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The Spoony Experiment

Oh man, I was rewatching the review and I love how Snow was like "No one survives a fall like that without a miracle! Serah must have saved us!" after falling into the frozen lake. After Snow miraculously survived falls like that three times in a row despite not being a L'cie yet.

Like... was his line written like this on purpose?
 
Oh man, I was rewatching the review and I love how Snow was like "No one survives a fall like that without a miracle! Serah has to still be alive!" after falling into the frozen lake. After Snow miraculously survived falls like that three times in a row despite not being a L'cie yet.

Like... was his line written like this on purpose?

No one writes like this on purpose.

It's all a mistake. The whole thing is one big mistake.
 
Like... was his line written like this on purpose?
Do you think the author of these games cares for consistency and cohesiveness considering how the sequel turned out? You could see the beginning of that sort of thing within the first few chapters of this game.
 
Oh man, I was rewatching the review and I love how Snow was like "No one survives a fall like that without a miracle! Serah must have saved us!" after falling into the frozen lake. After Snow miraculously survived falls like that three times in a row despite not being a L'cie yet.

Like... was his line written like this on purpose?

This is really just a result of how the different elements of the game, in this case the art assets and the story, weren't made in tandem. Look at literally any environmental shift in XIII outside of Pulse. Notice how the areas all magically change drastically with little to no attempt at gradual transitioning? How Sazh and Vanille can go from a ruinous mountain junkyard to the tree-tops of a lush government regulated wild-life reserve with nothing in the way of explanation? This is basically the same. They needed an excuse to get from a techno-temple to a crystal lake and "we fell, but didn't die, because reasons" was the best they could come up with.
 
Ye
You see, I brought this up to a friend who loves Toriyama's writing and FF13, and he didn't think it would be a good idea because it messes up the cinematic flow of the game.

But I didn't want FF13 to be overly cinematic.

I can understand what Toriyama was going for. He wanted to start the game "in media res," where the audience is thrown into the middle of something without knowing everything right away. While this can sometimes work, I felt that in FFXIII's case, we were simply told too many things and waited too long to know what they all meant.

Seeing Serah turned to crystal should have been an emotional event, but because we had literally just met all these characters, the emotional impact wasn't felt. A movie or book might get away with this, because we'll be able to see their backstory within a relatively short amount of time, but by the time we learn more about their relationship in the game, many hours have already passed. Days perhaps, given how much time your average consumer has. The same thing happens with Hope's mom: we understand why Hope would be upset, but we can't feel the full impact because we know absolutely nothing about these characters at the moment.

Playing out the initial 13 days might spoil some twists later in the game, but that's what we have dramatic irony for.
 
At least I can equate GILGAMESH smacking Snow 40 feet with Snow being tossed 40 feet from a explosion from a techno bike.

GILGAMESH must of had one hell of an arm to knock someone that far.

I must say the whole Vanille/Hope bike crash scene fading to black raises a good point. How did they get in that area?

And why is Gran Pulse "Hell on Earth"?

How does Hope know what planet Earth is?

And back to the first part. What's the motto with these people?
 
I can understand what Toriyama was going for. He wanted to start the game "in media res," where the audience is thrown into the middle of something without knowing everything right away. While this can sometimes work, I felt that in FFXIII's case, we were simply told too many things and waited too long to know what they all meant.

The sad thing is that Final Fantasy has already done this before, and successfully at that!

In FF7 you start off in the middle of an operation to destroy one of Midgar's Mako reactors. But in that game that segment only takes about 30 min or so (if I'm remembering right) before a character explains everything to you. After that you know why your character is working for Avalanche (former solider who wants money and is helping an old friend), you know why Avalanche blew up the reactor (save the lifestream/environment), and why the reactors are bad (they harvest the lifestream or something). On top of that the world is similar enough to our own that not everything NEEDS to be explained.
 
I can understand what Toriyama was going for. He wanted to start the game "in media res," where the audience is thrown into the middle of something without knowing everything right away. While this can sometimes work, I felt that in FFXIII's case, we were simply told too many things and waited too long to know what they all meant.

