Lady Shinigami

That's exactly what I mean – that is what happened in Okami. The entire story behind the game was an attack on the Celestial Plain that was led by Orochi; the attack was followed by a mass exodus of the Celestials in the Ark that was borrowed/purchased from the Moon Tribe. Once the ship had set sail the Celestials were massacred prior to the Ark's fall in Nippon, after which the demons aboard swarmed across the land and did evil things to innocent people. Amaterasu, for her part, lost her initial fight against Orochi on the Celestial Plain and appeared in Nippon as Shiranui, she 'died' helping Izanagi defeat Orochi, and was then reborn as the weaker Ammy. Or at least that's the way they made it sound in the game. The only difference between that and Okamiden, then, would be that Okamiden starts in Nippon as opposed to the Celestial Plain, and that Amaterasu has become smaller still. That's not very encouraging in my mind. Which is what I expect, although being able to take any format of Okami along in my pocket would be nice. Well, seeing as I enjoy sci-fi that inclusion didn't bother me even though the hundred-year-doorway bit did kind of make me think, "Say what?" But it tied in well and there was so much left unexplained in Okami that I feel a quasi-rewind to cover the return to the Celestial Plain and the Moon Tribe's involvement would wrap things up nicely, that's all. I don't see how it would necessarily make things darker, either. Sorry, but for me Kaguya's story is what seemed a little melodramatic. Amnesia is a way overdone plot device, and because of how minor a character she was they didn't explore it thoroughly enough to make me care; I found her more of an obstacle than someone I really wanted to learn about, like Ushiwaka. On the other hand, if there was an Okami game that related a little more to the Moon Tribe, wouldn't that almost guarantee seeing more of Kaguya, who would possibly be one of the few allies you could rely on? ~LS

This is interesting, because I didn't think Okami – despite being a generally stellar game – had sold well enough to warrant even a cheap knockoff type of sequel; not that seeing that there will be a sequel has set off my Crap-O-Meter yet. I'm okay with the cutesy-ness, I guess, though I much prefer the comparative realism of Amaterasu's movements. And while I do agree that Okami as a franchise is exactly what something like the DS calls for, I have to say that I never felt that playing Okami on my PS2 did me any disservice as far as the quality of entertainment; when they re-released it for the Wii – which I do not own – I was only mildly curious to know what the experience would be like. That said, I'm still not wildly impressed with what I've seen. I do like that the general style has been maintained from the original game, for sure, but unless they slowed the video down I don't like how strange and reined-in the battle sequences seem; despite being 'easy' (I personally found the game's story and music to mean more to me than the [lack of] difficulty settings, but that's neither here nor there), fighting multiple opponents at the speed one could achieve in Okami was exciting and distracting and could work against you at a careless moment. By contrast the apparent range of 'Chibiterasu's' mirror seems to lower the potential for danger even more, though brush-controlling your allies seems like fun. What's known about the plot is what bothers me most because it does seem like it might just turn out to be a rehash of the original, however well-executed. The way the end of Okami played out, it seemed to me that if there was ever going to be a sequel then the way to go would have been to have the next adventure take place on/in the Celestial Plain with Amaterasu doing clean-up work with whatever evil creatures might still be lurking there from the initial invasion before the departure and fall of the Ark of Yamato. That would also have allowed for examination of Ushiwaka and the Moon Tribe's story, which was something that was glossed over in Okami. In the end, since I have no DS I'm not going to be buying the game to find out whether any of what affects my enjoyment of the game itself. But if they release Okamiden for the PSP, then, I may go to the trouble of getting it if I have some spare cash. ~LS

It started out sounding kind of strange to me, though I didn't think there was actually anything wrong with it, but it got . . . cute, I suppose . . . very quickly. It's a lot of fun, lyrics and all. Good work! ~LS

