This is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down. I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became… engaged to Christina!

Our story begins in September of 2002 on a summer day in Roseville, California. I was 18, fresh out of high school, and enjoying the time before I started college. I was working as a bagger at a local grocery store, which wasn’t terrible at the time, and I made good enough money to support my gaming habits. I had taken a trip to my local awesome mall (oh Galleria, how I miss you) and stopped in at my local GameStop, not really looking for anything in particular.

I don’t remember how or why, but I wound up purchasing Animal Crossing for my GameCube. I don’t think I knew much about it at the time except that people had compared it to the Sims (which I didn’t like), and you could play NES games in it. Maybe it was the fact that it was a game that came with its own memory card. Maybe it’s because I just loved my GameCube. Whatever the reason, I had no idea that that one action would shape the rest of my life.

I really dug Animal Crossing. It was fun and relaxing, and I enjoyed collecting everything from bugs to fish to clothing. I enjoyed upgrading and decorating my house. It was rad playing NES games on my Game Cube (I seriously lost hours to Pinball, no joke). I loved it. I loved it so much I dashed off to the internet to find out more about it.

My searches led me to Animal Crossing Ahead, a veritable compendium for everything there was to know about Animal Crossing. It was so in-depth that there were even guides on how to answer Rover’s questions to get the character face you liked. The information was great, but what kept me there was the forums.

Now, the only forum I had really been a part of before that was TheForce.net’s forums, which despite how many boards they had, all anyone really wanted to talk about was Star Wars. The Animal Crossing Forums had an Animal Crossing section, sure, but they had forums for entertainment discussion, a retro forum, a creativity boards… it was great. I registered and quickly started making friends.

By December I had been promoted to forum staff. Looking back now, I’m not really sure why. I broke a lot of rules that would keep someone from becoming staff (I asked for it CONSTANTLY) but hey, it all worked out. I got even closer with some really rad people, some of whom I’m still friends with to this day.

I did make some very close friends who I’ve since parted ways with. They’re not in my life now, but remembering those days will always make me smile.

Anyway, it was when Animal Crossing: Wild World was released for the Nintendo DS in late 2005 that things really got interesting for me.

The forums got a HUGE influx of new people. The portable nature of the new game, coupled with the Wi-Fi capabilities, really got people interested in the series and they flocked to the forums in spades. Many of them would wind up losing interest over the next few months, but the people who managed to branch out and make friends stuck around.

My close friends and I spent most nights on TeamSpeak, chatting with each other while we did other things. It seems lame now, but there weren’t a lot of people around me who had the same interests as me so it was nice to have a group of geeks to nerd out with, even if it was just over voice chat. I mean, I had real life friends I hung out with, even wound up moving in with later, but I enjoyed our nights on TeamSpeak.

One of my friends had started talking to a girl on the forums who went by the name Chrissii (two guesses who that is). This was back when MySpace was in its heyday, so I looked up some of her pictures. Typing that out, it seems really creepy. Whatever.

Anyway, I was immediately in awe of her. She was absolutely gorgeous, and she was a big geek just like us. The problem was, though, that I lived in California and she lived in Boston.
But we became friends and she wound up being a part of our group. Things were pretty normal for a couple of years, but her and I kept getting closer and closer. Eventually, it all kinda came out that we had feelings for each other, and we decided we were going to find some way to make it work.

In April of 2007, I had taken a week of vacation from work so I could relax and play Pokémon Diamond (yes, I used to take vacation based on game releases). Christina and I were talking on the phone Saturday night and we mentioned how much we wanted to see each other. I said “Well… why don’t I come out there this week?”

Keep in mind I am NOT an impulsive person. I am very much a plan-things-out, follow-the-schedule kind of guy. My hands started shaking after I said it and her folks gave the okay for me to stay there. It was real. I was going. I was on a plane Monday morning.

I remember stepping off the plane. It was late, close to midnight I think. I stepped out of the gate and I saw her waiting for me… it sounds SO lame and cheesy, but really, she took my breath away. No amount of pictures or phone calls could prepare me for how stunning she was in person.

We ran to each other, and she said “Oh my God, you’re so cute…” and we had our first kiss. First moment of the rest of my life.

The week was amazing. We wound up spending two hours on her kitchen floor using the Drawing tool on Pokémon. It was fate.

I went home and I knew I had to move. My mom had moved to Florida, my sister was in San Diego and I was living with my dad after my roommate had gotten engaged and moved out. I didn’t have a lot tying me to Roseville. She had her whole family in Boston.

We started making tentative plans. A few months later I came out for three weeks to basically live here, look for a job, things like that. In October of 2007, she flew to California to come to my friend’s wedding with me, and we flew back together.

I’ve been here almost three years, and while California is always going to be my home, and I miss it a lot from time to time, I’m now engaged to my soulmate.

And it’s all thanks to me buying Animal Crossing on a whim in September of 2002.

Lately, the blog has been a lot of stupid bullshit about me driving listening to F-Zero music and playing Rescue Rangers on the NES. While I am a big proponent of stupid bullshit, I also have a serious side. It’s not big, but it’s there (that’s what she said). So today, I want to talk about the issue concerning the legality of selling violent games to kids that is on its way to the US Supreme Court.

