DON'T HIT YOURSELF IN THE FACE WITH THINGS THAT ARE ON FIRE.
Oh man, I had so much fun tonight. ^___^
We went down to the waterfront to do some poi (and rope dart! *flails*) on fire to honour Lindsay's return from Germany. However, since Natal Day (our city's birthday) is coming up, the Waterfront was MASSIVELY busy- there was a tent with a live band, lots of people milling around, the cruise ships were in, ect. So we gathered a crowd, but not just any crowd- it was an admiring crowd. So we put the hat out and were totally showered with money. There's seriously no art like the art of busking. We swing around fire on street corners and make $60 bucks for being irresponsible teenagers. Except that we are responsible. For the most part. We know fire saftey and everything!
AND THEN I WENT AND SMACKED MYSELF IN THE FACE WITH MY ROPE DART WHILE IT WAS ON FIRE.
But I was cool about it. The crowd cheered, because apparently seeing five foot tall girls get smacked in the face with flaming wicks counts as a viable form of entertainment. *sigh* It actually hurt less than I thought it would- my lips just felt a little chapped for a while and I had a soot moutache because I'm awesome that way. ^___^;;
And I know I'm going to get lectures about being more careful with my rope dart, but you know what- the problem I have is that I am freaking terrified of hitting people. I have never hit anyone (well, except that one time with Adam, but that was with my OLD rope dart. And the second time was on purpose), but everyone acts so damn EDGY around me even though I'm pretty good at judging distances with the thing, but NO ONE trusts me and it makes me all nervous and I subconciously start trying to keep my arms closer to my body and thus FUCK UP JAWSOMELY. I'm not trying to brush it off- it is a problem that I'm going to have to work on if we're ever going to perform on small stages. But now that I know what the problem is, I can at least fix it. I always thought that it was kind of strange that I didn't start fucking up REALLY good until we started performing. The only time I can remember screwing up half as bad as I have the last few times I've lit up was the one time I nearly gave myself the concussion doing the quardruple neck wrap followed with a backwards jump. -___-;;
SO JENN DOESN'T PERFORM WELL UNDER PRESSURE. HA HA HA. IT FIGURES.
But at least this has been a good learning experience. Now we know for certain that SMACKING OURSELVES IN THE FACE WITH FIRE!!!! will no permenantly disfigure us nor will it cause us any particular discomfort. However, we should still aim to do our very best NOT to SMACK OURSELVES IN THE FACE WITH FIRE.
... no matter how charming the audience thinks it is.
In other news, we also met some other people who were interested in Fire Arts. There were a few travellers from Newfoundland who were sort of in the process of learning it. And then there was the guy, who shall from this point onwards, be referred to as the AWESOME GUY. He was a cook on a really fancy yacht belonging to some rich guy he wasn't allowed to identify. AND HE DID STAFF. HE DID STAFF REALLY, REALLY WELL. He just randomly lit up and started performing in the middle of the area we were in. He eventually came over and joined us and we were all like: "OMG. STAFF. WE NEVER MEET STAFF PEOPLE." He was just... really, really cool. Even though he used crappy fuel (WE LIKE OUR CITROLITE. IT SMELLS NICE.). When we were all out of fuel, we chatted with him for a while and he went back to his ship. Fifteen minutes later, he came back (in his cute chef outfit XD) and asked us for our hat. I just sort of shrugged, and took my hat off and he chucked two twenty dollar bills in. And then left.
THAT'S RIGHT. FOURTY DOLLARS. Like, holy crap. We were all like: "GIVE US FOURTY MORE AND WE'LL GIVE YOU SEX TOO!"except, y'know, not.
So yeah, he was awesome.
I love busking. Soooo much. ^______^
And I beat it in two sittings. It was easy except for a few of the boss fights (I am ashamed to admit that there was one I actually could not beat and had to get Adam to do it for me, but everything AFTER that was really, really simply. Hell, I didn't even TRY at the final boss -__-;; I ate my lunch instead). However, this game DID cause me to collapse in a puddle of fangirl goo thanks to EXPONENTIAL INCREASE IN MILITARY PERSONELLE!
Seriously, the military characters made this game for me. So much more Roy. So much more ARMSTRONG. Hawkeye being awesome. AND HAVOC. EXISTING. AND NEEDING TO BE RESCUED.
So, let me just do my usual rant/review thing for those who are interested and/or are curious:
Gameplay: Meh. It was fun. I'm not going to say it was EXCELLENT because, y'know, it wasn't, however it wasn't substandard. I was rushing through and didn't really take my time to learn the battle system inside and out, but it WAS still a lot of fun. In the first game I got sick of fighting halfway through and was just kind of hanging on until the end because I wanted toshoot Roy in the face with a cannon uh, see how the story ended. By the time I got to the sewer level, I was avoiding every single fucking battle because it was SOOOO BORING. And then my levels suffered and the next few bosses were a lot more difficult than they should have been.
