Turn A Appreciation

Earlier this month, Right Stuf Inc. released the two feature length Turn A Gundam films, thus completing Turn A Gundam in its entirety, and finally bringing this series to North American shores almost a mere 17 years after it was originally released in Japan. The release of Turn A once seemed nigh impossible when Bandai originally passed up on the series and many others during their original major media outlet push of the Gundam franchise in North America circa Spring 2000. Turn A like many other older, and harder to market, entries became a skipped-over; thought to just be lost to time as Bandai continued to pick and choose other, newer, more marketable entries instead. That, of course, was until 2010 when Bandai finally announced they would release the series in 2011 ……. aaaaaaaaaaaaand then promptly canceled it in 2012 announcing that they will cease operations as of March 1, 2013.

The original trailer we got in 2011 for the then canceled Bandai Entertainment (USA) release of Turn A Gundam.

Sadly the cancellation was not much of a surprise to many of us, as the writing that Bandai Entertainment (USA) would go under had been on the wall for quite some time, but this continued the curse of Turn A, as well as the greater part of the Gundam backlog yet brought over. It seemed likely by then that all these forgotten entries in the pivotal mecha franchise that was Gundam, both great and admittedly not so great, were truly cursed to stay in Japan forever and never touch down on any other shore again. However this doom and gloom was not forever, and we’re now in the biggest resurgence of Gundam releases since the very early marketing push that truly got the franchise out here in full force all those 15 years ago, and North America is finally able to get official releases for all these once thought missed out releases.

I’ll come right out and say it, Right Stuf and Sunrise’s partnership to release Gundam titles is not only great for Gundam fans, but is also equally great for science-fiction anime fans in general. Yeah, it is a bit of a bold statement, but just go along with me, and let me talk about one of my personal favorite science fiction writers, and what his work on Turn A Gundam means. 

Yoshiyuki Tomino, a man with quite the reputation—the father of Gundam, and one of the pioneers of real robot mecha anime. He’s been in the industry since the earliest days; working in Mushi Pro, even brushing shoulders with the like of Osamu Tezuka. He’s seen everything the industry has to offer, and no doubt in my mind, played a major role in it, especially during his heyday of the late 70’s and 80’s. There’s a lot to say about the man, but perhaps all that it comes down to is this: crazy; for a lack of a better word, Tomino is crazy. Maybe even bat shit insane, actually. A real kook, if you will. And not just crazy like him being the classic “get off my lawn, you damn kids” grump nowadays that we all know and love, nor his classic disdain and general dismal of otaku and other Gundam projects he’s not affiliated with, a la Hideaki Anno. No, Tomino’s crazy was always present in his works; from having the entire universe explode, to classic high “kill ‘em all” body counts, to whatever goofy psychedelic thing this is suppose to be—Tomino’s works always fluctuated like this. It’s bizarre; it’s other worldly; and most importantly: always a spectacle. 

Whether he succeeded and created a masterpiece, or failed miserably with everything about his anime ending up in horrible flames, Tomino put on a show. The amount of depth, passion, and creativity was that always present in his works is admirable, and while his work fluctuated in quality just like it fluctuated in craziness, you could always tell, this is a man that isn’t afraid to fling around ideas, regardless of what might happen. Space Opera, Hard Science, The Evolution of Man, High Fantasy, Psychedelic Mysticisms, James Bond-esque Adventures, Goofy Written Song Lyrics, these are the sort of things Tomino brought to the table. He was the kind of man that took a regular toy ad and decided to transform it into an epic realistic war story, full of grim realties such as death, psychological issues, and pyrrhic victories. When a normal man would have handed in a by-the-numbers production, Tomino reeved up a big “screw-you” to his toy sponsors and instead made their product into an expansive space opera that skewed way out of the initial demographic.

Ultimately Gundam will always be greater than the sum of any thing else Tomino will ever do though, but it’s because of this and not in spite of this—that makes Turn A Gundam so special. It’s everything about Gundam’s, and even Tomino’s past wrapped up into one, but yet told in such a refreshing and different light, with a new, more positive outlook on life that Tomino had gained through his ups and downs. 

Now what makes it so unique you might ask. Well, let’s see, tell me if you’ve heard this one before in anime: In the far off future of mankind, after we’ve obtained the technology to travel space and terraform the moon, a catastrophic war happens destroying the entire Earth and restarting the human civilization still dwelling on the planet from the ground-up. The majority of the people still living on Earth—Earthers, are cut-off from ever really knowing of the technological feats they once accomplished; just seeing the old war stories as legends, and have no clue about human life existing outside of the Earth. After rebuilding their society and mother Earth, the best they can, Earthers have reached about the technological level of early 20th century Europe, think start of World War I. 

But now out of nowhere, the space dwelling people from the Moon—the Moonrace, have decided they wish to return to life on Earth again and begin their invasion with superior, (and in the eyes of the Earthers) futuristic technology. What ensues is a battle between early tanks, automobiles, and biplanes against space ships and mobile suits. Standing no chance at first it seems all the Earthers can do is negotiate their surrender. That is until they begin to unearth ancient technology of their own; buried deep within the Earth from a time before the catastrophe: ancient mobile suits (all of which are actually cleverly mobile suits seen in previous entries in the franchise such as the famous Zaku II) are found, and among all these mobile suits of ancient times is their biggest weapon against the Moonrace: the Turn A Gundam. 

It’s easy to see how different from the rest of the series Turn A Gundam is, but perhaps the most fascinating thing about it is how it disguises traditional Gundam story tropes because of its clever setting. At the core of the story’s premise is the classic “Earthnoid vs Spacenoid” conflict and the terrible cost of war that most Gundam stories have centered on since the very original. “Who has the right to own space?”, “Who has the right to own Earth?”, none of this has changed, but now it has had its lungs filled with a breath of fresh air given the set-up and its characters, who take the war in a very different direction from the usual Gundam cast, with the protagonist Loran Cehack never losing his pacifist ways. On top of that there’s countless comparisons to past Gundam and Tomino works that could be made, be it simple shots that completely recreate past famous scenes from other Gundam shows frame-by-frame, or the fact that the titular Turn A Gundam bears a mystic and mysterious dark past, as well as planet destroying power like another famous Tomino robot. Throw-in one of the villains being entirely self-aware of classic mecha tropes (along with his voice actor being a reportedly huge Gundam otaku) and what you end up with is a celebration of the past two decades of Gundam (the Turn A itself (∀ ) being a mathematical symbol meaning “for all in a set” ) and one hell of a fun science-fiction premise.  