What is currently happening is that the Supreme Court has decided to hear both sides of the case in regards to a proposed California law, written by State Senator Leland Yee and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. The law was challenged by industry representatives, and deemed unconstitutional.

What this law seeks to do is make it a crime to sell “ultra-violent video games” to children. The entertainment software industry has a voluntary and self-moderated ratings system, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) that has been in place since 1994.

So, what do I think of this bill? While I honestly believe that it has noble intentions (at least I’d like to think so), I find that it is a misguided attempt to wrest control over an industry that is often unfairly made the scapegoat once everyone starts finger-pointing after a child commits a violent act. I think that this bill becoming a law would have dangerous repercussions not only for the video game industry, but for entertainment as a whole.

“This is not about Leland Yee trying to destroy the industry,” Yee said in an interview with Kotaku. “This is not about Leland Yee trying to prevent any of you game [developers] from developing any more atrocious kinds of games. This is a free society. If you have the imagination to do something even more horrible with the technology, then god bless you. That’s part of our freedom of expression here in America, but you just have to figure out when it’s appropriate and when it’s not appropriate. For me, as a child psychologist you ought not be doing it for kids.”

Pick out the venom from that quote. “Atrocious kinds of games.” “Do something even more horrible with the technology.” Yee, who is proposing a law, which is supposed to be fair for everyone, has already made up his mind about the people who create these games. He sees them as little more than frat boys, high-fiving each other as they all seek to push the envelope a bit further than the ones before them. For me, as a human being first and a gamer second, Mr. Yee has thrown any credibility he had out the window with such petty remarks.

The thing that really seals the deal, though, is how he ended it: “You ought not be doing it for kids.”

As someone who has worked in the software retail industry in both California and Massachusetts, I can safely say that the industry is doing a fine job policing itself. While working at GameStop, we had specific instructions and training that required us to request identification from people who tried to purchase a game that had been rated M (for Mature, suitable for ages 17 and over). There were even secret shoppers who would test a store’s compliance with this guideline. If you were caught selling the game to a minor, you were terminated from the company.

Just two weeks ago, I was in Best Buy to purchase Mass Effect 2 for the Xbox 360, a Mature-rated game. I am 26 years old. I was with Christina, who is 24. We don’t get carded when we order a beer at a restaurant. The Best Buy cashier carded both of us before he would sell us the game.

Are there kids who occasionally slip through and purchase an M-rated game? It would be naïve to say no. However, every day there are also kids who get away with buying alcohol or cigarettes before they’re old enough as well. The sale of alcohol and tobacco IS regulated federally, and it has not eliminated children from acquiring them. It has made it harder, but not impossible. What proof is there that video games would be any different?

Lumping video games in with tobacco, alcohol and pornography is ignorant and prejudiced. Video games are not a form of entertainment solely for the enjoyment of children. Several studies have pegged the average gamer between the ages of 18 and either 39 or 49 depending on the study. They are the ones with disposable income, and as such there are games that cater to that demographic. Just because they are on a shelf does not mean that they are being promoted or sold to children.

When I worked at GameStop, nine times out of ten when I’d refuse to sell an M-rated game to a child, they’d leave the store and come back a few minutes later with an annoyed parent. I would explain the rating and the game’s content to the parent, and they’d buy it anyway.

This law will do nothing to stop children from getting their hands on these games. The solution isn’t to place federal restrictions on something that retailers are already doing voluntarily. The solution is education, putting the ESRB more out in the open as a way to educate parents about what games are and are not appropriate for children. Ultimately, it is the parent’s decision, not the government’s.

The problem is, most parents don’t care. They still see video games as a childish venture and they don’t want to be bothered with it. If God of War will make Billy shut up and stop bothering his sister, then God of War is what’s going home with them. It’s a video game, so it’s for kids, right?

This law will only reinforce that ancient assumption and doom the medium to always be considered below television, movies and books.

Another problem with the proposed legislation is the vague wording. “Ultra-violent” games. How do you define that? Here is the outline from the bill, taken from a Kotaku article:

(d) (1) “Violent video game” means a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being, if those acts are depicted in the game in a manner that does either of the following:
(A) Comes within all of the following descriptions:
(i) A reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors.
(ii) It is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the community as to what is suitable for minors.
(iii) It causes the game, as a whole, to lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
(B) Enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon images of human beings or characters with substantially human characteristics in a manner which is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved in that it involves torture or serious physical abuse to the victim.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, the following definitions apply:
(A) “Cruel” means that the player intends to virtually inflict a high degree of pain by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim in addition to killing the victim.
(B) “Depraved” means that the player relishes the virtual killing or shows indifference to the suffering of the victim, as evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim.
(C) “Heinous” means shockingly atrocious. For the killing depicted in a video game to be heinous, it must involve additional acts of torture or serious physical abuse of the victim as set apart from
other killings.
(D) “Serious physical abuse” means a significant or considerable amount of injury or damage to the victim’s body which involves a substantial risk of death, unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, substantial disfigurement, or substantial impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. Serious physical abuse, unlike torture, does not require that the victim be conscious of the
abuse at the time it is inflicted. However, the player must specifically intend the abuse apart from the killing.
(E) “Torture” includes mental as well as physical abuse of the victim. In either case, the virtual victim must be conscious of the abuse at the time it is inflicted; and the player must specifically intend to virtually inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering upon the victim, apart from killing the victim.
(3) Pertinent factors in determining whether a killing depicted in a video game is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved include infliction of gratuitous violence upon the victim beyond that necessary to commit the killing, needless mutilation of the victim’s body, and helplessness of the victim.

