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    Game: Astro Boy: Omega Factor System: GBA Genres: Brawler, Horizontal shooter, Adventure Developed by: Treasure, Hitmaker Published by: Sega Release date: August 18, 2004 (NA) ---------- Let’s Play Parts *The main gameplay+commentary videos. Main pictures link to videos, “Forum Post” text links to the relevant post.* Also, PLAYLIST HERE. Also also, TEXT-BASED STORY RECAP FOR PARTS 1-9 HERE.                     ---------- Wall of Stars *A gallery of the game’s faces, each linking to further info on that character. Click away!*                         Guest stars *Random other Tezuka stars not represented in-game I wanted to feature*   ---------- Music  *10 minute extended samples of the in-game VGM. Uploaded in the order heard in-game.* #1: Title screen #2: Save select #3: Tragedy #4: Science ministry #5: Upgrade menu #6: Prechapter jingle #7: Metro city #8: Conversation #9: Boss theme 1 – Midboss/Comparison Smash #10: Boss theme 2 – Magnamite #11: Stage complete fanfare #12: Briefing #13: Strange happenings #14: Pacific Ocean #15: Boss theme 3 – Artificial Sun #16: Cruciform Island #17: Amazing Three/Comparison anime opening #18: Cruciform ruins #19: Big X/Comparison anime opening #20: Mystery #21: Boss theme 4 – Pook #22: Tokugawa plant #23: Boss theme 5 – Atlas #24: Blossoming soul #25: Antarctic beauty #26: Terrorism #27: Marine Express #28: The lost empire of Mu #29: Boss theme 6 - Sharaku #30: World’s strongest robots #31: Boss theme 7 – Pluto #32: Phoenix #33: Changed Histroy ---------- About the game Astro boy: Omega Factor is a game based on the iconic character of Mighty Atom, AKA Astro boy. Developed as both a tie-in to the 2003 TV series reboot, and as a celebration of the date of Astro’s traditional year of birth, it’s one of those games that most pass off as another sucky low-budget tie-in licensed game. This could not be further from the truth. Astro Boy: Omega factor is a game spanning multiple genres, though the primary focus is on side-scrolling beat-em-up type gameplay. Handed to Treasure Co, well-known and lauded for their excellent action games, as well as Sega’s own Hitmaker studios, the game is a labor of love that not only delivers in spades on the gameplay front, but brings forth an epic tale far beyond the normal aspirations of the genre. Control is tight and fluid, bosses are large and menacing, visuals are bright and vibrant, and abilities are intuitive and satisfying, the only real shortcomings being in certain stage designs and occasional performance slowdowns. Moreover, the game is not only a celebration of the character of Astro Boy himself, but rather a medium through which the entirety of his legendary creator’s works are given a chance to shine. Clearly crafted by people familiar with Osamu Tezuka’s extensive portfolio, the game is chock full with a smorgasbord of his characters and settings - these characters act as power-ups for Astro, growing his soul (the titular “Omega Factor) as he meets and comes to understand more and more people in his world. It’s gained some notoriety in past years, being included in many “best game” lists and featured in 2010’s “1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die”, but it’s still relatively obscure, a fact I aim to help change. Wait, what? What’s this about Anime? See, there’s a couple things you should know before we delve into this game. To get you acquainted with what’s going on here, I’m gonna give you a couple bios relating to the big man himself. Osamu Tezuka  “Comics are an international language. They can cross boundaries and generations. Comics are a bridge between all cultures.” Osamu Tezuka has gone by many nicknames over the years - he’s the Father, Godfather, King, Emperor, and/or god of manga and anime. Chances are, if you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, you’ve been touched by this man’s influence, for good or ill. It’s basically impossible to overstate his Pervasiveness. Oftentimes referred to as Japan’s version of Walt Disney (and even occasionally emulating him), he drew hundreds of thousands of manga pages, single-handedly popularized manga in post-WWII Japan, started the Mangaka+assistant setup, set the benchmark standard for the medium’s art style, INVENTED anime, and worked ceaselessly his entire life. His last words on his death in 1989 were “I’m begging you, let me work!” – A profound testament to just how devoted he was. Influenced by the works of Walt himself (such as his signature large-eyed animation style), Tezuka was always interesting in drawing, but initially chose to pursue a Doctorate in medicine. However, when he found himself torn between his love for comics as a medium and his doctoral education, especially during a time when comic-making was even less viable a path than it is today, it was his mother that pushed him over the edge with her advice to “work on the thing you love most of all”. Henceforth, he devoted himself towards his lifelong love, though he also remained in school. Initially publishing small, 4-panel strips in regional newspapers, his first big success was his work “The new treasure island”; an instant hit, it propelled him into the limelight, and served as the starting point for his career. Incidentally, he also ended up eventually earning his doctorate. He was a bit of a genius, and had expertise in fields ranging from theater, to medicine, to film production. “Astro Boy”, or “Tetsuwon Atomu” as it’s known in Japan, is one of his earliest and most well-known works. Published between 1951 and 1968, it’s a tale of the far-flung future: Set in 2003, plots are generally self-contained episodes, revolving upon Atom’s fights against aliens, evil robots, and corrupt humans, with major underlying themes of racism, prejudice, and corruption indicative of its time period. It was made into the world’s first example of “Anime” in 1963, and eventually ended up being broadcasted worldwide, which helped elevate Atom’s status to the classic pop culture figure he is today. The series has since been remade multiple times: one television series in 1980, and another in 2003, with various other movies and cameos emerging throughout the years. Tezuka had a style all his own; characters were distinctive, his plots (while child-friendly) weren’t afraid to stray into the dark and depressing, and the author himself often played a major part. He was one of those authors who inserted himself into his work, often giving insight to his projects, characters, and personal views and values, all with an adorable manga counterpart.  