In THIS game I killed EVERY SINGLE ENEMY in the entire game (exept the enemies in endlessly spawning rooms) right up until the final boss. I also let Al die less because there were actually draw backs to letting him fall unconcious every three seconds.
... he still didn't get any of my bonus points, though. Silly Al- extra stats are only for BIG BROTHERS.
And the most drastic improvement (and the one that I appreciated the most) was the fact that the stuff you could randomly transmute was actually USEFUL. The first game had so much random shit lying around all over the place and next to none of it did. I used Ed-weapons and cannons/guns/ect. in the first game, and that was about it.
So yeah, it was well made. For an anime tie-in. There weren't as many ways to kill Al, which disappointed me (shut up! He's so trusting! You would do it too!), BUT I did finally get to SHOOT ROY IN THE FACE WITH A CANNON. Not only did I SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE WITH A CANNON I also shot him in the groin, smacked a gaint, spiked ball into him and ran over him with a bulldozer. And he STILL gave me his gloves. Now THAT'S true love. XD
The Story: Started off like the manga. We did Lior. We did Tucker. We did Scar (or, uh, Scar did us. Quick, hard and messy. Ouch) and then we went to Resembool and everything changed drastically. The overall plot dittered away into something about random OCs, but unlike Armony, I found myself caring about Crowley, Elma and... uh, what's-his-face. The old guy. ^___^;; Not as much as I cared about the series-characters, but enough to keep me interested in the game for reasons aside from fan-service-ness.
The story had a lot to do with an ancient civilization that was brought down by alchemy. It also had a lot to do with the way people would destroy themselves and those around them for love. Y'know, the standard FMA stuff. I think the reason that this game's plot totally kicked the ass of 'Broken Angel's' plot is that it tied into Ed and Al's actual character arc. Sure, what happened with Armony and her father was OH SO TRAGICALdon't make me laugh. Ha ha., but what happened with Crowley was at least similiar to what Ed and Al did. Crowley even tried to convince Ed that they were alike, being that they had both used forbidden alchemy to attempt to revive the ones they loved the most. But Ed only lost a few limbs- Crowley sacrificed his soul.
Or... uh, something like that. But the point was that Crowley had seen the gate. He, like Ed and Izumi, clapped to transmute and compared Edward's eyes to his. Anyone who's seen enough of the anime knows that that means. I thought it was cool that they just kind of used that without specifically stating... oh, whatever. I'll shut up now.
And there was a PHILISOPHER'S STONE in the game. It was HUGE, but apparently imperfect. And Ed and Al just kind of BLEW IT UP. WITHOUT EVEN STOPPING TO CONSIDER WHAT IT WAS. I laughed a lot.
One of my favorite moments in the game actually concerned one of the original characters. The old guy, who's name I can't remember for the life of me, was doing the whole: "Leave me here as the ruins collapse around me. I wish to die with my former comrades. You're young, but I'm old. Please, I've made up my mind. Let me die. ect. ect." act and Ed has this AWESOME line that went something to the effect of: "Listen, I want to sleep well tonight, so there's no way I'm letting you sacrifice your life for some stupid reason like that." Oh well, I can't remember what it was, but it was really good. And really ED. The dub tends to fail really awesomely at capturing Ed's personality (he's so... witty. Ed isn't witty. He's just kind of harsh. And scientific. And short tempered), so I appreciated him forcing Al to carry that old man out of those collapsing ruins kicking and screaming. ^____^
The game also made me think about some of the overall themes of the series, which was weird. In the ending video Roy had some line that I didn't quite listen to because Leslie and I were trying to count the ants on my floor (holy heck, there are a lot of ants downstairs. I pity poor Adam), but it was all like: "And it's the same story- a man becomes a monster all in the name of love." or, um, something. It was very grave and Roy-ish. But I had never realized that one of the cruxes of that series was that people sometimes do very brave and admirable things for the ones they love, but then again, they also do horrible, evil and downright stupid things for the same reason. Afterall, homoculus are monsters created by people's love. I mean, the strongest component of the series is the component of brotherly love- the lengths Ed and Al go to for each other. People commit human transmutation because they wish to see their loved ones again- Dante does it all because of her obsessive, all-consuming love of Hohenheim. Roy's motives are a bit more abstract- he loves people. He loves his subordinates, he loves the Elric brothers. Hughes loved Roy (and I totally mean that platonically, people -__-;;) and died for him. So yeah, what I'm trying to say is this: FMA may not be a romance-filled series, but it is DEFINITELY a loved filled series.