Again, it’s too vague. A lot of the wording of this definition leaves it open for interpretation. Virtually any game with any level of violent conflict could become entangled in this catch-all web. What this means is that there will be a committee, appointed by the government and paid for with taxpayer dollars, to re-do everything the ESRB is currently doing.

There will be a government body deciding what is and is not appropriate for your children to play.

Please re-read that sentence a few times and let it sink in.

So where does it go from there? Now the government can decide what games can and can’t be sold to kids. So what’s stopping them from deciding what kind of games can’t be sold AT ALL? If a “game, as a whole… lack(s) serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” then why even bother putting it on shelves? Only psychopaths would play that game, right?

The fact of the matter is that video games are a protected form of free speech, as has been proven time and time again when a lawyer or lawmaker has tried to get their 15 minutes of fame by creating one of these laws. The music industry has stood by the video game industry during this entire issue. “Culture and art thrives on the preservation of the First Amendment. Any law or effort to weaken First Amendment protection of free expression whether in music, film or video games or other creative content is ultimately a harmful thing,” said Cara Duckworth of the Recording Industry Association of America in a Kotaku interview.

So once video games are regulated, what’s stopping them from regulating the sale of movies, books or music?

This bill is dangerous, misguided, misinformed, and unconstitutional, just as others have been deemed by the Supreme Court before. I hope that this bill will suffer the same fate.

Alright Lunar fans, I’ve been promising a surprise for you all for a while now, so I think it’s time I came clean! I, and the rest of PK Bloggin’! are excited to say that Jessica Chavez of XSEED Games was kind enough to make time for us to do an interview, and even provide some great exclusive Lunar: Silver Star Harmony screenshots just for us! (I’ve never conducted an interview before, how exciting!) Even if you aren’t a Lunar fan, please enjoy it, since there’s a lot of great information here about the localizing process, and being part of the game industry in general.

For those who don’t know you, can you tell us who you are, and what you do at XSEED Games?

My name is Jessica Chavez and I am a localization monkey at XSEED Games.  I am the company’s sole editor at the moment and I oversee the translated text in some of our games. Mostly I smooth out rough translations, fix spelling errors and adjust for formatting, but for some titles I also go to the recording studio and, as you’ve seen lately, I manage some online community stuff like the blog and facebook.

I am female, hopelessly fond of the phrase “clowns taste funny” and addicted to coffee.

How long have you been working in the video game industry, and how did you get your start?

I’ve been at XSEED for nearly two years come September, and I owe my start here to a bittersweet combination of ill-timing and pure luck.

I actually started off first in comic books (I worked for TokyoPop previously) and through unhappy circumstance (TokyoPop’s subsequent downsizing in 2008) I made the happy transition to video games. A prior three-year stint in Japan also contributed to my move to niche Japanese game publishing.

Were you a “gamer” prior to working in the business? If so, has having a career related to gaming made them less enjoyable?

I was a gamer prior to working in the industry and I’m afraid I have to say “yes” to the, er, being less-inclined to play part of that question. Most of my work is done staring at the computer screen until my eyes bleed as I wrestle text into shape, but I do have to play our games quite a bit here as well. As a result, when I go home the last thing I want to do is play anything… But, I am still a big fan of RPGs and my love of those has made this career choice very desirable despite the drain on my own personal enjoyment of games.

I still haven’t touched much of Dragon Age Origins since I got it…

What’s the localization process like? For RPGs, especially, there’s a lot of text, and usually a lot of cultural references. What kind of work goes into making the game accessible to a Western audience?

Brace yourself, this might be a bit long…

The localization process is actually extremely complicated and depends on the coordinated efforts of a lot of people. Bare minimum you need,

1) A trusty translator, 2) a cutthroat editor, 3) a go-between the publisher and the Japanese dev team (my boss, Kenji, does this), 4) Marketing/PR gurus, and 5) suffering interns. we don’t actually have one of these right now but they’re such a staple of the gaming industry that I thought I’d give a nod to their stoic plight.

There are other steps prior to the translation of the game, but the translation stage is the approximate start for my role in this so I’ll begin there.

First the text is sent via file format (.xls, .csv, etc) from Japan and the translator will begin laying the groundwork for system text. We’re talking character names, locations, menu text, etc. I’m usually in communication with the translator during this period and together we settle on naming conventions and the general feel of the game. After that, the files start getting tossed back and forth between myself and the translator as he/she finishes it and I take a scalpel to it.

