I Hraet You (11)

Beat 11: No Bees in This Chapter, Thankfully

Sunlight started spilling into Lloyd’s room.  As the heat tickled her body, Trixie shifted her way out of the sheets, and rubbed the last bits of the sandman’s dust out of her eyes.  She was a bit surprised she’d even fallen asleep -- but of course, the drool gathered atop the bed gave her all the proof she needed.  She rubbed her head, trying to smooth her ruffled hair…and to massage her brain before the prince’s inevitable antics gave her a migraine.

She threw off the sheets with a wide swing of her arm.  “All right, so whaddya gonna do to me today?” she asked.  But to her surprise, she didn’t get an answer.  She stared at the door ahead; no Lloyd in sight.

“The jackass already left,” said JP.

Trixie catapulted out of the bed and hit the floor.  When she crawled up its side, she locked eyes with JP, leaning casually against the wall with his hands in his jacket pocket.  “What, are ya tryin’ to give me a heart attack?!” she yelled.

JP stared at her for a while, and then turned toward the door.  “So you sleep in that swimsuit of yours, too?” he asked the door.

“Just gonna ignore me then, huh…?”

Tales of Xillia 2, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Beast

 So the countdown for the next installment in the Tales series has come to an end -- and with it, the reveal of Tales of Xillia 2. 

While I have my reservations about it being a direct sequel (and the fact that Tales of Xillia 1 has yet to appear in the states), I’m okay with this.  You may think me a hypocrite for accepting another sequel in this franchise while blasting it elsewhere -- i.e. Final Fantasy XIII-2 -- but that’s because A) I’d like to pretend that the Fabula Nova Crystallis project doesn’t exist, and if I don’t look at it it’ll go away, and B) in my experience, the Tales series has been consistently good.

And by consistently good, I mean it’s probably one of the most unappreciated franchises in the past decade or so.

I Hraet You (10)

Beat 10: A Shame There’s No Moon Tonight

Lloyd blinked for what felt like the first time in an hour.  While he thanked Aphrodite that Trixie hadn’t tried to attack him, he still didn’t find any solace in her bleak stare.  He wasn’t getting anywhere, just sitting by the door like a guard dog; he’d have to take a chance.  “Are these accommodations enough for you, Miss Walters?” he asked.  He waved a hand in front of his face.  “My apologies if my room isn’t quite up to your standards of décor; had I known I’d be playing the host tonight, I would have furnished it far more suitably.”

“Yer room ain’t the problem, pal,” said Trixie, glaring at Lloyd from the bed with sheets clenched tight. 

“Oh?  Then what is?”

“Ya been starin’ at me for the past hour.  How am I supposed to get to sleep if I gotta keep an eye on you all night long?”

“You could sleep with your eyes open.”

Kingdom Hearts: The World That Never Was (Good)

All right.  Let’s talk about Kingdom Hearts 2 some more.

The last level of the game, The World That Never Was, is…well, fairly interesting in its own right.  KH, for the most part, is a decidedly low-tech universe.  Judging by the way Sora bashes on the keyboard leading to Tron’s world, he’s never seen something like it in his life.  True, you’ll see gizmos and machines in places like Traverse Town and Twilight Town, but considering that Sora heads to ancient Greece, war-torn China, Agrabah, Neverland, and the friggin’ ocean, you can’t expect him to check his email or charge his mp3 player.

So in terms of aesthetics, I kind of like The World That Never Was.  It creates this “magic vs. technology” dichotomy (which I wish was played up and used more effectively in the game, but I digress), that separates the good guys from the bad guys, and the natural from the unnatural.  Tangentially, I also like the Nobodies; they’re shifting, boneless creatures that operate on a higher level than the Heartless, but are so alien in practice and design that they might as well be brainless.  So generally, KH2 has a lot of good ideas -- building blocks to use and arrange at the developers’ discretion.

A shame that Squeenix couldn’t be arsed to do anything with them.  So, let’s go right down the list.  That’s right, it’s time for a countdown showdown.  These are 10 Head-Scratching Events in the Final Level of Kingdom Hearts 2. 

Take it away, Ansem!

Kingdom Hearts…But First, Advent Children

Before we get started, I’d like to make a correction and apology.

Posted on May 24, 2012:

“Kingdom Hearts 2 is not an awful game by any stretch.  It’s just full of things that make it hover dangerously close to the edge.  Roxas and his pain-inducing prologue, the disorganized Organization XIII, the shift from the east/west hybridization to cookie-cutter anime fare, the segregated plot, the still-piddling minigames, the absurd gameplay decisions, the unevenness of Reaction Commands, the mash-happy nature, the handling of the worlds…there’s a lot to discuss, and I will in due time.  But for everything the game does wrong, there are just a number of things that it does so right.”

In retrospect, that’s not fair to anime.  As you can guess, I hold anime in high esteem -- it has plenty of amazing elements, its fair share of faults, and stories ranging from magical to mediocre.  To knock something just because it has anime and manga influences is utterly wrong; I used to rag on the Teen Titans cartoon before it came out because it tried to copy anime, and yet by series’ end it became one of my favorite shows.  To even insinuate that anything with certain tropes, styles, and mannerisms is automatically bad because of it is something that I would like to avoid -- hence, my correction.