Turn A Gundam is also noticeable for its many visual aspects having the titular Gundam as well as a few other mobile suits designed by “visual futurist” Syd Mead, best known for his work on the famous 1982 Ridley Scott film, Blade Runner. The mecha in Turn A Gundam are all vastly different from the norm in the franchise because of this, and have a more harder science feel to them. But visual prowess doesn’t stop there either, Turn A is the last Gundam show to be made with traditional hand painted cells, and what a show to end that era on. Funny enough, while being the last traditionally animated show of the franchise, it is also one of the first shows in the franchise to use computer generated images (CGI) as well, although that rarely shows up in the actual show, and is most noticeable in the eye-catches. While the animation budget itself is modest, Tomino brought his A-game, and through solid directing creates some really beautiful almost movie quality scenes for the show, going above and beyond in the detail depicted on the screen. Lots of richly drawn machinery is on display here with every intricate part of the mecha getting its close-up at one point or another, and the backgrounds, especially the rich environments such as the mountains, forests, jungles, and ocean, are all beautifully painted—Turn A’s animation really shows craftsmanship of a now mostly bygone era.  

Music is also wholly different from what you might expect out of a Gundam, with Yoko Kanno as the main composer for the series, and she really brings home an incredibly rich soundtrack with some truly chilling songs that will stay with you for years to come after you finish the show. Honestly between the stellar hand painted visuals, the rich orchestral and otherworld soundtracks of Yoko Kanno, the beautiful character designs from Capcom/Street Fighter veteran Akira Yasuda, and the early 20th century aesthetics of the series in general, it’s very easy to feel like Turn A was a product of another era; that it is much older than it lets on, but it really is from the turn of the century, being a product of Gundam’s 20th anniversary back in 1999, making it actually younger than the likes of the more robust and paint-by-number appearances used in entries in the series like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and After War Gundam X. Turn A Gundam represents the best of the best for its time, and brings that “classic” feel despite this later release date, making for a show unlike the many other entries during the decade. Turn A isn’t stuck in the 90’s and remains aesthetically pleasing to this day, and will remain that way forever, escaping the many visual trappings and dated looks that 90’s animes are famous, nay… sorta infamous for.

Honestly, I can talk all day about Turn A Gundam, and praise it until you’d think my head is firmly wedged up my behind. The overused word of the day is unique, and no, you don’t need to go back and double check, I’ll admit I’ve said it a lot in this post, but that’s because I have never quite experienced something like Turn A Gundam before or since. It’s a must watch show for anyone who likes science-fiction, even if you are not into mecha. It’s an easy entry point that only gets better the more familiar you become with Gundam and Tomino’s past work, and never finds a way to overstay its welcome or gets old. Whether you’re an old fan or a new one, I truly think you owe it to yourself to check out Turn A Gundam, and I’m forever grateful for Right Stuf to finally give many people the opportunity to take this dive.

Turn A Gundam is just truly a unique piece of science-fiction animation by a creator who is just crazy enough to really make you see the genre in a whole new way. 

G-Reco Ramblings: Was it All Worth it? -- Long Post

Yoshiyuki Tomino’s most recent TV series from 2014, Gundam: Recongustia in G (Gandamu G no Rekongisuta) or more popularly shorthanded to G-Reco, was met with critical and fan disdain, and while sales were somewhat favorable for the series on a whole, it was so quickly hated by most that even bringing it up in any positive light would get you insulted. Heck even grumpy old Tomino eventually apologized for it and said he wasn’t pleased with the end result, himself. I originally didn’t want to talk about G-Reco because of this overwhelming negatively involved with the series; really, who would want to talk about something that will just get you hate-mail? But after a very fun rewatch of Tomino’s 1999 Turn A Gundam, I decided to overturn that decision of mine, and finally write down some reflections on G-Reco. 

The initial announcement of G-Reco in 2011 was a very exciting one for me, personally. Tomino casually revealed that he was working on a new sci-fi series, set very far off in the future and involved orbital elevators. “The ‘G’ will be the future of the Universal Century.” “The ‘G’ stands for gravity.” “The ‘G’ will be unlike anything else.” So much mystery and excitement was there for so little clear information, at this time it wasn’t even established if this series was an actual Gundam series, or something else entirely all on its own. The original teaser image of what was either a super slim mecha (beckoning back to Tomino’s 1993 Victory Gundam where as time progressed, the mechas became slimmer and shorter, and more easily maneuverable and easier to mass produce), or a man in a spacesuit, and it was standing on top of an orbital elevator. 

It was hard to tell much at that time, but Kenichi Yoshida was involved in the project as a character designer and had been on board since 2009 when Tomino initially approached him. I always liked Yoshida’s art and he had previously worked with Tomino on the critically panned but cult favorite Overman King Gainer, which won over the fans it did have with its strange otherworldly designs, bright and colorful characters and world, and but of course, Tomino’s general strangeness and unique sense of tacky humor; by no means a classic, it was a perfectly likable series for a specific group of mecha fans. So while we didn’t have a lot of information about G-Reco yet, it was enough to get me rather excited, but looking back now, man, did we really know so little about G-Reco would be! And honestly, seeing Tomino’s recent track record of releases like the Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam A New Translation movie trilogy, where he, in my opinion at least, butchered his own previous acclaimed work very similarly to what George Lucas has often been accused of doing in the past decade, I probably should have geared my expectations lower.