For my part, I go through chapters and chapters of roughly translated text at a time and sift out spelling mistakes, grammar issues, even graphic problems. I do rewrites where cultural clarification is required or make outright changes that are needed for the NA audience and also insert quotes from “The Tick” where I see fit. Additionally, I spend a lot of time getting the script to fit into the nice, clean little speech bubbles you see in-game. That’s probably the most tedious aspect of the job.

After a few rounds of that, the edited files are sent to Japan and implemented into the game. A few days to weeks later (depending on the Japanese dev team) I’ll have an English build of the game to look at. With this ‘beta’ version in hand I’ll start playing through and doing more minor rewrites, check that names/places/spells match up and clean up any mistakes that I missed previously. This is the beginning of the QA (Quality Assurance) period of game localization. After we think we’ve caught most of the problems, the final files are given to Japan and those are what end up in-game.

At the end of the process, essentially the game is still what it is in Japan, just now in a language that makes sense to you, and presented in a way that’s also going to make sense to you. We do take liberties here and there but we also have a deep respect for the Japanese team and their intended vision of the game. It’s a balancing act for sure.

The XSEED, Lunar, Ragnarok, etc. Facebook pages are one of the only times I’ve really seen a company strive to actively converse with, and touch base with their fans. It’s really great to see. Is that mostly your doing, or is it a team effort?

Well, we had always hoped to be big enough to expand out and reach more fans, but prior to the Facebook push we’ve only had a blog or two for a few games. It has always been a matter of having enough people/time to be able to manage a community, and even though we still don’t have that luxury, we really want to develop a relationship with our fan base.

For my part it seemed natural for me to take control of the Lunar Facebook, because I’m the one who worked on the game. I like talking with fans and it’s nice to have a chance to explain what’s in the game and what we’ve done to make it special for you. I want people to know that we care and that we’re working hard. I want you guys to know that you’re supporting something worthwhile and that we appreciate it. As a gamer myself I’ve always kind of felt like I was nothing but a dollar sign to companies, and personally, I believe that you enjoy your purchase more if you know what went into it, who’s behind it, and that they’re listening.

Honestly though, the Lunar Facebook has been really fun. It’s hard for me to budget time for it but I’m actually quite obsessed. It delights me to see it grow so exponentially over the last few weeks and in return I try to post as often as I can to make it worth your while.

I’ve talked about the Lunar: Silver Star Harmony release a lot on the site. Do you have any funny anecdotes from the translation process, (or anything interesting really,) that you could share with our readers?

Well, there was definitely a lot of shock and amusement when we played the SSSC version to prepare for it (that book in Vane still has me gaping) (yes, you know the one I’m talking about) and it gave me no end of opportunities to slip in my own stuff…so I’ll leave you with this. See if you can pinpoint where all these things are in-game. A treasure hunt, if you will.

ALL-NEW Lunar: SSH inserts

1)      Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference
2)      Cameo of the infamous “graveyard duck” from Castlevania
3)      The unfortunate adventures of Mr. Tiddles
4)      5th Element nod
5)      The best children’s book title ever
6)      Monty Python stuff
7)      Buffalo Bill, is that you? (X 2)
8)      Jaws reference
9)      Nivea commercial gag (props if you know what this is or noticed it)
10)     Breaking of the 4th wall a la Jessica

For readers unfamiliar with the game, (though if they’ve been reading this site at all I don’t know how they could be!) what would you say makes Lunar stand apart from other RPGs?

Lunar stands apart from other RPGs on the strength of its story and the depth of its humor. It’s one of the few RPGs today that doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet packs such an emotional punch for not just one character, but all of them. It’s no hack and slash, fetch-quest, generic RPG. Yes, the story is familiar but it’s done so well that it’s classic, not clichéd. It doesn’t try to coax you out of your money on pretty visuals or gimmicky undress. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is bacon, folks. Pure, unadulterated salty goodness.

We’ve been commanded to inform people that there are bath scenes in the game. Who are you most excited to see there?

I’m excited for Jessica and Nash because I have two killer outtakes for those scenes! Coming soon!

A lot of people on the internet are concerned that this new version of Lunar for PSP is not going to hold up to the older versions on Sega CD and Playstation. Is there anything you want to say to ease their concerns?

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will be both familiar to you and yet wholly new. It will comfort you with its recognizable humor and charm and surprise you with the fresh coat of paint the visuals, history, music and characters were given. It’s worth buying because it adds to the richness of the series. It doesn’t try to subvert the old Lunar that you love, it just adds another facet that you’ve yet to see. And more of Lunar is never a bad thing.

Lastly… how about that Lunar: Eternal Blue? ;P

I’d love to see it too, and I know Japan is watching the American response very closely. I have my fingers crossed the same as you.

I cannot thank Jessica enough for taking the time to answer all of these for us (and so thoroughly/wittily, to boot!) and for being among the first interviewees for PK Bloggin’! ..and for the exclusive screenshots, of course! I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to talk with her. (…in the metaphorical-internet-typing sort of way.) It is really interesting to read about the whole process (I had no idea about quite a few things that she mentioned!) and her writing is always fun to read! (I really like parentheses!)

I’ve come across a few of the new references in Lunar that Jessica’s mentioned here already, and will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for the others. Everyone should keep an eye on their Facebook page for those outtakes that she is going to post, too… I bet they’ll be hilarious! (There’s some great ones uploaded already, if you’ve got time to check them out.)