Seeing Serah turned to crystal should have been an emotional event, but because we had literally just met all these characters, the emotional impact wasn't felt. A movie or book might get away with this, because we'll be able to see their backstory within a relatively short amount of time, but by the time we learn more about their relationship in the game, many hours have already passed. Days perhaps, given how much time your average consumer has. The same thing happens with Hope's mom: we understand why Hope would be upset, but we can't feel the full impact because we know absolutely nothing about these characters at the moment.

Playing out the initial 13 days might spoil some twists later in the game, but that's what we have dramatic irony for.
You're right.

Well, they tried to remedy this sort of thing with the Final Fantasy XIII Episode 0 prequel novel, but it hinged on:
a) whether people will buy the product (which may or may not have happened in Japan; I certainly didn't import it)
b) whether that novel would have been released overseas (which didn't happen and people had to get a fantranslation... if they knew the prequel novel even existed)

Because not everyone got access to that prequel novel, character backstories seem limited or nonexistent, and you don't feel like you could care about these characters until maybe halfway through the game (if you choose to do so). The game tried to rely on scene direction and the intermingling of scene and music direction in cutscenes to try to evoke feelings from the player, but considering how people felt about the game in hindsight, I don't think it was successful at all. How could you feel something for characters you don't know? Maybe that matters, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe it depends on how the scenes are directed, or how much the game allows the player to know prior to the scene that's supposed to tug on the player's heartstrings. Because presentation isn't enough. Maybe as Snow was battling it out against the authority or whatever, maybe we could have seen part of these flashbacks, but we didn't. And that's unfortunate because it doesn't lend a lot of gravity to the situation.

Compare this to Lufia 1
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e61Jf80N52c
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmlPBKE3W40
It's done in a similar manner, and you don't even get the full impact of it until you play the sequel, but the scene direction towards the end is enough to at least let the player either feel something or know the repercussions of the characters' actions before the game actually begins.

It also certainly doesn't help that some things are told in an epilogue novel and the ultimanias/ultimania omega, which, once again, aren't released overseas so fans of the game would have to wait for a fantranslation of just some content.

FF13 isn't the only FF to start in media res. Final Fantasy VII is another big one that does this. FF6, FF2, FF10, FF10-2, and FF4 kind of do it. So... what's the difference between those games and this one? Why doesn't this one feel whole and those ones actually did?

FF13-2, this game's sequel, actually does in media res right.
 
Not to mention FF7 opened with a full shot of Midgar so you had an idea what it was and where the action was happening currently

Hell they even explain the city's history and structure on the train for more in-depth....wait for it...WORLD BUILDING
 
Not too mention FF7 opened with a full shot of Midgar so yeah had an idea what it was and wear the action was happening currently

Hell the even explain the city's history and structure on the train for more in-depth....wait for it...WORLD BUILDING

At least in FFVII, The large abandoned Rocket was given a decent backstory and ultimately used. As opposed to the dormant Fal'cie who was kinda just there without any visuals on how it got there.
 
I didn't even notice part 1 came up Dec 15th =X
I was waiting for this for a while, I'm watching the first part now. I like how he touched up on his FF8 review a bit in the beginning =D
 
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finally a summary to this story :)

My god, I loved the artwork and battle system, but this game's story is truly the worst.
 
Might as well post this here

They had to because they lost about 150.000 people in 6 months because of the NC show stop

PZ0gYj5.png


NC is coming back like I thought it would because that new show did not have the attraction that it needed, its sad and I like the fact that they wanted something different.
And I would like something different to but this was not it.
 
Might as well post this here

They had to because they lost about 150.000 people in 6 months because of the NC show stop

PZ0gYj5.png


NC is coming back like I thought it would because that new show did not have the attraction that it needed, its sad and I like the fact that they wanted something different.
And I would like something different to but this was not it.

Is his ego so large that he felt the need to make a half hour video about himself debating about a choice to bring revenue back to his site?
 