Or maybe not. Tomino has always been an unique writer/director in that, while he is no doubt acclaimed for his huge hits of the past, and definitely has rightfully earned a claim to fame for helping pioneer the real robot subgenre and for bringing dark brutal TV shows to the masses decades before it was cool to do so, he’s also had awful, terrible, horrendous flops. For every Zeta Gundam Tomino has under his belt, there’s an equally bad creation like Garzey’s Wing. This, in my opinion, has always been the fun behind Tomino, though. You’re in for a ride no matter what he creates. Maybe it will be something incredible and blows you away with how imaginative and complex the world is, or maybe it’s an absolute mess and blows you away with how utterly ridiculous everything is and the general over-the-top insanity that fuels the characters in it. Either way I look at it, you’re in for a good time with Tomino, who will either give you a masterpiece, or a so-bad-it’s-good treat to snack on. 

When finally unveiled proper at the 35th Anniversary Celebration of Gundam in 2014, G-Reco had gone through massive changes from what we knew earlier. Anything resembling the earlier teaser image was gone, and now the series had a much different looking mecha known as G-Self. Even the spacesuits were much different in the final series, so if it was a person in a suit all along, even that no longer resembled the series. This time Tomino told fans that the ‘G’ in the title stands for, of course, Gundam, but also stood for Ground, which Tomino said, was the much more important meaning. We finally learned that G-Reco, or at least this finalized version of it, is indeed a Gundam show, and we were finally given insight as to where ‘Reco’ came from in the earlier known title from the teaser image too—owing that to the finalized name “Recongustia in G” (Reconquista of the Ground/Taking back the Earth). For the large majority of people, this 2014 announcement was probably the first announcement of the series to them, and the reactions were pretty evenly mixed among the mecha fans. When the series’ premiered a mere 7 months later however, all of that changed, and for the worse, as the immediate response was largely negative after its first 2 episodes (G-Reco aired the first and second episode back-to-back) and only continued to be more and more panned by critics and fans in both Japan and the the rest of the globe, as it continued to run.

So really, what went wrong with G-Reco? I’ve been going on and on about how it was hated by most, and how Tomino even apologized for it, so I probably should talk about why people reacted this way. Well at the core of all of its problems lies the fact that it did nothing to help ease the viewers into the world. The show started right off the bat without properly explaining anything to anyone watching it, and very quickly the political plot lines became very hard to follow, as viewers had to ascertain for themselves the politics of the world they were watching, which honestly wasn’t easy as Tomino kept introducing an overwhelmingly large amount of complex fractions and alliances and betrays into his world, as well as very complicated terminology he had characters through out right and left. As the show went on, many felt all they could do was scream out in frustration, “Who is even on what side?!” “What is going on?!” “Why are these people even fighting each other?!!!” 

Tomino didn’t really make any of this clear to anyone watching. On one hand, I gotta say, he was able to avoid the usual “plot dumps” or overly unnatural exposition that is often criticized in science-fiction works, but on the other hand, he did that by just outright ignoring it all together! Who even does something like that?! Actually, no, I take back my question. If someone were to do this, it would definitely be crazy grandpa Tomino, what am I even questioning here. G-Reco, isn’t really a too complicated plot either … well, once you are able to break down the world, its politics, its long list of terms and abbreviations, and its incredibly twisted and confusing web or character relationships, but doing so is not easy, especially on a first watch of the show. It is a sort of show that needs a complimentary compendium next to it to view. As I told a friend of mine, it’s an incredibly rich world, with fascinating histories ripe with politics, but you need some sort of book outside of the show itself to even understand a fraction of any of it. Overall, it’s a mess to untangle what’s going on in the show because of this, and it’s easy to see why a lot of people were turned off right away. 

The other issues of the show like the short episode count for the series resulting in some awkward pacing at times, that there isn’t a single episode without fighting because you gotta sell them toys, the very powerful but never really explained Gundam the protagonist pilots, and the required knowledge of past Universal Century Gundam series to understand how anything works in G-Reco (don’t know about Minovsky particles? Tough luck figuring out what’s happening with the robots half the time), are all much easier to overlook in the long run for fans. Now, one of the more obvious and bigger defenses I’ve seen for the show and all its shortcomings is that its short 26 episode run, makes it one of, if not the, shortest Gundam show out there, and if it only had more episodes it would be better. However, it’s hard to say if that can rightfully excuse everything. I’m sure had it got a proper 50 episodes, or heck, even 39 episodes, it could have paced some of its events better, and maybe it might have even better explained and elaborated on certain things in the show, but even from the start, G-Reco seemed disinterested from explaining much of anything to its audience, and I feel like blaming the episode count isn’t really a “get out of free card” here, sorry to say. G-Reco is a flawed show, there’s no avoiding that, when a large majority of people can’t even understand what’s going on throughout most of its airing, this isn’t very good story telling. Especially since Tomino wasn’t trying to throw anyone for a loop, this isn’t a mystery, this isn’t on purpose—the confusion is all created by accident and unintentionally bad story telling.  

So G-Reco definitely had problems … a lot of problems, but honestly … I loved every minute of it! There was a certain magic to G-Reco—how episodes were story-boarded and directed—that really made me feel like I was watching a long lost show from the 80’s or 90’s (except that it was somehow made in 16:9 widescreen). There’s something very familiar about how each and every frame of G-Reco is made that feels good to watch to anyone who has been longing to see something from that era now passed. It’s not the easiest thing to put into words, but the best I can say is that Tomino was able to make something that feels like a classic show, even though it’s not. For that alone I always found myself coming back to G-Reco, no matter how confusing it could be at times to follow. The old school sentimentalities on how to make an anime is pretty much all but dead nowadays, and as time moves on and on, and more old school animators continue to retire, it will definitely be lost altogether. In many regards that’s perfectly natural to happen as time continues on, but G-Reco made me feel like I was able to go back again to what things used to be like, even if just for a moment. I’m really happy that I was able to experience those old kinds of sentimentalities at least one more time. 

Tomino’s wacky characters and general odd sense of humor was a blast for me, too. Honestly I say G-Reco has one of the best Char Clones ever made, I mean c’mon, his name is literally Mask! It’s not even Kamen (仮面) or anything else like that, it’s honest to God, Mask in English (Masuku - マスク)! Oh Tomino, you have made all your poorly named past characters proud yet again and kept the tradition strong (here’s looking at you, Asap). But seriously, not only is Mask’s name so doofy that I can’t help to love him, he’s also just a different kind of take on a Char Clone that hasn’t been done much in the past Gundam series. When the show starts Luin Lee (the man behind the Mask) is seen with the protagonist, Bellri, the two of them are from the same military academy and already have a relationship with each other. Then there’s the fact that Luin already had something to prove, always fighting a perpetual uphill battle, coming from the Kuntala clan, which in the series was looked down upon and faced much persecution. 

