with her, she might have followed the gamers who died playing MMORPGs in Korea.  Clearly, something is not right with Yumiko, but she can't talk too much about it.

Carly also follows up on what exhibit Yumiko looked at when she visited the Natural History Museum.  She doesn't learn much, but apparently, passenger pigeons have something to do with Rabbits.  Perhaps it's a clue in the game?

Finally, we can get into Concernicus Jones and his information.  It turns out that he knows quite a bit about Rabbits, and he encountered Yumiko while he was "watching" someone else.  He provides Carly with another lead - a website devoted to reviewing escort services like the one that Yumiko's picture had been on.  This new lead eventually turns up a new clue - "How many steps to the lighthouse?".

The latest episode has made me wonder - is Carly now an unofficial player of Rabbits herself?  How long until the Wardens turn their eyes on her, and will she be in danger if they do?  Or, since she's following another player, would the Wardens just consider her one of the fans/observers that have always existed in the game?

So far, this podcast has been pretty top-notch and interesting.  I am a little concerned, though, that this is going to turn into TANIS 2.0, as it has a lot of the same elements: the Deep Web, conspiracies, a trail of clues that lead to more clues, and hackers that know way too much.  I am hoping that I'm wrong. Despite this, I am enjoying how stimulating this story is.  It's definitely something that I have to stop everything and pay attention to, but I don't mind because it's so absorbing.

So, is anyone else following Rabbits?  Any theories you'd like to share?

The Unwritten vol 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - written by Mike Carey, art by Peter Gross

Tom Taylor and Christopher Robin Milne have a lot in common.  They're both the inspiration for their father's greatest literary works. They both have quite a bit of resentment toward their father for that fame.  But, unlike Christopher Robin Milne, Tom Taylor may not be quite who he thinks he is.

Tom Taylor's father wrote the popular Tommy Taylor series, which follow the exploits of a boy wizard and his friends as they try to survive the rise of a powerful dark lord.  After writing the final Tommy Taylor book, Wilson Taylor went missing, leaving his son to grow into a rude, cynical slacker.  There's no love lost between Tom and his father - his father never seemed especially affectionate toward him and insisted upon drilling seemingly useless knowledge of literature and literary geography into his head at every available opportunity.  Although Tom has attempted to distance himself from his fictional childhood self throughout his life, he always finds himself returning to the convention circuit.

It's at one of these conventions that he encounters two people that throw his life into turmoil.  The first is a very eccentric man who believes himself to be Count Ambrosio, the villain of the Tommy Taylor novels.  He has been stalking Tom Taylor's convention appearances for a while, and his behavior has been getting increasingly erratic.  The second is a woman named Lizzy Hexam, who asserts that Tom Taylor is not the real son of Wilson Taylor - in fact, the boy known as Tom Taylor may not have ever existed at all.  There's no evidence of Tom's existence - no birth certificate, no real social security number, nothing.  So, who is he, really?  Before Tom can fully digest this revelation, "Count Ambriso" kidnaps him and attempts to livestream his villainous triumph over the boy wizard. And the "Count" isn't the only one that seems to be out for Tom's blood.

The Unwritten may sound like AU Harry Potter, but it's a lot darker and grittier than the beloved children's series.  It's kind of like what Harry Potter would have been like if it had been crossed with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

The first volume's pacing fluctuates.  During the action parts, it's pretty quick, but then there's an entire chapter following the literary life of Rudyard Kipling that's pretty slow.  The Rudyard Kipling chapter isn't included just for giggles - there's important things being established in this chapter - but it's slow and hard to read because you're reading handwritten diary entries.  It was my least favorite chapter, but don't skip it or you'll be confused about the overall "shadowy cabal" stuff that's going on.

I can't say that any characters stood out as being "favorite character" material in the first volume.  Tom Taylor is an unlikable, self-centered jerk, and you don't really know enough about anyone else to really form a strong opinion of them.  Lizzy Hexam is interesting - why does she know so much about Tom, and why was she researching him in the first place?

The real star of this book is the world-building that's going on.  We may think we know what's going on in the modern world, and we may think that literature is just a form of entertainment, but the line between the two may not be as clear as we think.  Authors might be more than just spinners of fanciful tales, but just how much power do they wield if that's the case?

The art is pretty good - it conveys emotion and movement really well.  The action sequences are paced well enough that you can follow what's going on without having to study each panel for five minutes.  You should definitely take the time to study the cover art and alternate cover art gallery at the back, though.  I think that a couple of them would make nice posters.

I think that this would be good reading for older teens to adults who were fans of the Harry Potter series or like darker fantasy stories.  It's definitely not something you'd get for your ten-year-old Pottermaniac nephew for his birthday.  There is a lot of strong language, and it's pretty violent - they don't shy away from committing grisly acts of murder with, for instance, farm tools or nail bombs.  (Okay, your ten-year-old nephew might be mature enough to deal with this, but, y'know, full disclosure and all.)