Jun 27, 2008 7:14 PM
Utawarerumono - PC Game & Anime
Anime Relations:
Utawarerumono
Utawarerumono
The One of Whom Legends Are Sung
The One of Whom Legends Are Sung
I had a rather unique experience lately, and I thought that I'd share.
It all started a few months ago, maybe 6 or 7. I was at work getting
ready to label one of our most recent product lots, a repetitive and
mind-numbing task, but essential nonetheless. I pile my vials and
labels on my desk, and fire up the laptop - I might as well watch
something to help pass the time. Netflix is my first stop.
Browsing over to the Watch Now feature that is so freaking handy,
I take a look at the front page's "recommendations" for me.
Under Anime & Animation, there's a series that I hadn't heard of before -
but I figure what the heck, click the button, and settle in to the familiar
routine of peel & stick, peel & stick.
An hour or so later, the product lot was done, and I had gone through
three episodes on Netflix. I was pleased, the show wasn't
groundbreaking from the outset, but it had a certain charm that peaked
my interest.
A week or so passes, and once again it's time to label. I sit down, fire up
the Netflix, and start the show from where I left off. An hour later, the
labeling was done - and then two hours later, I stopped watching. It
was one of those stories that was slowly growing on me. I threw the rest
of the discs into my Que so I can watch them in a much higher quality
format.
A few weeks later I'm speaking with a friend of mine, and I mention it
and how it's getting pretty good. Well apparently he's already familiar
with it, and tells me it started out as a game before it became an
anime. Awesome, I think to myself, like books that become
movies, the original sources are often the best. So I get home and
look up some information on the game, to see if I could find it.
My first stop is of course Wikipedia, and this ended up being the last stop
for awhile. Under the Genre heading I was seeing some new terms that I
wasn't familiar with. Let's break it down...
It classified it as an ADV (ok, Adventure game) ; a SLG (hmm,
apparently that's strategic turn-based RPG, sounds good) ; Eroge
Visual Novel (Ok thats...er...wait...what?).
A couple clicks later it reveals what I had feared to be true. It was an
Eroge game, a Hentai game. Immediately I had visions of giant
tentacle demons raping she-male loli's. Bummed, I give up on the idea of
the game, and figure I'll just watch the DVDs when they end up coming
up on my que (which will be awhile).
Well months pass. Every now and then in my browsings I'll come across
someone talking about the series, or the game - and it's usually a
positive mention. I have to admit the curiosity began to grow, and on a
whim one day I go over and do a little search on [***] for it.
The heck? It's there! That doesn't make any sense, I thought,
[***] doesn't host adult material, no porn or hentai.
Not only that, but the comments for the game were positive. Why
not, I like to think I'll try anything once. I get the game, grab
the english patch, and fire it up.
I was surprised to see a fully animated introduction done in the same style as the DVD
anime - telling me that the production values were higher than I initially assumed. I
fire up a New Game and start playing.
The first bit is all very familiar, as events are following exactly what I had
seen in the anime - just more flushed out. The dialog isn't spoken, so it's
all text-based...but I don't mind reading. It's actually a nice format as
you have descriptive narrative, dialog, and accompanying music along
with art that is (from my unprofessional opinion), well drawn and fun to
look at.
In the back of my mind I'm just waiting for the alien tentacle demon lord
to pop out and start raping everyone in sight, or the little girl(the younger
sister) to suddenly strip her clothes off and run around naked (and then
Chris Hanson subsequently giving me a visit).
An hour passes, and still no "hentai." Two hours, three hours. The game
and story progresses, I'm enjoying it immensely, and the turn-based
combat is fun - simple yes, but still fun.
Four hours, five hours. Still no hentai.
It wasn't until I had spent probably 8 or 9 hours in the game world that
events started leading up to an "adult situation." Here it is...well, lets
see what I've gotten myself into.
Click. Click click.
Wait wha-...? That was it?
30 seconds at most, two images, and an "event" that would fall
content-wise, somewhere between late night HBO and late night basic
cable.
Not only that, but it wasn't a rape, it wasn't incest, there were no
tentacles. It was appropriately in line with the story - in fact if I were to
try and take issue with it, then I'd have to take the same issue with the
Mass Effect love scene.
Relieved, and surprised, I keep playing. All in all I spent about 16 hours
going through the game over the course of 4-5 days, the most gaming I'd
done in awhile. The "mature" scenarios encompassed, as a total, maybe
2 minutes of those 16 hours. The rest of the 15 hours and 58 minutes
were filled with a story that is worthy of a little praise. Lovable
characters, some absolutely hilarious and fun moments mixed with
heartbreaking tragedies. The ending of the game had me doing
something I hadn't done in a long time - I was literally on the edge of my
seat as the final events were playing out, those rudimentary 2d sprites
mixed with emotional music and skillful still-art. I can only compare the
feeling to that of the final moments of Mass Effect, Final Fantasy 7,
Cowboy Bebop, Serenity - you get the idea.
When it was over I was bummed, a little depressed. Still am a bit, since I
have had to say goodbye to those characters and that world.
I've watched the anime series since then, and was thrilled to see that it
follows the story almost exactly (albiet condensed). But, I still felt like I
should do something else for the game, so I decided to write down my
experience and share it with all of you.
As a result of trying this "genre" of game that I had always assumed to
be along the lines of a Sexy Beach or Artificial Girl, I'm
more open to the idea for this type of storytelling. Now while I'm not
about to go check out something like X-Change 3,
there are a few games in mind that I think will be quite the fun
experience, and not the emotionally scarring one I would have thought.
So there you have it. It took a few months and some shattered
misconceptions, but I now have a whole new genre of games enjoy.
Games that mix the fun of books, movies, games. Not only that, but it's
kindled my interest in the tactical turn-based games as well, and I've
already purchased and am enjoying Fire Emblem for the Gamecube.
If you enjoy a good fantasy RPG story, then you'd enjoy Utawarerumono
- both the game and the anime. If you do not, well, you probably never
even read this far.
Posted by
artb
| Jun 27, 2008 7:14 PM |
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