Damsel in Distress (Done Right)- Lunar Silver Star Story

Last entry, I talked about how the Damsel in Distress can be used wrong in gaming by showing how Joe and Mack used the trope as their back story. I argued that they used the trope wrong because they turned their female characters into precisely what feminists claim is wrong with the trope: objects to move the story along, trophies to be collected. This is wrong because the Damsel in Distress is part of a Heroic Narrative, of the hero risking life and limb for someone else. But as I said before, the trope is a tool for story telling, and just as it can be used wrong, it can also be used right. Today, we look at a game that made great use of the Damsel in Distress trope: Lunar.

The third of five different versions, and in the eyes of many, the best.

Damsel in Distress (Done Wrong)- Joe and Mack

If you've been paying attention to Feminist Frequency, or if you've at least been visiting websites that have any focus at all on video games, you'd know that Anita S. has released a trilogy of videos which can be summed up in two sentences: Damsels in Distress are common in games. And that's bad. Now, am I here to argue against Anita? Nope, I fully acknowledge that the Damsel in Distress is an all too common trope used in video games. Am I here to agree with her and turn this blog into yet another echo chamber for her thesis? Not at all. Although today's blog entry COULD be seen as me agreeing with her, it is just the first of a duo that aims to show that the Damsel in Distress trope is exactly that: a tool for story telling, that can be done wrong, and be done right. Today I explore a video game that shows just how badly this trope can be used: Joe and Mack.

Dinosaurs were HUGE back in the early 90's.

Between the Lines- The Al Bhed of Final Fantasy X and X-2

I was going to dedicate this post to analyzing the Al Bhed language of Final Fantasy 10 and 10-2, but then I started looking at the Al Bhed themselves, and I found myself fascinated by this fictional tribe of peoples. What is it they represent in the grand scheme of Final Fantasy 10? What parallels exist between this tribe and anything in Real Life?

Ajanouha uh dra vmuun!

Hello? Hell...o?- A Ghost Story...?

In the freeware game Hello? Hell...o? you play as Kazuki, an average man, with an average life. He works from nine to five, and how he pays the price! All he wants is to be left alone in his average home. So why does he always feel like he's in the Twilight Zone? And I always feel like somebody's watching me! And I have no privacy! Oh whoa oh!

Alright, jokes aside, let's talk about this game. Hello? Hell...o? is a short, Freeware horror game made in RPG Maker. And when I say short, I mean "takes you an hour at most" short. In it, as I said before, you play as Kazuki, a man who, one night, goes to a room and  sees several strange happenings around him. The room he is in is haunted you see, by the spirit of a woman named Akari. As the player plays through the game, some details emerge that help explain the haunting somewhat: basically, Akari used to be Kazuki's girlfriend before she died in a car accident.

Akari's ghost, who would probably fit in the Blue Man Group.