AND THAT WAS SO INCOHERENT THAT IT WASN'T COHERENT.
The Voice Acting: I don't like the dub of Fullmetal Alchemist. This is because FMA is one of the few anime series where I think that they honestly got it right the first time. I could go on forever about how I usually prefers dubs (Slayers, Cowboy Bebop. Evangelion, ect.) but in my opinion, FMA had some of the best voice work in any anime series.
However, after playing this game, I've decided that the dub isn't HORRIBLE. I just don't like it. To me, the english voices do not sound like the characters I have grown to love through 51 episodesand hundreds of fanfics. But I'm going to rant about each character induvidually to explain why:
Ed: I came, once again, to the same conclusion that I did after playing the first game. Vic ACTS the part well. Some of the "short rants" are awkward, but yes, at times he does capture the essence of Ed best he can. However, it's almost as if his voice only scrapes the surface. Vic can do Ed to an extent, but he still just sounds like someone trying to act Edward Elric. A good dub should make you believe that the voice you're hearing IS that character even if you saw the Japanese version first. For example, I saw Slayers in Japanese first and when I first heard David Moo, I fell of my chair from the sheer pain of it (with Cat as my witness). But by the end of TRY David Moo WAS Xellos. The Japanese actor just couldn't compare anymore because I had completely fallen for Moo's snide, snarky, annoying nasal whine. THAT was Xellos Metallium in my mind. Unfortunately, in my mind, Romi Paku is Edward Elric. Edward Elric is that sloppy, lazy, raspy and almost slurred speech pattern interspersed with moments of manic energy. It's that high pitched, grating yelp. It's that low, dangerous tone that is far more jaded and bitter than any fifteen year old has a right to be.
I think a lot of it may have to do with the dub personalities perhaps being written slightly differently than the original characters. In the game, certainly, a LOT of the dialogue did not ring true to the characters I know. It's very similar to the manga-anime transition. The dub has made another slight alteration. As I mentioned before, there is something quite unnerving about Ed making wisecracks and puns every three seconds (as Cat said: "Oh my god! He's Roy!" not that Roy is all about the wisecracks and puns, but hell- it would be more in character for him to do it, at least o__O).
Al: Leslie seems to have a bigger problem with Al's voice than I do. It just seems to me that they figured: "Hey, Al sounds like a ten year old boy. Let's give the role to an ACTUAL ten year old boy." Aaron Dismuke certainly can act well for, y'know, being ten years old. He sounds like he SHOULD sound like Al. His voice could certainly be an English-speaking equvialent of Rei. In Al's case, it's all in the acting. Al sounds so deadpan and matter of fact ALL OF THE TIME. Al is not dead pan. Nor is he sarcastic. Sometimes he is exasperated with his brother, but for the most part he is VERY supportive. He doesn't roll his eyes when Ed's being a moron, although he will hang back and sigh occasionally. In the game, it seemed as if they were trying to make Al look a HELL of a lot more mature than Ed. Which may APPEAR to be true, but don't forget- Al has his moments too. Socking Ed across the room over that whole cat business in episode 13 comes to mind. Al does not sound sickeningly cute all the time because he's a child's voice in a giant suit of armour. Al sounds sickeningly cute all of the time because he IS sickeningly cute. He is ridiculously polite, ridiculoudly deferential, ridiculously naive, and tough when you least expect it. *sigh*
Roy: Argh. I hate, hate, hate Roy's English voice. Everyone else's I got used to and even found things about which I liked. But Roy's voice simply makes me CRINGE everytime he has a line. Gah. I couldn't figure out what it was- I had to pop in one of my FMA tapes and watch a bunch of Roy scenes to figure out what exactly was so BAD about it that I absolutely could not even PROCESS it as Roy Mustang's voice. I thought I was just being picky about my favorite character, but no. Here's the problem:
Travis Willingham sounds so... serious. And exasperated. And HEROIC. In the original, Roy just kind of sounds bored all of the time. And when he's being a moron, he really SOUNDS like he's barely surpressing giggles. In the dub, he's just kinda... always the same. -____-;; And he had some REALLY silly moments in that game.
And... okay, I can't properally defend my position on this one. I don't like Roy's dub voice. At all. I can't stand hearing it. I totally have to go watch Roy having post-traumatic-stress-disorder at Ed to make up for having heard it so thoroughly.
Oh, wait. I think I know what it is. WAAAAAY too much self-absorbed arrogance, not enough genuine smarm. Or something.
I just don't like it. Shut up.