As you should all know by now, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony was released March 2nd for the PSP, and March 4th for the PSN for those unfortunate enough to have been suckered into a PSP Go. Whether you’re a Lunar fan, or an RPG fan with a PSP and a penchant for classic themes with added personality and charm, I think you’ll really love it!

(For those of you wondering what else XSEED Games has done that is awesome besides Lunar, or wondering if I even know or have played anything else that they’ve done, some other great games they’ve localized include Half-Minute Hero for the PSP, Ragnarok DS and Retro Game Challenge for the Nintendo DS, and Little King’s Story and the upcoming Fragile Dreams (which looks stunning) for the Nintendo Wii… just to name a few. See, I can totally talk about games that aren‘t Lunar!)

Christina and I have been spending a lot of time (now that we have free time) with Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. I bought it a while ago and never really got into it, but since the sequel came out I decided to give it another shot, and I’m really glad I did. Not only am I greatly enjoying the game, it’s also actually got me thinking a lot about how video games can function as a medium for storytelling.

BioWare is famous for their branching dialogue system they’ve used in their games, beginning with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the original Xbox and PC. Your character never spoke, but there were pauses in conversations when you’d choose what your character would say next. Several complete sentences were presented, you’d choose one, and the conversation would continue based on how you responded. I loved KotOR, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, I was experiencing the first step towards defining video games as a unique method of telling a story.

Now, it’s important to note that a video game does not require a story. Just look at Tetris, the most successful (and famous) video game of all time. No story there, just you, some blocks, and Russian music. The Super Mario series has about as paper-thin a story as you can get, instead relying on gameplay to define the experiences they provide players. This is how video games will differ from books or movies; for the former, a story is completely optional, depending on what kind of experience the developers are trying to create. For the latter, they are defined as a storytelling medium. A book without a story isn’t much more than a dictionary. A movie without a story is Napoleon Dynamite.

Video games have been telling stories for over 20 years, so it’s not like this is a new development, not by any means. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, the grandfathers of the role-playing genre, set the standard for how Japanese RPGs structure their stories. They’re really “role-playing” in name only; the story is told to you, and your interactivity with the story boils down to few (if any) dialog options, and selecting which characters will accompany you into dungeons.

I’m not claiming that JRPGs are bad at storytelling, or somehow inferior to Western RPGs. I’m a huge fan of JRPGs, and the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises in particular, so I’m not saying one is better than the other. They just take a more traditional approach to telling a story, an approach similar to books and movies where the story is told to you. As far as books and movies go, this is due to the limitations of the medium; there is no interactivity. You have no way of influencing the dialogue in a book or movie, or making the main character’s decisions. And before you say anything, no, “Choose Your Own Adventure” books don’t count. For JRPGs, though, it’s just the way they’ve always been.

That’s why I’m enjoying Mass Effect so much. It’s a completely new way to experience a story. In KotOR, when you made a dialogue choice, your character didn’t speak the line through voice acting, but the other characters would react as if you did. In Mass Effect, you choose from several options that give you the gist of what your response would be, rather than a full sentence (it’s also structured in a way that once you know how you typically respond to things, that type of response is always in the same spot so you don’t need to keep looking at the options), and Commander Shepard will speak the line. It’s very cinematic, and much more immersive than KotOR. Rather than making your protagonist silent in an effort to try to make them more relatable, BioWare instead chose to make Shepard an active participant in the conversations based on what you choose to have him (or her) say, which in my opinion makes Shepard much more relatable, and the connection between player and avatar is much stronger.

Rather than a piece of fiction where you’re told “Here is the story I am trying to tell,” BioWare has placed you in the setting and said “There’s a story here. Tell it however you want.” You can make Commander Shepard a ruthless badass with no regard for anything but himself. You can make Shepard the nicest person in the galaxy, going out of his way to help anyone who asks. Shepard can be male or female, and even romance different members of the SSV Normandy’s crew. There are places you must go to advance the story, but you can approach them in any order you wish, and the game will change accordingly. There are key decisions to make, decisions that will affect the galaxy as a whole, and the consequences are reflected in Mass Effect 2, and will be further in Mass Effect 3.

When you think about it, it’s an incredible way to tell a story; provide the framework and let the player decide the details based on their preferences. When you think about all the choices you make in the first game, which will change what you see in the second, which will again change when you play the third, there’s a staggeringly vast amount of ways for the story to play out. Penny Arcade’s Gabe posted a vague reference to ME2’s ending on his Twitter, and after receiving some angry posts in return, he told everyone to relax, because of the sheer amount of influence the player has on the story, there was almost no way anyone else would have the same ending as he did.

I’ve been hearing the same thing about Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 as well. A commenter on Kotaku mentioned that he and his friends were discussing the game, and none of them had experienced the same thing during their playthroughs. From what I’ve read, if your main character dies, the story will just shift to a different character’s perspective and keep on going.

