The DeM Newsletter, No.3 July 31, 1999 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feature Articles This Issue: -A Blab about Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete -What Does "Affiliation" Mean? -The "Groups and Affiliations" Page Columns: -DeM Game Events -New Player Approvals and Persona Updates -Deus Ex Machina Page Updates -Deus Ex Machina Players: Web Page Updates -Arcana's working on... ----------------------------------------------------------------- A Blab about Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Arcana Did you know, I think up these columns on the fly! Today's feature article is about Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, or SSSC, as I'll call it for short. I FINALLY finished the game a few days ago (it was put off when I bought Star Ocean: The Second Story), and I just finished watching the "Making of Lunar" CD as well. Cool game, in many ways.... NOT so cool in many others. Seriously, if this game had no fights, I would have enjoyed it a lot better... it's 90% story and movie, and 10% game. I'm usually a game-over-story person, so this doesn't really impress me. Now that I've gotten you all biased, let's do the short review. The story and characters? DAMN COOL. Artwork? Damn cool. Watch the animations. Watch the big pictures, because they're pretty. The dubbing is pretty good, for a video game. I could summarize the story here for you, but I won't waste space, since you can probably get it from any number of people here. Just make sure that, before you start, you tell yourself, "I am playing for the story". The coolest part about the story is likely Working Designs' sense of humour. They insert everything from sexual innuendoes to references to popular culture in the text of the game, making it a very hilarious and entertaining game. You have to talk to a lot of people to get these references out of them. The reactions of townspeople is realistic and often funny, and you learn as much about the story from them as you would by watching just the story sequences. If there's something that's BAD about this setup with townspeople, it's that you have to talk to most of the townspeople TWICE before you can get the full story. This makes for extremely tedious moments when you're searching every single town after every single major event (because the text DOES change) and talking to every townsperson TWICE because you want the entire story. In the Epilogue of the game (yes, you get to walk around!), I missed out on about three events because I was just too annoyed with talking with people and exploring towns. But if you have patience and lots of reading speed, then do talk to everyone... or at least, MOST everyone. The game itself left a little to be desired, though I admit that it got better as you went along. The enemies in the middle of the game are rather traditional, and they can be defeated usually in a single round, which can make for easy and tedious battles. Also, a feature I've noticed that has been missing from games lately is the option to speed up battle speed (Xenogears, Lunar, and Star Ocean 2 all neglected it). One reason I liked playing my Nintendo Dragon Warrior was that the battles were cool and varied, yet they were quick.... all they did was use two lines of text. Sure, it's graphically boring, but you have an imagination and a battle that lasts fourty seconds (and yet went on for three tense rounds). That's MORE than I can say for Lunar's boss battles... there's a set formula for fighting them, and it's very repetitive and very dull. I think that this may have to do with the fact that the characters in Lunar have a maximum of eight spells (and rather generic ones at that) only, and that the enemies have a maximum of about five different attacks. Although the idea of positioning gives us an interesting idea of strategy, it's not very well-used (there are not enough "Area" and "Range" attacks) and thus ends up to be rather unimportant, especially when your characters start to get high numbers for their "Range" number. Lunar, unfortunately, sort of suffers in the "overworld graphics department", though. We got cool polygon backgrounds in Breath of Fire III and Xenogears. We got beautiful 3D rendered backgrounds in Final Fantasy VII and Star Ocean. We get colourful 2D backgrounds in Lunar... which aren't bad in themselves... the problem is that they're accompanied by those tiny wimpy-looking sprites. You see the sprites EVERYWHERE... the battles, the map, on the status screen.... and after a while, they hurt the eyes. They're REALLY boring to see in battle, and they're NOT that entertaining to watch on the overworld. While they pass, sprites like the ones in Lunar are from the early 16- bit age, not in the starting-to-die 32-bit era. However, the movies and portraits? AM-A-ZING. Wonderful. Exciting. Just FANTASTIC. Be sure you get the "Rememberizer" in the game. It can play back ANY movie you've seen to that point... and since the animation is the key point of Lunar, you'll probably be clicking on it again and again. The verdict? If you have money to burn, buy it. Or else, just rent it, play it, and beat it. The story takes the patient player about thirty hours, and the impatient player twenty-two, so it's not exactly a long play. But it's one of those games that EVERYONE's going to have played and beaten at one point or another, and if you don't know what "Lunar"'s ending is like, you're like, OUT of it. Even better.... split it with three friends and play it as a group... and when you're all done, no one's the wiser when you realise that you didn't spend all that much on the game. Just make sure you can trade the instruction booklet for the Soundtrack CD every few weeks so you're not music-less! ~~~ What does "Affiliation" Mean? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I often look at P-sheets and see this field filled out incorrectly; often, people write "None", when, in fact, their character SHOULD have an affiliation. In Webster's dictionary, "affiliation" is defined as "an affiliating or being affiliated; connection, as with an organization, club, etc.". Affiliate means "to connect or associate (one's self with)". Thus, if you're a Solaris soldier, you're affiliated to Solaris, since you fight for them, work in their nation, and live in their area. If you are a Bledavik citizen, you are affiliated with Bledavik. If you are a wanderer without a permanent home, only then would you have no affiliation. I like seeing the "Affiliation" filled out correctly, since it makes the "Groups and Affiliations" page (that's a redundant title) much easier to fill out. As of yet, I don't know of a single person other than myself who actually refers to this page, but it exists. I will explain what it's for in the next article. Conclusion? Fill out the Affiliations field, please, and fill it in