Luin had to struggle to be accepted in both society and the military. He was a loser who had to work his way up to the top of the army (into his eventual Char Clone position), he wasn’t as naturally gifted as Bellri or didn’t luck into things like Bellri did (oh you protagonist, you, and how you always happen upon Gundams~). For once, the Char Clone had to prove himself, and had a complex about the protagonist, who lived a much easier life in comparison, and through Mask’s eyes at least, always got what he wanted without having to try much. It was Mask who always saw himself as Bellri’s rival, where as Bellri never even thought of him as one and didn’t care about that stuff. G-Reco puts the shoe on the other foot by making Mask much more hard working than Bellri, his protagonist counterpart. It’s a complete reversal the the original Amuro-Char relationship, and this time it is the Char Clone character that is the underdog, and not the protagonist of the show. And on top of all that, Mask had some of the hands down funniest moments in the show to boot. Seriously, it’s Tomino at his goofiest with this guy sometimes, and I just love it so much.

G-Reco was an estranged return to Gundam for Tomino, and with so many bumps on the road it’s hard to tell if the grumpy old man will come back and try his hand at something in the franchise again, or if anyone would even let him for that matter. And that’s not the only thing that’s hard to tell, it’s pretty hard to tell what Tomino was really trying to even do or say in G-Reco to begin with. There’s obviously some anti-war bent to the story, but that’s always been there for Gundam. The idea that Tomino was talking about an unprepared nation deciding to remilitarize once more after long periods of peace is also one that people like to bring up, and hey, given recent events; a topical and popular concept. Maybe it’s that those who are tied down by the chains of war and past cruelties will only find unhappiness and death, since Luin/Mask lived his whole life trying to prove he and his people deserved better only to become a power hungry war machine while the protagonist Bellri never even thought about those things and only wanted to live for the future. Or maybe it was just all satire that the modern Japanese are too soft, peace loving, and blind to all the war and terrible things going on in the world around them. Tomino himself said that for the first time in his Gundam career that he really wanted people to think about today's realistic problems, and so he threw in as many as he could think of that were affecting people. Really though, who even knows by this point, your guess is as good as mine, unraveling this mess isn’t easy in the slightest. 

On many levels G-Reco is just a sloppy retread of Tomino’s much better made Turn A Gundam; Universal Century is a relic of the past, eons have passed since war was raged, technology has regressed on Earth, Earth has taboos surrounding technology and space travel, the Earth civilization is less advance than the civilization that lives in space and said space people wish to take back (reconquista) the Earth. The similarities go on and on and on, and very blatant Turn A Gundam fan service is provided and thrown into the flames. Even certain characters and names (Ameria, you don’t say?) are obviously meant to invoke nostalgia for Turn A. Many fans desperately hoped for something, anything, to bridge the two shows together and blow their minds. And yeah, that of course never really happened.  We ended up titillation and that was about it.

Months after G-Reco's conclusion in March, an event was held at a Gundam cafe (Just this last August, (8/27)), when asked, Tomino confirmed that G-Reco is in fact set 500 years after Turn A Gundam, much to the surprise of many, even from the Producer of the show who sincerely thought Turn A would be after. It’s cool to hear right from the horse’s mouth, but it really does change nothing. The only thing that would connect either show is that they have similar terminology between both, and similar plot points get rehashed in G-Reco. Was Tomino just being cheeky and sticking it to Bandai again by making all their previous statements on how the two series aren’t related wrong, or is there something greater to these two series being together? I’d say it’s best to take any of this with a grain of salt, and not worry too much about continuity connotations, as I honestly feel the creators, especially Tomino, sure as heck didn’t either. 

Maybe Tomino just really likes characters like Lalah Sune, Loran Cehack, and Raraiya Monday, and that’s all there is to it. Maybe pretty multicolored lights make for nice effects, after all Overman King Gainer had a similar aesthetic going on with his powers, and Tomino thought it would be fun to tease that Moonlight Butterfly still exist in G-Reco. It’s hard to say, but at the end of the day it doesn’t change the quality of either show in question. Perhaps the best way to view this new revelation is to echo in one of the reactions posted to it. By creating a show after Turn A: the suppose end all of Gundam, Tomino has freed the series now. There is no end or no beginning anymore, and the creators of Gundam are free to do what they want, they are free from the chains of being just another show that will lead up to Turn A. We lose some of the coolness factor for Turn A in the process, which does make me somewhat sad, but now we no longer have to be concerned about the “end of Gundam”. The meta-series can move on and become anything it wants, not just another notch towards the eventual Turn A future of the series, it can go on to infinity.

At the end of the day, Tomino got to make his show, and whether or not he had to fight sponsors again and make compromises I don’t know, but he at least got to throw in some more things he always wanted to do, such as fleshing out the inner workings of his real robot science. As funny as it is Tomino’s “toilet in the cockpit of the mobile suit” was a practical addition and discussing how the spacesuits kept bodies warm even in the vacuum of … well … space, is also another welcomed small touch he brought in with G-Reco. Maybe, when you get down to it, G-Reco was just a vanity project, or better put, just something to keep the old man working and happy, which isn’t so bad. Besides it gave us all something to talk about again, which is what he wanted, whether or not it was good or bad, Tomino wanted to find a way to stay in our discussions, or so he seems to often say. 

Was doing all that worth it? I don’t know. But we got to see some “Happy Tomino” in rare form, with great eye catches and scene transitions, his signature poses he likes to put people into, and the wacky song credits that you just can’t help but to love. Even the grump himself, Tomino, shows up in the final episode and lectures the main character! C’mon, how can you not get a sensible chuckle out of that. It’s a flawed show, in fact, it borders on the pretty bad at times, but I loved the heck out of it, and am glad Tomino got to play around with the director’s seat at least once more. For all its story problems G-Reco had, Tomino has not lost a single of his talent directing. The kind of shots, scene transitions, and especially the fight cartography, is some of the best in years for the TV Gundam shows, and a lot more artful than really a toy commercial may deserve. 