Is his ego so large that he felt the need to make a half hour video about himself debating about a choice to bring revenue back to his site?

It's not his "ego". It was a way to connect the story of Demo Reel to Nostalgia Critic, and give it a proper ending, while also explaining why he stopped doing NC, and why he's bringing it back.
 
Might as well post this here

They had to because they lost about 150.000 people in 6 months because of the NC show stop

PZ0gYj5.png


NC is coming back like I thought it would because that new show did not have the attraction that it needed, its sad and I like the fact that they wanted something different.
And I would like something different to but this was not it.


LOL

Demo Reel is unfunny boring mess that bombed like nothing before, what a waste of their money (and a studio).

but I think this move is just too late now, Demo Reel just killed the site,there is no other way around it, I doubt the viewers will get back to TGWTG even for NC.
 
LOL

Demo Reel is unfunny boring mess that bombed like nothing before, what a waste of their money (and a studio).

but I think this move is just too late now, Demo Reel just killed the site,there is no other way around it, I doubt the viewers will get back to TGWTG even for NC.

I probably will. He's doing them bi-weekly now, so hopefully it won't get as stale.
 
NC is coming back like I thought it would because that new show did not have the attraction that it needed, its sad and I like the fact that they wanted something different.
And I would like something different to but this was not it.

I think one of the problems was that the front page was never updated to give Demo Reel its own section on the list of Latest Additions. It was always under Sketches/Specials.
 
I probably will. He's doing them bi-weekly now, so hopefully it won't get as stale.

Hopefully he can pull it,it was his decision going with Demo reel and getting a studio cost them so much money and viewers (Todd, Nchick and Brows Held High have their own new site now because of the viewers decline on TGWTG)and it's a good thing he didn't just wait any longer.

He should've thought before doing Demo Reel, or learn from guys like Plinkett/Red Letter Media or Smosh( as in make the main review going bi-weekly or monthly but add new shows to do what you personally want to do) here Walker got tired and decided to kill the fan favorite show and almost killed the site by doing that.

saving the site is up to him right now,best luck to him.

Awwww, I thought there was another Final Fantasy XIII video =(

Spoony don't release reviews that fast.
 
Spoony don't release reviews that fast.
Knew that lol, was just hopeful thinking =D.
And like it has been said before TGWTG is way too clustered and it's too bad his viewer count declined after Nostalgia Critic but I think most of the "fans" saw that he didn't really know where to take his videos to keep the viewship up, after "killing off" his main draw to the website.
 
Great review, especially Spoony building up the ending with questions,
he never answers
: "Where is Frank Stallone?"

Funny detail: At 7:44 the science lady gives Brown a Monopoly "Get out of Jail"-Card instead of an business card. He should know that she was a fake. (properly was an easter egg ... haha ...).
 
Wow, he's back on youtube as his primary player? I never would have guessed that one.

EDIT: THAT MOVIE WHAT THE WHAT IS GOING ON I DON'T BELIEVE THIS
 
More Reb is always the best!

Edit: The ending of the film for anyone interested

Eventually, Crawford, the sheriff and Sarah all cross paths, and the sheriff is about to arrest Crawford, whom he wants to arrest believing him to be the madman having committed all the Bigfoot murders - when Sarah kills the sheriff in cold blood. Then she hands Crawford over to her employer Testi (Frank Stallone) ... because you know, Sarah isn't a scientist at all but a bounty hunter, and Crawford, when still with the Black Ops, has killed Testi's son in Nicaragua for a minor insubordination ... and Testi isn't one to forgive easily.

Sarah though meets her end soon after that ... at the hands of not one but several Bigfoots, which she seems to have forgotten in the line of duty.
 
Yeah, Frank Stallone doesn't appear until the end of the film, for only a few seconds of screen-time. Sort of reminds me of another movie that Spoony reviewed last year, "Game Over," which had Walter Koenig as a top-billed actor, but he only appeared in footage that was spliced-in from a canceled Sega CD game, with all of his dialogue dubbed over.
 