That's essentially my thoughts these days; story and consistent characterization mean more to me than gender and clothing, regardless of the medium. Despite my being female, Bayonetta – and Wet, for that matter – did not interest me in the slightest as games that I might want to play at a friend's house, let alone spend the money on myself. More and more it's as though game companies are making the same mistake film companies do – that if any girl at all is going to want to see or play it, it first has to have some overzealously-addressed quality that girls would theoretically find interesting or admirable or whatever. In the cases of films, for example, the (Michael Bay) Transformers movies were not helped at all by the romance. I would not have wept in the slightest had there not been any important female character whatsoever; the only reason I went to see those movies was because I wanted to see giant robots beat the shit out of each other. The End. Blessedly, the romance in the Transformers movies was much lighter than in others I've seen, but it – like in other movies before – still seemed like a pointless last-minute inclusion meant to placate the girlfriends who were presumably dragged along against their will. To clarify, even though I am female you cannot make me want or like a video game merely by making the main character a wisecracking female, although showing that she has reasonable proportions, a believable personality, and can dress like a normal person helps. Emphasizing such a character's gender through some fashion of sexual context – be it as simple as obnoxiously large breasts or excessively clingy clothes – does not make me feel any kind of feminine kinship or loyalty to her. Really, though, I gave up on caring about what I consider a decently designed female character ages ago. I imagine the main problem is that, biologically, women are simply not as powerful as men. In a gaming context this "realism" often translates into either the Hero's Love Interest, who is required by law to be weak so she and her femininity can be defended by the male character(s), or the Ice Bitch previously mentioned, who is butch or mouthy or both and who everyone kind of avoids while her superior strength – compared to the other female character(s), at least – is explained by some horridly traumatic and overdone backstory. With standard human PCs, the only way this can be "fixed" is by not having any male characters at all to compare them to. Hand them a weapon that eliminates physiological comparison, such as a gun, and at that point there's finally a form of balance. The only exception to that which I have played and currently own is FFX, in which it's possible to direct the female characters into the male characters' experience grids and bring everyone up to essentially the same levels of strength. As a female gamer who prefers RPGs, in turn-based games my preferred battle parties are entirely male because the female characters tend to be bad battlers, and the strength in magic they often have that's allowed them to act as a strength-equalizer is generally nothing one of the guys can't do since bosses which are that susceptible to magic are like hen's teeth. As for RPGs like Devil May Cry, I don't give the female characters a second glance – having to play Lucia wasn't a big deal because Dante was almost never around for her to be compared to, but I still found her angel wings to be an irritating cliché. If there were any female characters I had to say I liked, it would be Okami's Amaterasu and Cynder from the Spyro rehash. Although Amaterasu's exact gender could be in question – being as 'she' is technically a genderless deity moving about in the body of a wolf that is quite obviously male – the balance of physical attacks, brushwork, and evasion is nice and perhaps even "too easy"; also, the fact that she only 'speaks' in one instance is interesting, and the few examples of arrogance you see are not wholly unexpected from a god(dess). Cynder plays both the Ice Bitch and Hero's Love Interest roles well enough, and she faces her traumatic past as bravely as can be expected; her attacks are faster and more reliable than Spyro's, in my opinion, and I usually find more use for her breath attacks than I do for Spyro's. I also like Freya from FFIX, even though I'm not a huge fan of rats. As far as human characters, I do suppose I could say I like Yuna – she is pretty well rounded as a character and takes perfectly good care of herself in a number of cases. Also Advent Children Tifa, though I'm not sure that version of her counts. ~LS

Okami and Ecco the Dolphin strike me as being interesting challenges, although both have such potentially serious issues – either in development or story – that it's likely neither would be worth the cost of production, unfortunately. Kingdom Hearts, especially the second one, would make a fun movie, but that may just be me being a fangirl. I've also always thought that Xenogears should have been made into a television show, mainly because it's far too convoluted to be a movie that will make sense in two hours. As for something that might actually work, my sister and I think Kinetica would make an interesting movie. It has a malleable backstory that can be turned into a more significant plot, decent characters, racing, violence, and general lawlessness, and the settings would look awesome on a big screen. It would possibly also appeal to a surprisingly wide female audience even though it's obviously geared a little more toward guys. ~LS