G-Reco wasn’t exactly the show we all wanted, but next time I’m going to present arguably Tomino’s magnus opus, Turn A Gundam. So look forward to next time, and see you then. 

Broken Sword Playing it for Real this Time

My first encounter with Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars was many, many years ago around Christmas time. However, this isn’t some rose-tinted Christmas tale, no, it’s more like something that just randomly happened. You see, my parents bought both my brother and I random video games that year as presents, and well, bless my parents for trying, but all their choices were strange and kind of bad. Among the many odd choices and C-tier games that we would never play, was the port of Broken Sword for the GBA. This was the GBA game my brother got, while I got some really awkward and poorly controlled Monster Truck GBA game. I remember being kind of jealous of my brother since I figured a game with “Sword” in its title must be some Zelda-like game, or some sweet RPG. Much later I would realize it ….. definitely was not, but before then I remember asking my brother what it was like. His description? Some freaky clown blows people up, and you read a lot. A little bit later, the game would slip through the crack and I never thought about it again. Until now that is.

(Also amazingly after all these years I somehow managed to find the
 game when preparing to write this review — it still works too!)

Fast forward to 2015, and I ended up right in the middle of my point ’n’ click binge. Nowadays, I play through so many of these games on my computer and really love the genre, so of course, I became more familiar with the Broken Sword series and knew I would need to play it, eventually grabbing the entire series for real cheap at GOG.com during the big Summer sales event. The first Broken Sword game was released on a lot of platforms including Windows, Mac, and PSOne, but it also got that GBA port (maybe demake/downgrade might be a better term?), and an enhanced iOS, Android, PC/Mac/Linux, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS release as well. The enhanced version started on the Nintendo consoles and was a Director’s Cut of the game, released somewhat close to the 15th anniversary (a little bit earlier) and most likely meant to cash-in on the resurgence of the adventure game genre that were profitable on those two consoles (Ace Attorney on DS, especially), then later landing on the computer and mobile markets. The Director’s Cut version is what I played on my Mac, which was mostly similar to the original release of the game in 1996, with some things added, a few things taken out, and some small amount of dialogue changed a little. 

So now that I love the genre and actually wanted to play the game, what’s my opinion? Well, for 1996 it’s easy to see that Broken Sword was definitely impressive; it’s full of lots of animation, voice acting, hand drawn backgrounds (by Don Bluth animators, no less!) that were painted-in digitally, and dynamic camera angel shots with a lot of sweeping movement—it’ obvious there was a real sense of direction and storyboarding with the imagery in the game. I even really liked the artwork for the character portraits (an added feature to the Directors’ Cut was the art drawn by comic book artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen)). The puzzles too, aged really well and followed basic human logic and could be solved without much headaches, which is always appreciated in a genre full of psychotic puzzles (I’m looking at you, Gabriel Knight 3). But besides the presentation and puzzles, I thought the game aged badly. One of the biggest hurdles to get over for the game was definitely the voice acting which was … not good. I don’t want to say straight-out bad per se, since some actors help to outweigh others, with the lead character George Stobbart sounding pretty good, but some of those other, bad actors really drag down the good ones. 

2001's GBA Release

Original 1996 PC Release

2009's Director's Cut Release

The biggest point of contention being the other lead in the game Nicole "Nico" Collard. Nico’s voice actress is terrible! She’s a main character and her voice is absolutely unbearable to listen to. She comes off sounding very old, like a grandmother, and half the time reminds me of the classic Bible Black dub that’s known in infamy for its grandma voice high school girls. While I can understand and empathize with the fact that some of Nico’s wooden nature may come from both the dubbing's age and the fact of her character being French and trying to talk in English (with an accent),

it’s still just so bad that I can’t stand her. No matter the reason for it, Nico just sounds really awful, and brings down the entire atmosphere of the game whenever she is on screen. Playing as her was always the worst part of the game for me that I just wanted to rush through so I didn’t have to listen to her horrible sounding voice.

Nico’s segments in the game felt very awkward to begin with, however. Not only were they obnoxious from her actress’s terrible acting, but they also felt very disconnected from the main plot with George, and ultimately unnecessary. At first I didn’t think much of it, until I got to the ending and realized how little pay-off there really is with her segments. I later learned that these segments were added on for the Director’s Cut, and … yeah that explains so much. The small pay-off—essentially Nico decides she’ll never tell anyone what she was doing, even George—really makes a lot of sense when you realize it was shoved in their retroactively. Some people may like that they got to see more of Nico, and that she was no longer just a love-interest but also had her own story, but it just felt like filler to me, really uneventful filler that messed with the pacing of the overall narrative of the game and gave you nothing of value in the end since Nico decides to never tell anyone about her little misadventures anyways. 

That is not to say there weren’t problems with the narrative proper, either though. George’s quest throughout Europe wasn’t without its own problems. It took a while for it to sink in for me since the game starts with such a serious tone, but then later becomes so goofy. Broken Sword is suppose to be a funny game! Ah-ha! I get it now. The awkward juxtaposition of horrible murders and serious down-to-earth art design with goofy side-characters that are what you would expect out of Capcom’s Ace Attorney games, really gave me whiplash at first. But yes, the story is chuck full of humor, and in its defense once I got over the whiplash I was able to see that a lot of the game’s humor is great. Every NPC and side-character is really well written and interesting to talk to, not to mention rather funny. 

George himself is really likable, with a goofy sense of adventure, snide snark to the characters around him, and a long running joke that he can fit anything into the inside pocket of his jacket (with humorous animation of him shoving large objects in there). These do help get over the fact that the overall story about chasing the treasure of the Knight’s Templar is so average. Templar stories are overdone to death now, and Broken Sword dose get some free-pass since it beat Dan Brown and all the other overdone stories by at least 4 years, but in a post-Da Vinci Code obsessed world, it still hampered the game for me. Plus, the pay-off to the Templar story felt sloppy anyways. I recommend playing this one for the characters who aged a lot better and are still funny 19 years later and not so much the plot that lost a lot of its grit and interest. 