This is where I think video games stand above any other medium when it comes to storytelling. Interactive fiction – truly interactive fiction – establishes a standard of immersion and personalization that a movie or a book simply cannot match due to the limitations of a printed word or a prerecorded video. The fact that we can have games where tiny decisions can change what happens hours down the line, and even in later installments of the series, really shows how far video games have come as a form of media. There will always be a place for Tetris and Mario, so don’t fool yourself into thinking they’ll ever be put away on the shelf. However, games like Mass Effect and Heavy Rain are taking large strides towards establishing video games as a form of entertainment as important to storytelling as literature and cinema.

Lunar: The Silver Star, Silver Star Story, Silver Star Story Complete, Lunar Legend, and now, Silver Star Harmony…

As you can probably guess from that list, the first game in the Lunar saga has a bit of a convoluted history, with more remakes and rereleases than you can shake a stick at. There’s alot of argument among fans about which version is the best, and non-veterans of the series generally have no clue where to begin as a result. Despite all this, Lunar’s popularity these days is still quite a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps it is even because of that thriving fanbase that we’re about to get yet another installment in the series: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Lunar: Silver Star, it centers around a young man named Alex Noa, who has always dreamed of becoming a Dragonmaster; Sworn protector of the Goddess Althena. By his side in their aptly-named hometown of Burg, is his sister-esque lifelong friend/lover, Luna. (Yeah, that’s always been weird to me, too. Here’s a girl that your parents took in and raised from when you were little, making her practically your sister, and… you’re in love with her. Huh.) Debauchery aside, you can probably surmise that within short time, young Alex gets his wish for an adventure, heads off to the big city with his best friend and girlfriend-sister, and alot of shit goes down. Don’t you dare complain to me about spoilers; Wouldn’t be much of an RPG if that weren’t the case, not to mention the fact that the game is well over a decade old.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Oh, well Christina, that sounds like standard RPG fare for any game made back in the 90s, so why shouldn’t I just go play Final Fantasy instead?” Well, to that I would slap you upside the head. Then, I would advise that you educate yourself on the greatness that is Lunar. Let’s break down the greatness in a point-by-point list that’s a bit heavy on alliteration, shall we?

Awesome Anime: At the time, these were a pretty big deal, and if I may be so bold, I say that these cutscenes are STILL pretty amazing-looking even by today’s standards. I just downloaded the Lunar: Silver Star Harmony demo off the Playstation Network to the PSP a few nights ago, and the cutscenes have DEFINITELY benefitted from the superior hardware. Even though it’s got the same animated cutscenes as the old Playstation version (Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, for those trying to learn), they look crisp and clean and shiny, just like a brand new car! (Excuse the cheese, please.)

Stellar Soundtracks: All of the Lunar: Silver Star Whatever games have had amazing soundtracks, composed by the talented Noriyuki Iwadare (and, in some cases, along with some of his comrades), but the audio is a bit of a hot-button issue that I’ve noticed from browsing different forums. I’m personally of the opinion that they’ve all been wonderful, but many argue that the original, Lunar: The Silver Star (for Sega CD) had the best music. You can be the judge for yourself, the soundtracks are relatively easy to find, but here’s a sample of my hands-down favorite instrumental Silver Star Story Complete:

If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that I said that was my favorite INSTRUMENTAL… which leads me to my next point…

Very Vocal!: The thing I love about Lunar, (and Lunar:SSH, even though I have only played the demo), is that it’s one of the earliest games I can remember playing that had an English dubbed vocal theme song at the beginning, and voice acting throughout. This is, again, a touchy subject, since some people prefer the old games’ theme song, and some people hate what they’ve heard from the upcoming game, but I strongly believe that 1) The Lunar:TSS and Lunar:SSSC dubs were fantastic for their time, whether they’ve aged well or not, and 2) The new Lunar:SSH dub isan excellent take on the characters and should not be written off by people who are wearing Nostalgia-Goggles(tm). If you’ll browse over to the official Lunar: Silver Star Harmony website, you can hear the new version of the theme song, as well as check out small voice clips of each character to see what I mean.

Perfect Plot: I don’t want to get into too much detail for those that haven’t played it yet, but please, don’t rush to write this off as just another “a young boy saves the world” JRPG. It’s so much more than that, because that’s barely scratching the surface of the story. There’s character depth and development, expansive backstory through NPCs and such, and plot twists like you wouldn’t believe!

There is, of course, so much more to the Lunar: Silver Star games than I’ve talked about, but I can only ramble on about its greatness for so long. I wouldn’t want to bore you!

So why am I posting this now? Is it significant or relevant at all? Well, yes! As a matter of fact, one month from now (that’s March 2nd, for you, er, intelligent folk..) XSEED is releasing Lunar: Silver Star Harmony for the PSP handheld system. It aims to be the “definitive” version of the Lunar: Silver Star saga, and honestly, if the demo I played is any indication, it may just succeed at that! I preordered the Limited Edition bundle off Amazon.com so I could get the soundtrack and “bromide” cards (basically postcard-size trading cards with pretty artwork of the girls from the game), so if you’re die-hard about these sorts of things like I am, you’ll probably want to do the same at some point soon.