Hawkeye: Is excellent. OMG. I love her dub voice. A lot. And thus don't have much to say on the subject.
Armstrong: Sucked in the first game, however the actor has really settled into the role and he is FANTASTIC. Seriously, when he starts on his crazy triades and does that up and down thing on the "Armstrong family tradition!" line, I cannot tell the difference between his voice and the original voice. Just. Yes. Perfect for the role. ^____^
Winry and Pinako: She's acted a bit differently than she was in the original, but I find myself liking it a lot. I didn't have any complaints about her voice. There wasn't really enough of her for me to really judge it THAT well, but I liked what I heard.
I liked Pinako's voice. It was standard "eccentric old woman" voice, but it worked well on her. It was top notch acting. I kind of miss her severe thing in the original, but the dub voice works really well and in a completely different way, which is always nice.
Hughes and Havoc: Both had voices that weren't horrible, but also weren't fantastic. Hughes just sounds like a guy. He sounds very fatherly I suppose (he was all like: "Remember, Edward, if Scar's stalking you, come to a trusted adult!"). His voice lacked that shifty eccentricty that makes Hughes- SQUEALING about his family one second, deadly serious and nearly frightening the next. The actor can't seem to make the on-a-dime transition as well as he should, but I'm assuming that's something that takes a bit of getting used to. Hughes has a seriously bipolar way of speaking. I'm sure this guy COULD be good- I'd have to see later episodes to really make a decision.
Once again, Havoc's could have been worse... but it also could have been better. It was just "meh", which saddened me because I love Havoc so much. ^_______^
Scar: Didn't hear very much of it. But I didn't like what I heard. He wasn't growly enough. I dare say, he wasn't TOUGH enough. Because we all kow that SCAR IS TUFF. GRRR.
The Sins: Envy was... okay, actually. o__O Lust was trying a bit too hard to drip sex without really realizing that Lust does not in fact drip sex. That's Colonel Mustang's bit. Gluttony = no. Just... no.
And the Writing: There was a lot of, erm, interesting dialogue in this game. For your pleasure I copied some of it down, along with commentary:
Although Ed's wisecracks weirded me out, there were two particular gems near the beginning of the game that made me giggle. A lot. And sincerely:
"If beating up crazy cultists is wrong, then I don't WANT to be right!"
"Could you speak a bit louder? I didn't quite catch that incriminating mumble."
And then, of course, FMA suffers from a tried and true dub convention: UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY DIALOGUE. The following exchange would have been perfectly innocent had Vic not screwed up on the inflictions:
Al: *after beating up some thugs* "What should we do with them?"
Ed: "Screw them! They'll be out cold for a few hours!"
Yes, I know that's not what he meant. But it really sounded like he did.
And then the game sets out on it's other quest- to convince us that Roy and Ed, despite the readily apparent age difference, are sleeping together:
Roy: "I thought I ordered you to report directly to headquarters, Fullmetal." *SMARM*
Ed: "Shut up! If only security was as tight as your ass!"
And... no. Just, no Ed. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Do not discuss these things in front of your brother, plz kthx. He's young and innocent and does not want to know whatever it is that you know about your commanding officers ass. Seriously. -___-;;
Promptly followed by:
Roy: "Fullmetal, what is this?"
Ed: "I told you, already. It's a ring."
Roy: "I'm sorry, but I cannot accept this gift from another man."
Ed: "W-w- IT'S NOT A GIFT, YOU MORON!"
But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part is that Hughes, upon realizing that Ed was not, in fact, attempting to seduce the Colonel decided that Ed must have designs on his TWO YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. Quoth Al: "Geeze, Ed. She's only two. You sure do start young!" Quoth me: "Sprofle."
Imagine that- ED robbing the cradle? My new OTP is SO OBVIOUSLY EdxAlicia.
But, in the end, I decided to break it off with Roy. Even though he GAVE ME HIS GLOVES, he still wouldn't accept my ring. And then he was a jack ass while I was angsting. And he kept STEALING MY GODDAMN KILLS and then CALLING ME A FOOL. Oh, I saw how that relationship was. Let me tell you, Edward Elric is no man's bitch. Except that he totally is.
And then there's always those lovely lines that you can totally take out of context:
Al: "B-but wasn't there any other way we could have handled her?"
Ed: "It was what she wanted."
But, the best line in this entire game HAD to be:
"It's hotter than two chimeras mating in a boiler room!" - Ed
WHERE DID EDWARD LEARN TO SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!Obviously while he was inspecting the tightness of Roy's ass.
And while we're on the suibject of OMGWTF dialogue, the dub managed to make EVERYTHING Armstrong said sound totally, distressingly cracktastic. And by cracktastic, I mean... wrong. Just, so wrong. But I still love Armstrong with a love that is pure and true. ^____^
Random Notes: Havoc needs a raise. End of story.