Good lord. It never occurred to me that vocals might be such a big deal to some people, but in hindsight I can see why since I generally prefer instrumental soundtracks for movies rather than something with lyrics. In my mind, instrumental music requires a bit more attention to detail because it has to find a way to clearly convey an emotion or message. Songs with vocals, on the other hand, are able to "cheat" in that regard because they have lyrics that can tell the story right away and don't have to rely entirely on the music to evoke a particular feeling; sometimes, though, the lyrics are difficult to decipher, the background music is inadequate, and as a result I feel pressured to try to find out what's being said so I can relate to the song properly. Still, that is absolutely not to say that I dislike music with vocals – there are plenty of vocal songs I enjoy and plenty of instrumental songs I do not – I simply find that I personally prefer that film and video game music be instrumental for the above reason. With that said, I admit I was surprised by the amount of vocals present in this album, seeing as the source is entirely without vocals from title theme to credit theme. Nevertheless, I was quite charmed by most – if not all – of the songs with lyrics, perhaps because the source album was instrumental and everyone kept close enough to the source songs, musically and lyrically, that they were easy to enjoy. I'm not going to pick out an song as my favorite because as far as I'm concerned they all sounded stellar whether or not I completely agreed with the genre or interpretation or inclusion/exclusion of lyrics, but I will briefly comment on "Us Monkeys Together" because I made a particular comment on another song diotrans worked on and feel obligated to do so here as well. "Destiny Forgotten" is diotrans's OCR debut song, and for me its memorability is not very flattering despite the potential that I could hear in it. I commented on what I felt were the vocalist's pros and cons, and will gladly say that "Us Monkeys Together" sounds much, much, MUCH better than "Destiny Forgotten"; I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw that the vocalist was the same for both songs. There still seems to be a nasal quality to her singing – one that is especially noticeable with the higher notes – that's a bit too pop-culture for my liking, but that's a minor issue. With "Us Monkeys Together" she generally stays within her vocal range and, because of that, sounds wonderful. I do enjoy this song, no matter the language. As for the Mandarin/Cantonese – my media player says it's Cantonese, and I don't know if there's even a significant difference between the two – I have no direct comment as to how the pronunciation is handled; unlike Japanese, I wouldn't know a word of anything Chinese if it slapped me. So I absolve myself of needing an opinion. ~LS

I would agree that it could be considered a bit on the conservative side – though not too much, I think – but if you're not going to submit it then have at it. This does sound surprisingly good mixed with chiptunes, and I'm digging the machine-gun effects you included. I don't expect they'd mean much to someone who isn't familiar with the character, regardless of source's title, but that extra touch is awesome. ~LS

I did notice the loop this time around. I didn't mind it the way it had been originally – like I said before, it sounded like playful battle music, or maybe mini-game music, and therefore a somewhat abrupt cut-off wouldn't necessarily be out of place – but it sounds equally as good with this change; it provides listeners with a sort of auditory wind-down and doesn't let too much sound drift off before the end kicks in. Personally, I think it's ready for submission. ~LS

Well, I'm not sure. In general it's not bad at all – I do definitely like it – but it does stick pretty close to the source material and that might count against you. As far as adding percussion, that's up to you. I don't think it needs it. The one thing I had an issue with was the xylophone. Because of that, the song goes from sounding like a beautiful ballroom waltz to low-quality carnival music (which I personally feel the source material kind of sounds like as well, even though I do like it). If this is something you were looking for as far as the 'fun' goes, you hit it dead on; however, I do think it would sound better without it (or, if you add percussion, it could end up sounding better with it). If you want to make it fun then consider blending this with "Eternal Harvest", which has a faster tempo and does have a Celtic flavor. It may help. ~LS