Alot of people I see on the internet are whining about this re-release, because they “liked the old one way better-er” and are always wearing Nostalgia-Goggles(tm). Well, I think that’s pretty silly. If you like the old game, then play the old game. Don’t yell and cry that the new game isn’t identical to it in every way. It’s supposed to be a reinventing, not a direct port. Would you really rather keep the game away from new audiences, just so you can keep your memories exactly the way they are, and not make any new ones? Come on. In case you’re wondering what people are complaining about, here are the primary things I’ve seen:

“The theme song has different words, they’re awful! It’s supposed to be about love, not adventure!” – Uhh, hate to burst your collective bubbles, but actually the old song was originally about adventure, not love, in the original Japanese lyrics. The old translation, while good, was far from accurate. The new version is nearly a literal translation, and still fits the melody perfectly… as someone who’s worked with translating music before, I can say that THAT is a feat rarely accomplished!

“Nall doesn’t sound like a squeaky little girly cat anymore!” – Nall was always supposed to sound like a little boy. Listen to his original Japanese voice! Not to knock the original English voice actress of him, because at the time she sounded great, but I much prefer him to sound like a young male creature. (I will miss “Come on, get back on your feet!” immensely, though. *tear*) The same pretty much goes for complaints about any other new voices, too… Except maybe Ghaleon. His old voice was so perfect, but I’m sure I will learn to love New Ghaleon as well. His voice is totally different, but it seems… hmm… creamier?

“There’s some new bad guys and I don’t like that!” – Well, I admit I haven’t really looked into this, since I’m trying to avoid spoiling it for myself, and from the couple of sentences I’ve read by accident, it seems very spoiler-ish, so I can’t really say with a certainty if this is good or bad. However, I can’t stress enough that this is not intended to be a direct port. Change for the sake of change, if it affects the story too drastically, is a bad thing, but from most of the less-ragey reactions I’ve seen to whatever this may be, it sounds like it barely affects anything. So, try to keep an open mind, everyone. If you feel that strongly that you just want to play one of the older ones, then simply go play the older version of your choice.

In conclusion, I strongly encourage you to check out the Lunar series if you haven’t ever done so. If you’ve got a PSP, you should absolutely download the Lunar: Silver Star Harmony demo on the PSN, and pick up the game when it comes out on March 2nd. I don’t normally promote the hell out of games like this (Geez, you’d think I was getting paid or something! ((I’m not.)) (((Though I kinda wish I was.))) ), but having played the demo, heard the new voices and seen the new artwork, and read the website, and the XSEED blog, and discussed the game on the Facebook page… I can just tell that a TON of heart and soul have gone into making this game (both on the GAME ARTS designing side of things, and the SEED localization side), and the people who have worked on it genuinely care about the series they are handling, and the fans (new and old!) and on doing things RIGHT. If I may say so, it is VERY uncommon nowadays in the land of huge faceless corporations and making the biggest bucks, for companies to treat things with as much respect as I see this game getting. So for that, if nothing else I’ve said here convinces you… Please give it your support at least for the sake of the folks who made it!

[This article has been guest-written by Christina! We're working on getting me a Mii to correspond to my posts like Joe's, so thanks for your patience! I appreciate your feedback!]

EarthBound, released for the Super NES in 1995, is the very definition of a cult classic. Plenty of games have a strong fan following, but I can’t think of any other game that has a group of fans that are as passionate and dedicated as EarthBound does. Their love for the game, and the series as a whole, is so genuine and so deep, it’s a spectacular testament to creator Shigesato Itoi’s ability to strike a very personal chord with every player with his masterful storytelling.

Many of today’s EarthBound fans are in their mid to late 20s, having played the game for the first time when they were young. I’ve seen a few people on message boards talk about how playing through EarthBound once a year has been a tradition for them since the first time they booted it up.

I love EarthBound, as you can probably gather from the name and layout of the blog. It’s in my top 10 games of all time. Unlike many other fans, though, I don’t have fond memories of buying the game in 1995 and marveling at its giant box. I didn’t get to smell the scratch and sniff cards that came with the strategy guide. I don’t have the Mach Pizza Air Freshener. I didn’t play EarthBound when I was a kid. I didn’t get to play it until I was 24.

EarthBound is Christina’s favorite game, so when I moved here it was one of the first things we played together. I fell in love with it immediately. Now, I’ve played plenty of RPGs. I’ve played the Final Fantasies, the Dragon Quests, Chrono Trigger, all the greats. EarthBound, however, is something else. I couldn’t put it down. We plowed through it in about four days. Normally when we play a game or watch TV, she’s the one asking questions about the plot and I’m the one saying “Just watch!” but it was the other way around during our playthrough. I was absolutely enthralled.

So, is EarthBound’s strong following and glowing praise a result of fond memories baked in the nostalgia oven for 15 years? Absolutely not. I say it all the time, but the game is an absolute masterpiece. Actually, it’s like that painting of a Cambell’s soup can by Andy Warhol. It seems simple, and not everyone gets it, but it’s a magnificent work of art whose merit cannot be denied.

EarthBound, and the Mother series as a whole, is very hard to describe. The games have a sense of humor that is soaked into every pore of the experience. However, behind the silly jokes, behind the battles with giant piles of puke, and behind the bright graphics is a very real story about what it means to be a hero. It’s a very personal, very human story about learning who you are, about inner strength, and about the bonds we form with those around us.