Also, you can pull weapons straight out of the ground with alchemy in this game. When you do so, a menu comes up, so Edward just claps his hands and waits for you to select the applicable weapon. Thus, if you're bored, it IS possible to play "If you're happy and you know it, CLAP your hands!" in this game.
Which I did.
Many times.
And then I played: "If you're happy and you know it, trasmute a cannon and shoot at your brother for fun!"
So, erm, that was the second Fullmetal Alchemist game as according to Cephied Variable. I need sleep. Right now.
We went down to the waterfront to do some poi (and rope dart! *flails*) on fire to honour Lindsay's return from Germany. However, since Natal Day (our city's birthday) is coming up, the Waterfront was MASSIVELY busy- there was a tent with a live band, lots of people milling around, the cruise ships were in, ect. So we gathered a crowd, but not just any crowd- it was an admiring crowd. So we put the hat out and were totally showered with money. There's seriously no art like the art of busking. We swing around fire on street corners and make $60 bucks for being irresponsible teenagers. Except that we are responsible. For the most part. We know fire saftey and everything!
AND THEN I WENT AND SMACKED MYSELF IN THE FACE WITH MY ROPE DART WHILE IT WAS ON FIRE.
But I was cool about it. The crowd cheered, because apparently seeing five foot tall girls get smacked in the face with flaming wicks counts as a viable form of entertainment. *sigh* It actually hurt less than I thought it would- my lips just felt a little chapped for a while and I had a soot moutache because I'm awesome that way. ^___^;;
And I know I'm going to get lectures about being more careful with my rope dart, but you know what- the problem I have is that I am freaking terrified of hitting people. I have never hit anyone (well, except that one time with Adam, but that was with my OLD rope dart. And the second time was on purpose), but everyone acts so damn EDGY around me even though I'm pretty good at judging distances with the thing, but NO ONE trusts me and it makes me all nervous and I subconciously start trying to keep my arms closer to my body and thus FUCK UP JAWSOMELY. I'm not trying to brush it off- it is a problem that I'm going to have to work on if we're ever going to perform on small stages. But now that I know what the problem is, I can at least fix it. I always thought that it was kind of strange that I didn't start fucking up REALLY good until we started performing. The only time I can remember screwing up half as bad as I have the last few times I've lit up was the one time I nearly gave myself the concussion doing the quardruple neck wrap followed with a backwards jump. -___-;;
SO JENN DOESN'T PERFORM WELL UNDER PRESSURE. HA HA HA. IT FIGURES.
But at least this has been a good learning experience. Now we know for certain that SMACKING OURSELVES IN THE FACE WITH FIRE!!!! will no permenantly disfigure us nor will it cause us any particular discomfort. However, we should still aim to do our very best NOT to SMACK OURSELVES IN THE FACE WITH FIRE.
... no matter how charming the audience thinks it is.
In other news, we also met some other people who were interested in Fire Arts. There were a few travellers from Newfoundland who were sort of in the process of learning it. And then there was the guy, who shall from this point onwards, be referred to as the AWESOME GUY. He was a cook on a really fancy yacht belonging to some rich guy he wasn't allowed to identify. AND HE DID STAFF. HE DID STAFF REALLY, REALLY WELL. He just randomly lit up and started performing in the middle of the area we were in. He eventually came over and joined us and we were all like: "OMG. STAFF. WE NEVER MEET STAFF PEOPLE." He was just... really, really cool. Even though he used crappy fuel (WE LIKE OUR CITROLITE. IT SMELLS NICE.). When we were all out of fuel, we chatted with him for a while and he went back to his ship. Fifteen minutes later, he came back (in his cute chef outfit XD) and asked us for our hat. I just sort of shrugged, and took my hat off and he chucked two twenty dollar bills in. And then left.
THAT'S RIGHT. FOURTY DOLLARS. Like, holy crap. We were all like: "GIVE US FOURTY MORE AND WE'LL GIVE YOU SEX TOO!"
So yeah, he was awesome.
I love busking. Soooo much. ^______^
And I beat it in two sittings. It was easy except for a few of the boss fights (I am ashamed to admit that there was one I actually could not beat and had to get Adam to do it for me, but everything AFTER that was really, really simply. Hell, I didn't even TRY at the final boss -__-;; I ate my lunch instead). However, this game DID cause me to collapse in a puddle of fangirl goo thanks to EXPONENTIAL INCREASE IN MILITARY PERSONELLE!
Seriously, the military characters made this game for me. So much more Roy. So much more ARMSTRONG. Hawkeye being awesome. AND HAVOC. EXISTING. AND NEEDING TO BE RESCUED.