The European development team behind Broken Sword, Revolution, started out in 1990 with a clear goal in mind: to challenge the American ran market of Sierra and LucasArts who controlled the point ’n’ click industry. Between the six years since their start and the creation of Broken Sword they created another well respected game, Beneath the Steel Sky, and the engine they needed to take on the giants, their Virtual Theater engine. Broken Sword had fluid animation and hand-drawn backgrounds, as well as a lot of love put into it, which was something the other guys didn’t really have at the time of Broken Sword’s release (well sans the love part, they had that). 

While I think overall Broken Sword has not aged as well as some of the Sierra games its creators were trying so hard to beat, that it still managed to maintain an unique identity more than 19 years later. Add in the fact that so much of Sierra went into disarray and was side-lined for so many years (we’re just now finally seeing the rebirth of the King’s Quest series) it is quite a feat that Broken Sword was able to maintain a relatively consistent release schedule even landing a PS4 and Xbox One port for their most recent 2013 entry Broken Sword 5. It’s really something to admire that Revolution could keep the series going like it did. So yes, it was a bit of an awkward start for me, and not without my own complaints, but I ended up enjoying the beginning of this series, and am looking forward to trying out the next four games. 

Remembering Satoru Iwata

The link to the artist's work is here. Please credit them for this.

On July 11, 2015, Satoru Iwata, president and CEO of Nintendo, untimely passed away at the tender young age of 55. Iwata, was a man that I always respected, and still days later it's really hard for me to believe that he's actually gone. I said a lot of words to my gaming friends both offline and online in some comment sections as well as on Twitter, but I didn't really know how to express myself about his untimely passing in the long run. This whole time, since July 12 when the news first broke out,  I contemplated if I should write about him on my blog. It wouldn't be easy, and it would be kind of different from what I usually blog about, and more importantly, I wasn't even sure if it would be in good taste or not, either. Ultimately here I am writing a little bit about him, though, and well, that's because this is all I know. I can't draw awesome art tributes like the ones I've seen for him, or start some big online campaign to keep his mii in circulation like some people have. However I know how to write, and have a blog I keep up regularly, so I can do this.

In a lot of ways I'm being selfish and this is just as much for me, if not more, than it is for him, but I hope you all excuse me for this. I put off writing about Iwata for the last few days because there was no doubt in my mind that in the sea of endless tributes (that this man rightfully deserves), mine will go mostly unnoticed and be meaningless. But that was wrong of me. Everyone should say their goodbyes--stupid little things like whether or not anyone cares or sees it don't matter. So I wanted to take time and talk about Iwata, a man that I never even met in person, but somehow find myself respecting more than most people. Next week we will be returning to the piece I originally wrote for this Monday (Lucky July 13th) but put off because of this unfortunate event.

Iwata always loved video games, and he wanted to share that love with everyone. From a young age, he took to programing, and he stayed in the gaming business for the entirety of his professional life quite literally until the day he passed. His earliest work saw him programming games like Balloon Fight, and eventually being able to move up to being a producer, with his first producer credit being Rollerball from HAL Laboratories in 1990. Iwata stuck with HAL through the subsequent years programming and producing a lot of games, even including the original Kirby games with director Masahiro Sakurai (now most well known as the director for Super Smash Brothers). Eventually Iwata's hard work at HAL payed off and he was promoted to President within the company in 1993.

Even though Iwata eventually moved away from HAL as he became a bigger and bigger player at Nintendo as a whole, you could always sense the love and camaraderie that Sakurai had with him, so upon Iwata's passing it was nice to see Sakurai say such warm things about his previous boss and work associate. "He always understood the proper balance of things, between the right amount of effort, and making sure to listen. Even though he is no longer my boss, I think of him as the best leader I ever knew." (very roughly translated)

One of my favorite tribute pieces for Iwata.
Original source for the work can be found here. 

Throughout the years Iwata accomplished a lot for Nintendo, doing great work that often went unknown to most of us (until he became the icon he was today) but was noticed by his fellow Nintendo employees. He brushed shoulders with many of the people who really made the company what it is today, Sakurai was definitely one, but he also helped produce and program EarthBound/Mother 2 alongside Itoi, even fixing the bad programming that almost lead to the game being canceled. Just like Sakurai, Itoi had only great things to say about Iwata upon hearing about his passing. "You always put yourself last, after you'd finished helping everyone else. You were so generous as a friend that this trip* might be your very first selfish act."

*Itoi referred to Iwata's passing as a trip, and that they will one day see each other again. For a full look at the statement's translation please check this link. This is not my translation. All credit belongs to yomuka.

Stories like these are so common for Iwata, no matter what Nintendo brand he touched. For Pokémon fans, Iwata created the way to compress Pokémon Gold and Silver's data in order for Game Freak to be able to add Kanto to the game carts. Iwata also managed to port the battle code and logistics from Red and Blue/Green to Pokémon Stadium in only a week--surprising the main programmer on the project, and really getting the project off the ground and started. For Kirby fans, he not only produced and oversaw many of the games, but also had a hand in the creation of the series. While Sakurai created the pink fluff-ball we all love, it was Iwata who created the original concept for the series. Kirby started out as Iwata's desire for a game that anyone could play all the way through from start to finish, no matter if you were skilled or a beginner; when Sakurai responded to this concept of Iwata's, he created Kirby. Even for Dragon Quest fans, Iwata was there. He reprogrammed the entire first game in order to overhaul it for its North American release as Dragon Warrior. Giving the game a proper battery save function that the Japanese version lacked (the original Japanese version resorted to a password system), and a great visual overhaul to boot.

Iwata helped to make sure many of the games that would become our childhood were created, but he also did a lot more. Of course, there's the obvious, when we talk about his recent work, such as taking the huge risk on the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and giving us two of the greatest consoles around. As hard as it is to believe nowadays, these were quite the risky strategy and direction to go into, but Iwata steered ahead. It's what he did best, and because of that, most of what we know about Nintendo of today can be attributed to him. So much of its current image, and even motto--Games should be one thing: fun. Fun for everyone--came from him. Iwata took an old, conservative company and opened it up to the world. He created the Iwata Ask column that gave us such great insight into the workings and mind of the company, and he created the Nintendo Directs, where he delivered us all the information we could want about their games, directly to us.

