New Postings and a Million Spoilers

I finally did it, folks. I gave up on the job that has caused so much grief for the past 9 months or so. While I will miss most of the people and the full time benefits (kind of), it makes me feel so much better to know that my health will finally improve and I'll be able to focus on more important things...like writing...and getting a job in my field. Here's to hoping that I will be able to concentrate more on my stories and my sanity than surviving at work.

To celebrate, I will be posting two new bits at some point today. The first will be the next chapter of The Dragon's Jewel. The second will be a short one-shot based on Deadly Premonition. I'm still tweaking the latest chapter for Call My Name, so that will hopefully be my next post sometime this week.

For those of you who have been anxiously waiting for Romance of the New Kingdoms, that is the next story on my list. Seriously. I'm waaaaaaaaaaay overdue to post the first official chapter for that one. I think the hardest part for me has been taking the historical narrative and translating it to modern day. I want all of the battles to stay the same, but I know that they can't because they would happen differently today. For example, the Battle of ChiBi took place on Cao Cao's fleet of ships, but that can't happen very easily when you're in the middle of a big city/cities. Characters like Sun Ce that died from health problems would likely still live with modern health care. See where my problems lie? But fear not. I will persevere.

In the midst of all these stories that I've been working on, I've been jotting down ideas for one-shots based on Deadly Premonition. The characters in that game are some of the best I've seen in a very long time. For those of you who haven't played it, the story is set in a small town in the Northeast (presumably Washington) where a murder has just occurred. Each person you come into contact with has their own unique personality and series of quirks that either help or hinder your investigation. Some of them make you laugh, some anger you, and some are just too weird to comprehend. But they all add color and dimension to the narrative in a way that makes the game captivating and intriguing. I'm already in my second run of the game to work on side quests, which give you the chance to interact more with the cast.

Overall, the game is a brilliant piece of work that is barely hindered by out of date graphics. My one gripe is that the game sometimes crashed unexpectedly, but so far it has been right after save points. Driving was also a pain, but I suck at driving games so most of the issues were based on operator error.

In reading other reviews, I've noticed that a lot of people were genuinely surprised by the ending and discovering who was behind the whole plotline. I can't say I felt the same. SPOILER ALERT!!!! SWERY did a fantastic job in hiding clues all over the town to help the player figure out who the murderer was and who was pulling the strings. Yes, there were two antagonists. The first one - the killer - was the most obvious. With all the focus on red trees and their connections to the murders, one would think that anything red would immediately stand out. For one, there was a red tree in front of the police station...another was in front of the murderer's house. It stuck out like a sore thumb every time I drove past it. His whereabouts during the in-game murders were always at the scene of the crime. Finally, during a scene where he and an officer quickly leave an apartment building, the licence plate give him away: HESTHE1 - HE'S THE 1. Seriously, if that doesn't give it away than nothing will.

The second one - the initiator - was a little trickier to discover. He didn't really appear until after the game had started, but he was immediately suspicious. After all, he handed the main character a red seedling, and red was already an established theme. Some of the things he said were also suspicious...how can you let a dog out of the window when you're locked in a cellar and the dog's outside of it? Finally, in the scene where one character talks about the purple fog, there is a seedling in a pot resting on top of the clock tower, just inside of the frame on the right, and there is one soldier who looks and moves exactly like him. Despite all that, I pegged him as the initiator as soon as I saw him because of one early clue. In the very first room, where you first interact with the angel twins, there is a map on the table of all the other red seed murder locations. Each is marked with a doll in the initiator's liking. There are no other characters that look remotely like him in the game. END SPOILERS!!!

So while the mystery wasn't hard to figure out for me, I would still highly recommend this game. It was easily one of the best I've played in a long time...and I've played a lot of them. At any rate, stay turned for more updates and possibly more reviews if I can find the time to finish all my games. Toodles!