So, let me just do my usual rant/review thing for those who are interested and/or are curious:
Gameplay: Meh. It was fun. I'm not going to say it was EXCELLENT because, y'know, it wasn't, however it wasn't substandard. I was rushing through and didn't really take my time to learn the battle system inside and out, but it WAS still a lot of fun. In the first game I got sick of fighting halfway through and was just kind of hanging on until the end because I wanted to
In THIS game I killed EVERY SINGLE ENEMY in the entire game (exept the enemies in endlessly spawning rooms) right up until the final boss. I also let Al die less because there were actually draw backs to letting him fall unconcious every three seconds.
... he still didn't get any of my bonus points, though. Silly Al- extra stats are only for BIG BROTHERS.
And the most drastic improvement (and the one that I appreciated the most) was the fact that the stuff you could randomly transmute was actually USEFUL. The first game had so much random shit lying around all over the place and next to none of it did. I used Ed-weapons and cannons/guns/ect. in the first game, and that was about it.
So yeah, it was well made. For an anime tie-in. There weren't as many ways to kill Al, which disappointed me (shut up! He's so trusting! You would do it too!), BUT I did finally get to SHOOT ROY IN THE FACE WITH A CANNON. Not only did I SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE WITH A CANNON I also shot him in the groin, smacked a gaint, spiked ball into him and ran over him with a bulldozer. And he STILL gave me his gloves. Now THAT'S true love. XD
The Story: Started off like the manga. We did Lior. We did Tucker. We did Scar (or, uh, Scar did us. Quick, hard and messy. Ouch) and then we went to Resembool and everything changed drastically. The overall plot dittered away into something about random OCs, but unlike Armony, I found myself caring about Crowley, Elma and... uh, what's-his-face. The old guy. ^___^;; Not as much as I cared about the series-characters, but enough to keep me interested in the game for reasons aside from fan-service-ness.
The story had a lot to do with an ancient civilization that was brought down by alchemy. It also had a lot to do with the way people would destroy themselves and those around them for love. Y'know, the standard FMA stuff. I think the reason that this game's plot totally kicked the ass of 'Broken Angel's' plot is that it tied into Ed and Al's actual character arc. Sure, what happened with Armony and her father was OH SO TRAGICAL
Or... uh, something like that. But the point was that Crowley had seen the gate. He, like Ed and Izumi, clapped to transmute and compared Edward's eyes to his. Anyone who's seen enough of the anime knows that that means. I thought it was cool that they just kind of used that without specifically stating... oh, whatever. I'll shut up now.
And there was a PHILISOPHER'S STONE in the game. It was HUGE, but apparently imperfect. And Ed and Al just kind of BLEW IT UP. WITHOUT EVEN STOPPING TO CONSIDER WHAT IT WAS. I laughed a lot.
One of my favorite moments in the game actually concerned one of the original characters. The old guy, who's name I can't remember for the life of me, was doing the whole: "Leave me here as the ruins collapse around me. I wish to die with my former comrades. You're young, but I'm old. Please, I've made up my mind. Let me die. ect. ect." act and Ed has this AWESOME line that went something to the effect of: "Listen, I want to sleep well tonight, so there's no way I'm letting you sacrifice your life for some stupid reason like that." Oh well, I can't remember what it was, but it was really good. And really ED. The dub tends to fail really awesomely at capturing Ed's personality (he's so... witty. Ed isn't witty. He's just kind of harsh. And scientific. And short tempered), so I appreciated him forcing Al to carry that old man out of those collapsing ruins kicking and screaming. ^____^
The game also made me think about some of the overall themes of the series, which was weird. In the ending video Roy had some line that I didn't quite listen to because Leslie and I were trying to count the ants on my floor (holy heck, there are a lot of ants downstairs. I pity poor Adam), but it was all like: "And it's the same story- a man becomes a monster all in the name of love." or, um, something. It was very grave and Roy-ish. But I had never realized that one of the cruxes of that series was that people sometimes do very brave and admirable things for the ones they love, but then again, they also do horrible, evil and downright stupid things for the same reason. Afterall, homoculus are monsters created by people's love. I mean, the strongest component of the series is the component of brotherly love- the lengths Ed and Al go to for each other. People commit human transmutation because they wish to see their loved ones again- Dante does it all because of her obsessive, all-consuming love of Hohenheim. Roy's motives are a bit more abstract- he loves people. He loves his subordinates, he loves the Elric brothers. Hughes loved Roy (and I totally mean that platonically, people -__-;;) and died for him. So yeah, what I'm trying to say is this: FMA may not be a romance-filled series, but it is DEFINITELY a loved filled series.