Under Iwata, the once secretive Treehouse Branch of Nintendo opened up a little bit, and we now have the great Treehouse Live segments at E3. Speaking of which, under Iwata, we had some of the most fun E3 presentations ever. Jim Henson puppets, Robot Chicken stop motion dolls, and one incredible bad-ass Dragon Ball Z-esque fight between him and Nintendo of America President Reggie. The company has become something more under his leadership; it's a place of fun, even while watching their advertisements, you just can't not have a smile on your face.

How can you not love this man's sense of humor?

That's what I think I will miss the most about him. Iwata's leadership of Nintendo wasn't without its faults and mistakes, after all I don't mean to make it out to be some perfect empire that could do no wrong, but his tenure at Nintendo was something that was more important than success. It was kind. The countless stories about Iwata that have been coming out now that he is no longer with us will no doubt put tears in anyone's eyes. He was a man who took two pay-cuts as President and CEO in order to make sure none of his employees would have to be fired when the company's finances were rocky. He was a man who would enjoy smalltalk and smile at journalist, even when they were off-camera. Iwata loved gaming, and he wanted it to keep evolving as a medium. He wanted it to bring families and friends together, he wanted it to make people smile, and he wanted it to be fun. Iwata embraced his fans with a unique sense of humor all his own, and ran Nintendo the same way he viewed gaming: everyone should be having fun. In today's crazy world, I can't think of anyone more I could respect for that kind of sentimentality. The gaming world has no doubt lost one of its most gentle giants.

Thank you, Satoru Iwata. These past years were bumpy, and rough, and confusing, not to mention even a little scary, but ultimately, they were fun.

Thank you, sir.

What a Night

Today is June 23, otherwise known as St. John’s Eve, a holy day that celebrates Saint John, the Baptist. In Catholic churches it was a pretty common day to hold mass, but over the years has decreased in popularity in the United States. However, St John’s Eve is not only a holy day just for Catholicism, but many other peoples around the world as well, due to its proximity to the summer solstices and the midsummer celebration. The day is also associated with the voodoo culture within New Orleans in which voodoo practitioners keep the traditions of famous voodoo priestess Marie Laveau alive, and hold religious ceremonies.

The date sticks out to me so much because of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, one of the lesser known (but still popular in certain circles) Sierra titles. Gabriel Knight was something of an off-beat creation for Sierra, instead of the usual humor, or tongue-in-cheek story telling, it was a serious detective story, that plays beat-for-beat like the schlock novels of the 70’s and 80’s that the creator, Jane Jensen, clearly was a fan of and tried to emulate. Gabriel Knight came complete with cheesy romantic dialogue, bouts of intense gore and horror, and characters that feel like they would be more at home in a soap opera than in a computer game. It was a fascinating turn towards the more mature side of gaming for Sierra, and it is pulled off wonderfully largely based on its unique setting and the amount of research that went into it.

The story beings centering on our titular hero, Gabriel Knight, waking up from a horrible nightmare, full of blood. strange rituals, and himself being hanged. This morning (June 18) marks a complete week--the 7th day in a row--that Gabriel has had this dream. Gabriel, and his assistant, Grace, both try to wave off his nightmares as a side effect of all the research he has been doing lately. You see, Gabriel is both an unsuccessful author and owner of a grossly unpopular used bookstore. Out-of-luck, and suffering writer's block, Gabriel has turned his attention to a string of murders in which the victims are discovered with their hearts cut out of their chest, hanged from trees, and surrounded by remnants of mystic circles. These murders--known as the Voodoo Murders in the local newspapers, are what Gabriel decided to make the subject of his next book, and has an in on the case because of an old friend of his, Franklin Mosley, who is a detective in the NOPD.

Through the course of the next 6 days, Gabriel, and the players along with him, travel all across the local scenery in New Orleans, and learn everything they can about voodoo culture, and the recent string of murders that seemingly are connected to it. This element is where the game shines and becomes something truly unique, as everything is expertly researched and crafted, and you honestly will learn a whole lot about New Orleans and voodoo. If you were ever curious about the culture and history of New Orleans, or about voodoo culture and its history then this is the game for you! Jane Jensen and her team crammer in so much detail that it almost feels like you might be playing an edutainment game, but only almost, because this is actually fun.

Most importantly though, this setting just sets Gabriel Knight so far apart from everything else. We’ve seen fictional murders before in many places, The Big Apple, Chicago, California, Vegas, London, Japan, and even the far flung future, but you never really see that many mysteries tackle (United States) Southern society before. Gone are the big skyscrapers, fedora with trench coats, and fast talking, that most people associate with the genre. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is a different beast all together. Much like the cult classic film Fargo, it’s an incredibly refreshing change of locale for mystery fans. Throw in how equally refreshing the supernatural elements are—elements that are solely unique to American culture, and mostly misunderstood, or not even well known by many people, and you can see why Gabriel Knight is so special. Instead of the typical vampires, werewolves, aliens, and other monsters-of-the-week that most detectives would take on, our lovable lout and self-described ladies’ man Gabriel faces a whole underground society of voodoo practitioners that may expand into every pocket of influence and control in New Orleans, from the crime families down to the daily workings of the police officers out on the street. 

Not only is New Orleans incredibly in-depth but Gabriel himself is too. Throughout the course of the mystery Gabriel not only discovers more about voodoo, but also himself and his own family history. Gabriel eventually comes face-to-face with the reasons behind his own nightmare, and uncovers the curse that has haunted his family for generations. You learn all about the Knight family, and how it started, why they settled in New Orleans over 200 years ago, and what they left behind from their ancestral home in Germany. There’s tons of depth to the story that really explores the cast of characters. 