Although the story is deceptively heavy, that doesn’t mean that EarthBound is a downer. Not in the least. The jokes are funny, and not just “funny for a video game” funny. There’s Beatles references all over the place, including an actual yellow submarine. It’s so off-the-wall ridiculous at some points, and so attention-grabbingly somber at others that you’re constantly on your toes wondering what it’s going to throw at you next.

The battle system, the “make-or-break” factor for any RPG, is genius and unlike anything else to this day. In any other game, if you get hit for 56 damage, you lose it all at once. In EarthBound, your HP meter scrolls like an odometer, so if a character takes a hit for 56 damage and they only have 40 hit points, and you can manage to heal them before their HP scrolls down to zero, they stay in the fight.

History lesson time: EarthBound is actually the second game in the Mother series, a trio of role-playing games designed by Japanese copywriter Shigesato Itoi. The series is named after the song “Mother” by John Lennon, as Itoi is a huge Beatles fan. Rather than a medieval setting with swords and knights, as was the norm for role-playing games of its time, the Mother series takes place in distinctively modern American settings with weapons like yo-yos and frying pans replacing swords and shields.

The first game, Mother, was released for the Famicom in 1989. Nintendo of America actually completely translated the game (renaming it Earth Bound, note the space) and had it all ready for a domestic release on the NES in 1991, but at the last minute pulled the plug on the project, citing the release of the Super NES as a reason not to invest in a release for an outdated console. In 1994, one of the prototype cartridges found its way to an online auction, and the ROM was extracted and circulated amongst fans as “EarthBound Zero.” I’m not going to explain how, but there ARE ways to play it if you look hard enough (it’s not that hard).

Mother 2 did see an American release as EarthBound, which you should know if you’ve been paying attention. The game came packed with a strategy guide and scratch and sniff cards all packed in a huge box, retailing for around $80, which was a lot of money for a video game back then. The game didn’t sell very well, despite Nintendo’s heavy marketing push, but the game came out around the same time as Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, so that probably had something to do with it.

Nintendo’s marketing focused on some of the more juvenile aspects of EarthBound, mainly the character Master Belch, who is a talking pile of puke. While their target demographic was young boys, their marketing completely missed the point of the game. In Japan, the emotional impact of the storyline takes the forefront. The Japanese taglines for the games are “No crying until the ending” for Mother, “Kids, grownups, and even young women” for Mother 2, and “Strange, funny and heartrending” for Mother 3. The American tagline for EarthBound? “This game stinks.”

Mother 3 was in development for the Nintendo 64 for quite some time, even appearing as a playable demo at Spaceworld 99. It received a lot of attention from the American press as well, with Nintendo planning to localize it as EarthBound 64. It was ultimately cancelled, due to the team’s inexperience with working with 3D graphics. Mother 3 was actually released for the Game Boy Advance six years later in Japan with no American release. Again, if you want to play it (and you SHOULD, it was my fifth best game of the past 10 years) there are ways.

In a way, I almost feel like an outsider when it comes to EarthBound fandom. I love the games immeasurably, but I don’t have the… experience, I guess is the word, that the dedicated fans have. I wasn’t heartbroken when EarthBound 64 was cancelled. I didn’t cross my fingers waiting for news of an American release of Mother 3 when it was announced for the Game Boy Advance. Hell, when I first played Smash Bros I didn’t even know who Ness WAS. I feel like that kid in school who went out and bought a shirt for a band that everyone else liked.

Despite my horrible, crippling insecurities, it is neat to see what EarthBound fans can do, even if I do feel like I’m mostly watching from the sidelines. A visit to Starmen.net on any given day will expose you to dozens of lovingly crafted drawings, sculptures, plushies, and stories born from the love of the fans. They create entire albums of songs inspired by the series. The EarthBound Anthology is a 268 page fan-made book, of which only 16 are in existence, created to send to various members of the gaming press and Nintendo’s head honchos as a tangible example of the community’s soul. A very dedicated team, including Clyde Mandelin (who I was a fan of long before I played EarthBound, as he did the translations for the subtitled Dragon Ball DVDs) created a translation patch for Mother 3, allowing all English speaking fans a chance to finally experience the solemn tale of Tazmily Village.

I can’t take any credit for any of the community’s successes. If the EarthBound fanbase is a sports team, I’m the guy in the stands with the giant foam finger and painted chest. Despite that, though, it’s very interesting to feel what I feel about the series, knowing the emotions I went through (I cried at the end of Mother 3, and yes, you would too), and knowing that it’s only a fraction of what they feel. I admire, and actually kind of envy, their spirit.

Unfortunately, due to potential legal issues, it’s very unlikely that EarthBound will ever see a Virtual Console release on Wii. It’s an astounding, crushing shame, too, because there are so many more people who would fall in love with it if they were ever given the opportunity. I urge you to do what you can to track down a copy (eBay is a good place to start) and give it a shot. You’ll be glad you did.

As the unstoppable juggernaut of EarthBound fandom keeps steamrolling ahead, I’ll be close behind with my foam finger.