correctly. ~~~ The "Groups and Affiliations" Page ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by Arcana This page exists under my main index. Click on WORLD, then scroll to the bottom under the "DeM Related Resources" and click on "Groups and Affiliations". I started this page to help the players keep track of who might be where at an ordinary time. I also started it to help players find a possible player whom they may interact with. For instance, you may be a Bledavik citizen, and you want to find someone to talk to. You can access this page and look under "Aveh" to see all persona who are related to Aveh. If you are a Shevat character and you want someone from Solaris to come talk to you, you can access this page and see the player-characters who belong to Solaris. However, there is one flaw with this page, and that is that it's not complete. There are many Deus Ex Machina characters who have not been "enlisted" as under a certain affiliation, even if they should be considered under one. I'm writing this as an appeal. Please look for your character's name on this page. If your character does not exist, write me an E-mail telling me under which category he or she belongs under, or, in some cases, suggest a new category and give me a brief description so I may place your character properly. I think that this page can be put to good use, and that many people can jump into things a lot quicker if they know "who lives where". However, without your help, it won't be a lot of use to anyone. All you need to do is write an E-mail and submit an affiliation. Don't worry. *I* get to do the grunt work of updating. ----------------------------------------------------------------- DeM GAME EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's an amazing fact, I'm ACTUALLY CAUGHT UP. The Bledavik attack by the unknown ship is quite an amazing incident lately. Just as Ariath and Darius were starting to duel, a big huge black ship comes out of nowhere and begins to destroy everything! It manages to damage Shevat's gate severely, sending Shevat somewhere in the middle of the ocean to do repairs. It does the work of the Kislev Army for them, and convinces Athena and her soldiers to turn back around. And, caught up in that, is Marien and Rivian, two rather ugly barmaidens who are trying to escape their smelly cells. Are you in the Bledavik area? There's a lot for you to write about regarding this disaster. Even if you're not from Bledavik, the rumours will spread quickly. Soon, everyone will know of this as well as the Lahan disaster. No one will remember Darius as the tournament winner... because to them, it's not important in face of the city facing absolute destruction. ~~ NEW PLAYER APPROVALS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've approved: -Emil Richter, played by Lilykane. -Mendel Kino, played by Adam. -Phil Wolf, played by Cheetah. -Ralthus Maximum VII, played by Phisis BoCal. -Rhuve Jaled, played by Sailor Cosmic Knight. -Salvadora Andrews, played by Janis-chan. I've added these names, where applicable, to the AFFILIATIONS page, under "World->DeM affiliations". See what you can do to involve them in your stories! DEUS EX MACHINA PAGE UPDATES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've added a lot of fiction, including Rune's new chapter for "New Gospel". I have a new poem called "I Want You Near", which is based on Krelian's love for Sophia. That's not all. Rune's "Masks" is posted, as well as Focalpoint X's monologue. We have more fanfiction. Pop into the page and check out the updates. I've added more notes to the "Author's Notes on Xenogears" as well, in face of a few old messages and a few new statements from people. If anyone wants to contribute a ramble or a note, please feel free to do so. Of course, who wants to bother when we have an open discussion in the form of a Mailing List? We have art by Calis and Kamitra, as well. Check all this out on my page. PLAYER PAGE UPDATES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's an interesting page that I found. ^_- http://members.tripod.com/elly_my_love/ It's an Elly Shrine. You can sort of guess by the name. It's nothing spectacular yet, but it's a REALLY fun read. As for anyone else? I haven't seen any comments. Names, anyone? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arcana's working on... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I work two jobs now... so move aside Rune, I'm about as busy as you are ^_^ I work weekdays, two weeknights, and weekends, so it keeps me on my toes. I've also actually had to get up somewhat early more than one day in a row, too. The other projects I have include: -The occasional Star Ocean: The Second Story fanart pieces. I've completed two of them and actually went so far as to CG-colour them! (I never ever ever colour my work, and I've never done CG- colouring before these two pieces). I haven't posted them up, since I don't have anywhere to host them, so you'll have to ask me if you really want to see them. -My "Chrissy" story. That's right, my old Miang substitute has an entire trilogy centered around her :) I got so distraught that my little "fooey slut" couldn't be in a story so I made my own world and slapped her right in the middle of it. -My "Fairies" story. I'm working on this with a small group of friends, and I keep writing more and more and more draft notes. I think it can be done well if I keep working at it. The progress is slow, since we're still fleshing out the world and the plot, but it's getting there. -Star Ocean: The Second Story. I haven't touched the game in a week. I'm starting to go into mental relapse. -Xenogears Video. I've started a project where I'm taking the Xenogears North America and Xenogears Japan, playing them through, and recording the Animation sequences to a VHS tape. Occasionally, I'll record the Japanese and American text for cool parts of the game, too.... I'm thinking of the Zeboim and the Nisan eras, since they're my favourite :) However, the progress is going MIGHTILY slow, since the game's so long, and I can only play when I'm on the big TV downstairs. NOTE! If anyone has a LIST of when ALL the anime sequences in Xenogears are played, then PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME!! I'll send you a FREE copy of my tape, or even TWO if you do, plus anything else you want! Arcana's Vacation Break I go on vacation from August 2 to August 13, so don't try to contact me then, I'll be away from my computer. I may drop the occasional line from another machine, but since I won't have any of my precious local files, I probably won't end up being able to show much to you. If I'm lucky, my dad will bring his laptop and I'll be able to type a story on the bus. If I'm not, I'll give my inkwell and fountain pen a good workout. ----------------------------------------------------------------- END