My time as a Let's Player

 From 2018 to around 2021 I dabbled in doing Let's Plays, even sharing my first four videos on this very blog before my temporary retirement. I'd like to share some of my experiences with this hobby.

Between the Lines- Kalikori Village from Star Wars: The Old Republic

So you should know, I am officially addicted to BioWare's MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic. I am not just a video game fan, I am also a Star Wars nerd, though I admit not enough of a nerd to bother with the Expanded Universe, as I simply don't have access to the novels, or comic books, etc. But still, I am a fan. Today, however, I want to explore a particular element in the game, a very, very specific setting. This is a look at Kalikori Village.

Kalikori Village is a tiny village located on the planet Tython, the beginner world for the Jedi classes that most players leave behind by the time they are levels 9 to 11. In gameplay terms, the village serves as a mission hub for players levels five to nine. This is the place where you can spend Planetary Commendations, a special type of currency that can only be obtained by passing missions or killing specific enemies, on special, top notch armor that serve you well until you reach about level 13. You can also buy regular weapons and armors, some medicines, and the village serves as a central hub for the planet, as it's a crossroad between the Jedi Temple, the Flesh Raider Territory (a place with weak enemies but lots of missions) and the Ruins of Kaleth (the second to last territory on Tython, and the home of the sole mission that requires more than one person to beat in the planet). 

But what concerns us is the Lore. Kalikori Village is a village of Twi'leks, a race of aliens from the planet Ryloth. The village was founded by several Twi'leks who fled Ryloth because of religious persecution, The Twi'leks petitioned the Galactic Republic to allow them to settle into the planet Tython, a beautiful world of lush greenery, tall mountains, and clean water. But the Republic refused to grant them this permission, because the planet itself was only just recently re-discovered. Tython, you see, was the birthplace of the Force Users, the people who used the Force. The planet was being used by the Jedi Order as their new Headquarters at the time, mostly because, unlike the Twi'leks, they could claim ancestry to the planet (the Jedi Order could trace its beginnings to the planet, after all). Regardless, the Twi'leks still landed on the planet and made their settlement, without the permission or the protection of the Republic.

A Twi'lek male. You can tell it's a male because female Twi'leks don't have ears, they have mounds on the side of their heads where ears would be. Males have ears, though. Image from Wookiepedia, originally uploaded by user Ruthles Xero.

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!

Special Education and Katawa Shoujo

How long has it been since I've written a blog entry? Two or three weeks, I think. How long has it been since I've written about Katawa Shoujo? Two months. So, it seems I am far overdue for not just a blog entry, but one about Katawa Shoujo as well. Today's blog is all about how Katawa Shoujo incorporates Special Education into its narrative and atmosphere.

A quick question: what is Special Education? Growing up, Special Education had a, shall we say, bad reputation. When I was a kid, we had kids who were, shall we say, slower to learn than the rest of us. These kids were placed in Title 1, a Special Ed project that few of us outside of it understood, save for the fact that they got to go on lots of field trips. We didn't know much, but most of us hated the kids that were in Title 1 because we felt they worked less hard than us and were rewarded more often. Special Education just wasn't something we were taught on. However, now that I'm in college again, I can say, with absolute certainty, what Special Education is: it's education that's given when the average offering is insufficient.

Who receives Special Education? Extraordinary students. These are the students that have extraordinary conditions that render regular education insufficient to their needs. Notice, however, that this does not necessarily mean that the student is, well, mentally challenged. An extraordinary student can be someone who is in a wheelchair, for example, an autistic, a super genius, anything.

Katawa Shoujo takes place in a special, seemingly private school named Yamaku. This school has several facilities designed for its students. There's a track field, a football field, a pool (though it's never seen in game), a well equipped nurse's office for emergencies, books in audio and braille for the blind, and all of this is staffed by the finest professionals available. But, for what?

The students of Yamaku High are, for the most part, students with special needs. Take, for example, our hero, Hisao Nakai, who suffers from arrhythmia. Hisao needs to maintain a steady regiment of diet, exercise, and medication, lest he keels over and dies. Hisao needs: a medic to have emergency medicine on hand, medical facilities that can handle a child having a heart attack, experienced medical attention, healthy food, professional staff that knows how to act in case of emergencies, quick access to a hospital in case the proverbial shit hits the fan, a calm environment, and access to dozens of different medicines that are constantly well stacked. And that's just for Hisao.

Yamaku High is built specifically to attend to the needs of the disabled. But please don't think of Yamaku as some sort of special school to send away "the crippled". Yamaku isn't a "crippled kids school", it's a school, a school that specializes in giving the care and attention that extraordinary students need and deserve. 

My apologies for using that word, "cripple". No offence is meant.

Yamaku is a school, first and foremost. The students that are sent here, they are sent there to learn. They learn English, Science, Math, Japanese (the game is set in Japan, after all), Art, Music, Literature. They have a Student Council, athletes, after school clubs. These are students who, with a little extra help, can achieve their dreams, fulfill their passions. They socialize here, they make friends, they fall in love, they LIVE. Yamaku isn't a hospital that doubles as a school, it's a school that can handle what regular schools are ill equipped to do. It's a school that makes Special Education its Modus Operandi.

The thing about Special Education is that we're never really taught what it really is, nor do we think much about the sacrifices that an extraordinary student requires just to have the same opportunities we do. It's really hard, you know, being able bodied and all, to think about what life is like for someone who can't see, or can't hear, or can't walk. I can't imagine a life where I'm unable to talk because of something I was born with, or unable to control my arms, or needing to carefully calculate just how much energy and effort I need to put into my every day activities. And these things that are so hard for me to imagine? They are the day to day reality of many, many people out there, who live their whole lives like this.

The disabled, however, aren't helpless victims that require to be laid in bed 24/7, or institutionalized indefinitely, they are people. People who have dreams, people who fight everyday not just to stay alive, but to get ahead in life. They are people, like you and I, who feel like we do, get angry like we do, get happy like we do, and love like we do. They are no different than us.

Wait, no, that's not how it should be worded. It's not that "they are like us", it's more like, we are like them. We are exactly like them, just that some of us have more advantages. Still, we all have our damage.

One of the primary reasons Four Leaf Studios made Katawa Shoujo was to spread that message: that everyone has damage. The disabled are no less than us, no more than us. They are not helpless, but they are not superhuman either. They are people, and this is a subject a few people out there simply fail to grasp.

Many disabled people live tough lives, and all they ask is a little help here, a little extra room there, and a little understanding. Special Education provides exactly that to the ones who need it most: the kids. You don't see this sort of thing often in media, save for some "inspirational" schlock that does little more than soothe the egos of those that otherwise wouldn't lift a finger to help the disabled. Katawa Shoujo, however, doesn't do this, rather, it presents the disabled as people, and Special Education as exactly what it is: extra help designed to help the student form their own future. In my opinion, Katawa Shoujo is one of, if not THE, finest presentation of Special Education ever shown in any media.

An Analysis of Suikoden 3

Although I adore Suikoden, I must admit that the third entry in the series is one that is rather divisive; you either love it or you hate it, and there are strong arguments that justify both positions. However, one thing that is not up to debate is that Suikoden 3 tried something very different from its predecessors, and in large parts succeeded in telling a very memorable story via a very unique Perspective system that allows the player to go through several Point of View characters. But what is Suikoden 3 about? Well, let's find out.