I don't have the slightest idea what the source material sounds like, but what you've done sounds gorgeous. I don't know if you're planning on submitting it, but regardless I noticed little glitches in the piano at 2:22, 2:33, and 2:46. They're not enough to irritate me, but they are noticeable. I suppose it could also be said that the samples are a little generic (maybe), but I'm not seeing that as a real problem. I've also listened to a few of your Kingdom Hearts mixes. And quite frankly, dear, they're brilliant too. ~LS

Unfortunately, I can't offer you anything specifically technical – I'm not that savvy. But I can certainly say that though I'm not much of a fan of Spanish flavor, what you've done makes me smile. The additions you made at the beginning and end make it sound like a playful battle theme; the shift at the end did startle me, but I quickly warmed up to it. Personally, I wouldn't change a thing, but if you do change anything don't do too much to it. ~LS

There aren't a lot of KH mixes here (yet), so when I saw this one I was really excited. It was late at night, though, and I didn't have immediate access to headphones, so when the song started I had to turn the volume down because of the vocals and as a result couldn't hear the background music sufficiently. Since listening to it with headphones and during the day, I can safely say that the background music is stellar. Unfortunately, the vocals only sound slightly better than they did. As it's been noted before, the vocalist's voice needs some tuning. This is not a slight against the vocalist's obvious potential and existing talent, which is easily audible in the lower range of her singing (0:47–1:25 and 2:06–2:27), but the majority of the time she sounds – whether or not it's true – as though she's not confident in her capabilities, so she sings from her chest rather than her stomach and doesn't open her throat completely for fear of her voice cracking. After the first twenty seconds of the song – which are quite good, if a bit loud – she remains mostly in one or two octaves, which creates a tinny, monotonous, and somewhat nasally sound, and reminds me unpleasantly of a number of contemporary female singers who I can't tell apart because they all apparently worked very hard to sound exactly alike. It seems like she's trying too hard to match the original vocalist's range rather than branching out and embracing her own. She should practice vocalizing (not necessarily singing, for the time being) in the higher octaves and exploring her lower ones, which are far superior in quality. I would love to hear her sing in that lower range. Also, while I appreciate the effort to include the Japanese version, I feel I must point out that though I'm not anything resembling fluent in Japanese, I do hear it regularly and the answer is a resounding YES – that portion of the song does sound exactly like the vocalist doesn't speak a word of Japanese, and I find that both extremely distracting and more than a little disappointing. If "Hikari" is as much a favorite song of the vocalist's as "Simple and Clean" and she has been listening to both for years – so much so that she has dedicated time and effort to noticing, recognizing, and admiring the differences in the vocal melodies – I don't think it's inappropriate to point out that more effort could have been included in becoming familiar with the exact pronunciation, inflection, and intonation of the lyrics from "Hikari" for use here. If the vocalist didn't possess the "Hikari" single, which is slower than the mix used at the start of the game and easier to decipher and sing along with, it can easily be found on YouTube. I am absolutely not saying that the vocalist has to be fluent or interested in learning Japanese (or any other language) as a language itself merely to use it in a song, but the inclusion of "Hikari" in this mix makes knowledge of at least the specific pronunciation of that song's lyrics an unequivocal requirement. If the vocalist was not prepared to sing part of a Japanese song as though she was at least familiar with the Japanese language itself, she shouldn't have included it at all. As it is, the vocalist's awkwardness with it does detract from the rest of the mix. Overall, it's a good mix. There are better and there are worse, and this one fits nicely amongst the laudable first tries. Had this song been an instrumental, I would have snapped it up even though I'm not a huge fan of guitars. The vocals are not mediocre, but they do leave room for improvement. It's an adequate beginning that will have me approach another arrangement by this mixer with caution, but has not turned me away completely. ~LS