That's Marz Gurl for you.

This is someone who tried to demonstrate the evils of 4Kidz and failed.

Her reason for half assing that mot mess? "I'm an entertainer. Not a journalist."

lol.

in the comments section they pointed most of her mistakes and it seems that she don't care much.

seriously, she need to do more do more research,in this review she is all over the place,Spoony do a lot of work even when he know almost everything about the game .
 
That's Marz Gurl for you.

This is someone who tried to demonstrate the evils of 4Kidz and failed.

Her reason for half assing that hot mess? "I'm an entertainer. Not a journalist."

I remember that... so embarrassing.
Like how she claimed 4Kids changed the names of the main characters in the Pokemon anime. No, that's what Nintendo of America called them in the games, 4Kids was just following their instruction.
My favorite was how she claimed 4Kids changed the order of the first few One Piece episodes so that Luffy's backstory wasn't the first episode. Wrong, Luffy's backstory was always the fourth episode, it was the first in the original manga. A little research can go a long way.
 
I remember that... so embarrassing.
Like how she claimed 4Kids changed the names of the main characters in the Pokemon anime. No, that's what Nintendo of America called them in the games, 4Kids was just following their instruction.
My favorite was how she claimed 4Kids changed the order of the first few One Piece episodes so that Luffy's backstory wasn't the first episode. Wrong, Luffy's backstory was always the fourth episode, it was the first in the original manga. A little research can go a long way.

This, 1000x this. Seriously if you ever plan to upload a video onto the internet that isn't livestream/improv for the love of god make sure you double check your script to make sure actual facts are behind them.
 
Might as well post this here

They had to because they lost about 150.000 people in 6 months because of the NC show stop

PZ0gYj5.png


NC is coming back like I thought it would because that new show did not have the attraction that it needed, its sad and I like the fact that they wanted something different.
And I would like something different to but this was not it.

he could've had the new show along with the old. dumping NC entirely was a mistake. he could still do them once in a while instead of announcing "HEY, NC IS DEAD. GOODBYE"

That's Marz Gurl for you.

This is someone who tried to demonstrate the evils of 4Kidz and failed.

Her reason for half assing that hot mess? "I'm an entertainer. Not a journalist."

wait, really? i trusted that video. lol did she pull them or fix them?
 
The NC site doesn't really contain much content I still like to watch anyway, and I feel that's the thing for most of the visitors nowadays. Linkara's fine, Lupa's fine, sometimes 3 or 4 of the others have a nice vid that makes me browse the older ones, but that's it. And for most of those, their own sites/blogs are way more easy to navigate and browse.

Secretly I hope this is a sign of the decline of freaking "story-driven reviewing/nitpicking on video" or whatever one would call it, and the next big thing to make money with on the internet is about to start. Also I hope it will be something I can do, too.
 
I was kind of staying away from all of the internet for a month or so because of computer problems, and I'm just happy to see Spoony is using Youtube to host his videos again. I have to use Linux right now, and any other player runs like absolute dog shit besides the regular Youtube browser.
 
The 13 review get any better?

So far it sucks. That was 30 minutes of dwelling on pretty minor bits over and over. Some of the stuff like the robes and the 1st boss fight seemed somewhat forced too. I expected a bit more after the hilarity of the 10 reviews.
 
The 13 review get any better?

So far it sucks. That was 30 minutes of dwelling on pretty minor bits over and over. Some of the stuff like the robes and the 1st boss fight seemed somewhat forced too. I expected a bit more after the hilarity of the 10 reviews.

I find that most of his intro's suck, and get better as the review progresses. FF13 is a classic example of this and for the very reasons you mentioned. And true to form, Part 2 is much better, atleast for me.
 
I really wish someone would make a Final Fantasy XIII video without dedicating large chunks of time to nit-picky bullcrap. There's a lot of issues with the game, but complaining about weird looking robes (Spoony) or how they change a few words in localization (MarzGurl) is so minor that it really doesn't matter.

You can nit-pick, but keep it minimal.
 
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