Armed with the knowledge that these murders go way beyond just being random killings, and now with his own personal attachments to the case, things begin to take a turn for the worse for Gabriel. It becomes increasingly clear that Gabriel and maybe even Grace may no longer be safe from the voodoo sect in New Orleans as strange happenings begin to occur. First, the Voodoo Murders case is very quickly closed, almost as if someone upstairs is pulling strings to stop people from poking their noses in it. Then there's the man standing watch over Gabriel's bookstore who refuses to leave no matter what Gabriel does to chase him away. Worse yet a direct warning is sent to Gabriel when he comes in one day to find a featherless and bloody chicken in his store, withering in pain, and screeching for mercy. A very obvious that has been issued to Gabriel. Checking his mail, Gabriel learns that his detective friend Mosley has been coerced out of pursing tis case any more and is even on the run now, trying to solve the Voodoo Murders in secret on his own. Everything is finally coming to a head, and Gabriel checks his newspaper. June 23, St. John's Eve. Today's horoscope, life or death! 

More or less June 23 is the midpoint of the the game, and things only pick-up from here for Gabriel, as the adventure truly beings now. It’s a crazy ride, that I really recommend full heartedly for everyone who hasn’t played it yet to pick up. I won’t go into any further details about the plot since it would ruin the ending, but it’s an ending that’s definitely worth seeing, as well as hearing too. The Gabriel Knight games all feature beautiful soundtracks by Robert Holmes, that’s chilling, suspenseful, and all around classic. They are perfect soundtracks for games like this, and can easily be enjoyed outside of the games as well.

There are two versions of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father out there to consider. The original 1993 release of the game runs off of the old Sierra SCI engine (“Script Code Interpreter” later called “Sierra’s Creative Interpreter”). The sprites and backgrounds are all classic pixel art, and the game play is what you would expect from Sierra’s golden age of adventure games. The other version of the game is a 2014 remake aptly called Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father 20th Anniversary Edition, which was created using the Unity engine, and had the original creator of Gabriel Knight, Jane Jensen, supervising everything in the project. This version plays almost identically to the original—with the only minor game play tweaks being a new hint system, and some changes to the puzzles in the game. Otherwise it plays just like the original ’93 game, with the same kind of point ’n’ click mechanics, just this time, it is all rendered in 3D.

The 20th Anniversary remake while not the definitive version per se, is a faithful remake (right down to keeping the plot set in 1993, so none of those pesky cellphones and internets mess up old plot points), that is equally as enjoyable as the original version, so ultimately it will really come down to personal preferences on which version of the game you would like to play. 

The pixel art of the original has a certain charm to it that just makes it timeless, where as the remake has beautiful backgrounds but uses 3D models that are a bit stiff and almost look like, The Sims, at times. But to play devil’s advocate, examining everything farther really reveals no matter what avenue you may look into, there are certain advantages and certain disadvantages to each version. The pixel art is classic, yes, but it is also created for a smaller screen, and even while you can enlarge it for modern aspect ratios, the content on the screen is less than what you can have in a modern game.

One of the main points driven home in a lot of the developer notes for the remake however, is how much emphasis and work was put into making the backgrounds bigger, and bringing more life to them. There are more things to look at in each frame of the remake, and this by large is what makes the remake appealing looking. Throw in remaking all the previous pixel art cutscenes that had very limited animation into full blown motion-comics, and some nice effects with the lighting, and it’s easy to see the positive side of this Unity based version too.

The original ’93 release of the game features an absurdly huge star studded cast of famous Hollywood movie and TV actors. Seriously, look at this cast! That’s right, those are the acting chops of Tim Curry in the lead role of Gabriel, which is blow your mind levels of awesome. But that’s not all either, as there’s Mark Hamil, Michael Dorn, Leah Remini, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the list goes on. The cast is superb and there’s no wonder why for many people the original star cast is one of their main reasons why they prefer the 1993 version of the game over the 2014 remake. However as shocking as it is (please hold your gasps for later), voice acting has come a long way in the past 20 years. The idea of wanting to create a new dub for the remake isn’t exactly an unreasonable endeavor, especially when you consider the high cost of royalties that may be involved for the previous cast of actors, as well as the absolutely unfortunate reality of the original recordings for Gabriel Knight being destroyed in Activision’s acquisition of Sierra, and thus the audio can never be restored or remastered for the remake.

The remake has a rather competent dub, and doesn’t even try to deviate much from the original performances. Most of the actors are trying their darnedest to match the mannerisms and vocal range of their previous counterparts, to various degrees of success. It’s a bit mixed, and some minor characters especially came out a bit lackluster, perhaps directionless, but over all, the dubbing is up to modern standards for the most part, and sounds good. 

Jason Victor, the new actor for Gabriel, has a noticeably more Southern accent than British actor Tim Curry did, and it is honestly a bit distracting at first. Humorously so, actually! It’s no stretch to say Jason comes off as someone with a “Proud Southern Gentlemen” persona. His voice actually makes me remember an old episode of the TV show, The Office, where Michael Scott (Steve Carell) does a terrible Southern drawl all episode, and thinks everyone from the South ends their sentences with “I do declare”. Funny thing though, is that Jason more or less nails Gabriel down to a Tee. The Southern accent is perfect for a man who comes from a family that has a long relationship with New Orleans, and Jason puts on quite a fun performance to boot. It may take some time to adjust to the accent, which is honestly pretty rare these days to hear in entertainment media, but once you get over the whole culture shock of it all, Jason Victor really is a better fitting Gabriel than Tim Curry ever was. Or at least I think so.

No matter what version of the game you play though, you are in for a really good time, so I say pick whichever one sounds the most interesting to you. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is a point ’n’ click adventure game must, and even all these years later, stands as a fantastic story. Eerie, dark, and mature, the game was nothing like its competition at the time, and even with some stellar mature adventure games that have come since, Gabriel Knight still stands among the greats. The amount of research, planning, and originality that went into creating this game is simply awe-inspiring. The mystery of the Voodoo Murders are still to this day one of my favorite mysteries in gaming, right up there with The Tale of The Girl in the Back (Oh don’t worry, we’re gonna talk about Famicom Detective Club some day!), and Blickwinkel (And yes, I also plan to talk about Ever 17 again too). If you consider yourself a mystery fan and haven’t played Gabriel Knight, then do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of the game. You won’t be disappointed unraveling the mysteries this game has to offer.

The original 1993 version of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father is available for Windows PC at GOG.com.

The 2014 remake titled, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father 20th Anniversary Edition is available also at GOG, as well as Steam, and other online game retailers.