2008.07.11 – Redraw, preceded by type cleanup and tweaks, proceeded by more cleanup and tweaks. It’s a huge improvement over the original, and purges the last of the horrible vectorizing experiment. I still have some issues with it, but they’re more of the “burn it down and start over” variety than they are of the “this can be fixed” persuasion. It’s as good as it’s going to get – this time around.
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Those funky text bits in distortion? Yeah, they’re plot-critical. Much like these bits – only these bits are less “need to fill space!” and more an actual depiction of how {Thad|Val|Dyluck}’s sentience works.
The page could have been up as early as Saturday morning… but I picked up Front Mission DS from the competently staffed Oakland Game Stop (which used to be the horribly inefficient staffed-by-retards Electronics Boutique) on Friday. I probably should have finished the page before opening the box, but I didn’t. So the page is up tonight instead.
In my defense, the last game I enjoyed spending time on was Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and that was early this spring – I’ve been stuck in a drought of crap titles or okay games that over-rely on the touchscreen ever since. Touchscreen games can’t be played on the bus – or at all, in my case, as the thing makes my drawing hand explode. I need that hand. FM is more fun than Advance Wars and almost as much fun as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance – it helps that the gameplay is exactly what I’ve wanted from the Battletech franchise for years. Pity they’re still stuck in the FPS run-and-gun “simulation” style – I know some people enjoy that, but it’s pretty much the antithesis of the tabletop experience. I liked marching the little pieces around the board, and I liked building my own mecha. I really liked building my own mecha. So Front Mission tickles me in places Squenix hasn’t touched since the original SNES release of Final Fantasy VI.
Beyond FM and Pumpcon, life’s been pretty fucking bleak lately – a fact that made the “intimacy” between the Higher Selves more difficult to depict than I’d expected.
It should be obvious what’s going to be on the next page – though it’ll be a few days getting there.