AND THAT WAS SO INCOHERENT THAT IT WASN'T COHERENT.
The Voice Acting: I don't like the dub of Fullmetal Alchemist. This is because FMA is one of the few anime series where I think that they honestly got it right the first time. I could go on forever about how I usually prefers dubs (Slayers, Cowboy Bebop. Evangelion, ect.) but in my opinion, FMA had some of the best voice work in any anime series.
However, after playing this game, I've decided that the dub isn't HORRIBLE. I just don't like it. To me, the english voices do not sound like the characters I have grown to love through 51 episodes
Ed: I came, once again, to the same conclusion that I did after playing the first game. Vic ACTS the part well. Some of the "short rants" are awkward, but yes, at times he does capture the essence of Ed best he can. However, it's almost as if his voice only scrapes the surface. Vic can do Ed to an extent, but he still just sounds like someone trying to act Edward Elric. A good dub should make you believe that the voice you're hearing IS that character even if you saw the Japanese version first. For example, I saw Slayers in Japanese first and when I first heard David Moo, I fell of my chair from the sheer pain of it (with Cat as my witness). But by the end of TRY David Moo WAS Xellos. The Japanese actor just couldn't compare anymore because I had completely fallen for Moo's snide, snarky, annoying nasal whine. THAT was Xellos Metallium in my mind. Unfortunately, in my mind, Romi Paku is Edward Elric. Edward Elric is that sloppy, lazy, raspy and almost slurred speech pattern interspersed with moments of manic energy. It's that high pitched, grating yelp. It's that low, dangerous tone that is far more jaded and bitter than any fifteen year old has a right to be.
I think a lot of it may have to do with the dub personalities perhaps being written slightly differently than the original characters. In the game, certainly, a LOT of the dialogue did not ring true to the characters I know. It's very similar to the manga-anime transition. The dub has made another slight alteration. As I mentioned before, there is something quite unnerving about Ed making wisecracks and puns every three seconds (as Cat said: "Oh my god! He's Roy!" not that Roy is all about the wisecracks and puns, but hell- it would be more in character for him to do it, at least o__O).
Al: Leslie seems to have a bigger problem with Al's voice than I do. It just seems to me that they figured: "Hey, Al sounds like a ten year old boy. Let's give the role to an ACTUAL ten year old boy." Aaron Dismuke certainly can act well for, y'know, being ten years old. He sounds like he SHOULD sound like Al. His voice could certainly be an English-speaking equvialent of Rei. In Al's case, it's all in the acting. Al sounds so deadpan and matter of fact ALL OF THE TIME. Al is not dead pan. Nor is he sarcastic. Sometimes he is exasperated with his brother, but for the most part he is VERY supportive. He doesn't roll his eyes when Ed's being a moron, although he will hang back and sigh occasionally. In the game, it seemed as if they were trying to make Al look a HELL of a lot more mature than Ed. Which may APPEAR to be true, but don't forget- Al has his moments too. Socking Ed across the room over that whole cat business in episode 13 comes to mind. Al does not sound sickeningly cute all the time because he's a child's voice in a giant suit of armour. Al sounds sickeningly cute all of the time because he IS sickeningly cute. He is ridiculously polite, ridiculoudly deferential, ridiculously naive, and tough when you least expect it. *sigh*
Roy: Argh. I hate, hate, hate Roy's English voice. Everyone else's I got used to and even found things about which I liked. But Roy's voice simply makes me CRINGE everytime he has a line. Gah. I couldn't figure out what it was- I had to pop in one of my FMA tapes and watch a bunch of Roy scenes to figure out what exactly was so BAD about it that I absolutely could not even PROCESS it as Roy Mustang's voice. I thought I was just being picky about my favorite character, but no. Here's the problem:
Travis Willingham sounds so... serious. And exasperated. And HEROIC. In the original, Roy just kind of sounds bored all of the time. And when he's being a moron, he really SOUNDS like he's barely surpressing giggles. In the dub, he's just kinda... always the same. -____-;; And he had some REALLY silly moments in that game.
And... okay, I can't properally defend my position on this one. I don't like Roy's dub voice. At all. I can't stand hearing it. I totally have to go watch Roy having post-traumatic-stress-disorder at Ed to make up for having heard it so thoroughly.
Oh, wait. I think I know what it is. WAAAAAY too much self-absorbed arrogance, not enough genuine smarm. Or something.
I just don't like it. Shut up.
Hawkeye: Is excellent. OMG. I love her dub voice. A lot. And thus don't have much to say on the subject.