What I should have said is this:

“It’s just full of things that make it hover dangerously close to the edge…the disorganized Organization XIII, the shift from the east/west hybridization to Advent Children-style schlock…”

There we go.  That about sums things up -- and makes the final hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 so genuinely painful.

How to Make a Good Street Fighter Movie

I fancy myself as a writer, but it’s not often that I dream about any of my stories, or anything I could possibly write about.  (Unless I just wrote about my gruesome, humiliating deaths, but that’d get boring after a while.)  But one night, I had a flash of insight.  I could see something that could propel me to the highest echelon of the literary world.

And then I woke up, and forgot about it.  And when I slept again, I started dreaming about Street Fighter.

I Hraet You (9)

Beat 9: Planning Ahead is for Yellowbellies

“What the hell just happened?!”

               

Trixie ripped her hand from Lloyd’s grasp and clutched it close to her body.  “Seriously, are ya some kinda sorcerer or somethin’?” she demanded, stepping backward as if he’d turned into some horrid man-spider.

               

Lloyd shook his head, and left his hand hovering in the air.  “Last I checked I wasn’t.”  He stroked his chin and turned aside.  “Though it IS possible that, since the accident, I’ve become an esper.”

               

 “Would ya stop sayin’ weird stuff for one second and explain what’s going on?”

               

“Right.  I suppose I should give you a quick rundown,” said Lloyd as he shuffled a foot through the water. 

“Well, this is just conjecture for now, but I’m assuming that thanks to my ability I entered your subconscious and positively affected your innermost thoughts and desires, thereby allowing you to know real happiness and actively move toward pursuing your dream, no matter what obstacle you need to surmount.”  He sniffled a bit.  “Hmmm.  I think there’s still a little sea water in my lungs.”

I Hraet You...and the wonders of Microsoft Paint.

Mini-post for now; more content coming soon.  For the moment, here's something I thought I'd show off.

It's everyone's favorite over-the-top love freak, Lloyd B. Hoigleheimer...made with Paint and PowerPoint!  They (by which I mean my brother) say that Photoshop is just a thousand-dollar version of Paint, and given what I can do with Microsoft Office pack-ins and a little more than an hour, I'm inclined to agree.

More of these to follow.  I've heard that people don't like reading massive blocks of text on the internet, even if you're writing a web serial.  So I thought I'd try making some eye catches to give readers a slight reprieve.  I don't know if the text/narrative will allow me to make breaks like this all the time, but for now I'll keep stockpiling these and posting them around.  This one'll probably head up the archive page.

So yeah.  Pardon my crude art and attempt to prove what a pretty little snowflake I am.

I Hraet You (8)

Beat 8: Shine On, You Crazy Surfer

Lloyd slammed his palms against the desk.  “You’re on the run from the authorities, aren’t you?”

Trixie couldn’t say a word in objection -- but her body said more than enough.  Her reeling posture; her reddened face; her legs, once so straight and proud, now buckling under her weight; her hands, held up like those of a prisoner caught in a searchlight.   

“Now I can see your heart,” said Lloyd with a quick nod.  “I was wondering why you were a bit restrained in talking about your heritage; call it a misconception if you will, but I would have guessed that a southerner like you would have been eager to describe your hometown.  It can only mean that, for one reason or another, you’re unwilling to go back -- especially due to the consequences you stand to face.  Am I wrong?”

“Y-ya couldn’t be more wrong!” Trixie yelled.  “What, are ya tryin’ to say I’m some kinda criminal?  Huh?  Are ya?  ‘Cause I’m not!”

I Hraet You…and other stuff.

HEARRRRRRRRT!

This is going to be a quick housekeeping announcement, so bear with me.

I’ve been working on I Hraet You for a while now, and I’m reaching a good tempo on that front.  I’ve got a clear idea of where I want to take the story (hint: it involves Power Bombs), and I’m steadily moving toward the ending.  Granted the stuff I post here on Cross-Up is more than a little rough around the edges, so it’s likely that eventually I’m going to have to go through and edit each post.  Hopefully it won’t be anything TOO excessive; I don’t plan on changing any story details right now, like I have with projects in the past.

The bigger question is what the release schedule for IHY is going to be.  A part of me wants to take the safe route and put something out once a week…but the daredevil in me wants to just post whenever there’s new content.  Also, I want to be able to put out other, possibly better projects very soon -- a “meatier” product, if you will.  Whether or not that’ll come to fruition depends on what I do with IHY. 

So until further notice, I Hraet You is on a two-chapter-per-week schedule -- one chapter in the first half of the week, and one chapter in the second half.  We’ll see how long that lasts.  It all depends on whether I head out of town next month, or how lazy I get, or what games are out. 

Speaking of games, I finished Kingdom Hearts 2 last night, and…man oh man, have I got a lot to say about that.  So while the…events… are still fresh on my mind, I think I’m going to do a post pretty soon about the game’s last world.  There is a lot I need to discuss.  A whole lot.

So that’s about where I stand. If you’re reading IHY of your own volition (and didn’t just find this site because you were looking for a picture of one of the Dead or Alive ladies), then I thank you for it.  Readers like you make the world go round.  Because…you read and stuff…and your page-flipping, uh, makes the world rotate faster.

…I’m really bad at science.