Armstrong: Sucked in the first game, however the actor has really settled into the role and he is FANTASTIC. Seriously, when he starts on his crazy triades and does that up and down thing on the "Armstrong family tradition!" line, I cannot tell the difference between his voice and the original voice. Just. Yes. Perfect for the role. ^____^
Winry and Pinako: She's acted a bit differently than she was in the original, but I find myself liking it a lot. I didn't have any complaints about her voice. There wasn't really enough of her for me to really judge it THAT well, but I liked what I heard.
I liked Pinako's voice. It was standard "eccentric old woman" voice, but it worked well on her. It was top notch acting. I kind of miss her severe thing in the original, but the dub voice works really well and in a completely different way, which is always nice.
Hughes and Havoc: Both had voices that weren't horrible, but also weren't fantastic. Hughes just sounds like a guy. He sounds very fatherly I suppose (he was all like: "Remember, Edward, if Scar's stalking you, come to a trusted adult!"). His voice lacked that shifty eccentricty that makes Hughes- SQUEALING about his family one second, deadly serious and nearly frightening the next. The actor can't seem to make the on-a-dime transition as well as he should, but I'm assuming that's something that takes a bit of getting used to. Hughes has a seriously bipolar way of speaking. I'm sure this guy COULD be good- I'd have to see later episodes to really make a decision.
Once again, Havoc's could have been worse... but it also could have been better. It was just "meh", which saddened me because I love Havoc so much. ^_______^
Scar: Didn't hear very much of it. But I didn't like what I heard. He wasn't growly enough. I dare say, he wasn't TOUGH enough. Because we all kow that SCAR IS TUFF. GRRR.
The Sins: Envy was... okay, actually. o__O Lust was trying a bit too hard to drip sex without really realizing that Lust does not in fact drip sex. That's Colonel Mustang's bit. Gluttony = no. Just... no.
And the Writing: There was a lot of, erm, interesting dialogue in this game. For your pleasure I copied some of it down, along with commentary:
Although Ed's wisecracks weirded me out, there were two particular gems near the beginning of the game that made me giggle. A lot. And sincerely:
"If beating up crazy cultists is wrong, then I don't WANT to be right!"
"Could you speak a bit louder? I didn't quite catch that incriminating mumble."
And then, of course, FMA suffers from a tried and true dub convention: UNINTENTIONALLY FUNNY DIALOGUE. The following exchange would have been perfectly innocent had Vic not screwed up on the inflictions:
Al: *after beating up some thugs* "What should we do with them?"
Ed: "Screw them! They'll be out cold for a few hours!"
Yes, I know that's not what he meant. But it really sounded like he did.
And then the game sets out on it's other quest- to convince us that Roy and Ed, despite the readily apparent age difference, are sleeping together:
Roy: "I thought I ordered you to report directly to headquarters, Fullmetal." *SMARM*
Ed: "Shut up! If only security was as tight as your ass!"
And... no. Just, no Ed. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Do not discuss these things in front of your brother, plz kthx. He's young and innocent and does not want to know whatever it is that you know about your commanding officers ass. Seriously. -___-;;
Promptly followed by:
Roy: "Fullmetal, what is this?"
Ed: "I told you, already. It's a ring."
Roy: "I'm sorry, but I cannot accept this gift from another man."
Ed: "W-w- IT'S NOT A GIFT, YOU MORON!"
But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part is that Hughes, upon realizing that Ed was not, in fact, attempting to seduce the Colonel decided that Ed must have designs on his TWO YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. Quoth Al: "Geeze, Ed. She's only two. You sure do start young!" Quoth me: "Sprofle."
Imagine that- ED robbing the cradle? My new OTP is SO OBVIOUSLY EdxAlicia.
And then there's always those lovely lines that you can totally take out of context:
Al: "B-but wasn't there any other way we could have handled her?"
Ed: "It was what she wanted."
But, the best line in this entire game HAD to be:
"It's hotter than two chimeras mating in a boiler room!" - Ed
WHERE DID EDWARD LEARN TO SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!
And while we're on the suibject of OMGWTF dialogue, the dub managed to make EVERYTHING Armstrong said sound totally, distressingly cracktastic. And by cracktastic, I mean... wrong. Just, so wrong. But I still love Armstrong with a love that is pure and true. ^____^
Random Notes: Havoc needs a raise. End of story.
Also, you can pull weapons straight out of the ground with alchemy in this game. When you do so, a menu comes up, so Edward just claps his hands and waits for you to select the applicable weapon. Thus, if you're bored, it IS possible to play "If you're happy and you know it, CLAP your hands!" in this game.
Which I did.
Many times.
So, erm, that was the second Fullmetal Alchemist game as according to Cephied Variable. I need sleep. Right now.