He’s instantly likeable, and due to the time period he grew up in, his work’s conflict is very often heavily peppered with corrupt dictators, wars, and racism, all of which he clearly has strong opinions on. Honestly I could ramble on and on about this man, but in the interest of space I’m gonna cut if off there, though I will drop THESE LINKS on you with an ENOURMOUS recommendation to read up more on him, because he’s one of the coolest dudes ever. ---------- Star System  Thing about Tezuka’s work: They often draw from the same pool of characters. See, Tezuka had a little something he liked to call his “Star System”. He viewed his characters less as single-work personalities, and more like Actors being called to stage for different performances. You might see Astro’s teacher kickboxing a dastardly, arms-smuggling Politician in one work, whilst Kimba the white lion becomes the patient of the day in an episode of “Black Jack”. Rather than being limiting, this serves to endear viewers to the characters; over time, you’ll begin to recognize familiar faces, see personality traits carry over from one work to another, or smile at a background cameo appearance. Best part: though someone may die in one work, you can always rest assured you’ll be able to see them back in another. It’s something like a professional version of the kind of original character sharing you see by small-time writers and artists online today, with the same character designs and certain personal traits being carried from one work to the next, even if they're not explicitly set in the same world or have the same background. It’s because of this that Astro Boy: Omega factor is able to function the way it does. It pulls characters from a plethora of Tezuka works, some strongly related to Astro, others not, and plops them together in a way that’s both the ultimate fan service AND faithful to the original material. ---------- How this is gonna work I honestly cannot stress enough exactly how amazing this game’s stable of characters and references are. It’s the crux of the game, and the main reason I love it so. It's a great game just playing it, an AMAZING one when you're familiar with the source material. AS SUCH. I’m going to be running the game on hard mode, meeting every character, and finishing the game 100%. ADDITIONALLY, each stage, character, and other relevant thing will be met with an extensive bio, selected pics relating to their original appearance, links to anime they’ve appeared in, movies, and more. I’ll also be upping the game’s music, because it, too, is quite often astounding. I'll be putting links to main LP parts, music, and a special *wall of stars* that'll link you straight to the character it pertains to in this here OP. FUN! Incidentally, if you want to read the original manga, here’s a link to a library archive with the English-translated compilations, courtesy of Dark Horse: ASTRO BOY ARCHIVE Is this schmuck up to the task? The first things that got me, personally, interested in Tezuka’s works were as follows: This game, 2001’s animated movie “Metropolis”, Naoki Urasawa’s “Pluto" (an adaption of one of Astro Boy’s most popular arcs), and a couple volumes of “Black Jack” I found at my local library. These are all PHENOMENAL works I highly recommend checking out (and I’ll be getting more into them later), and they together served to light a spark of interest in me, driving me to go back to the origin of comics and nerd out a bit. AS FOR THIS LP. I’ve read the entirety of the Astro Boy Manga, watched selected episodes from the 1963 series, all of the episodes from the 80’s and 2003 series, taken notes, taken screencaps, watched movies, et cetera. I’ll be getting links to each of the series mentioned in the game’s “Ultimate Character List” whenever possible so that you, too, can join in the Tezuka fun, and sampling each individual character’s main series when they come up if I haven’t already done so. Because of the sheer volume of characters, my screencap-taking method is “lightshot the already poor-quality Youtube/hosted video”, which means that they might sometimes come out looking like turds, but you’ll also be getting links to the videos themselves so you can watch in all their antiquated-animation glory - assuming the copyright takedowns don't get to them first. In the end, my ultimate goal here is to make an LP that serves as a springboard to the rest of Tezuka’s universe, just as much as the game is an introduction to the same. It might take a bit of time for new video updates to come out due to ongoing research, but I should be able to throw a new character bio up every couple days. And finally, as for thread participation: Knock yourselves out! Avoid spoilers for the main game, but basically anything else is a go. The thing about these series is that they’re DECADES old, and many of them are obscure and incredibly difficult/impossible to find information on, much less actual English translations. You familiar with a character? Know something I don’t? Speak up, I wanna know too! Just try to limit yourself to the characters that I’ve already gone over, please; I’ll be leaving some for later even after their initial appearance, and when I do, it’s for a decent reason. Treasure’s also put some self-referential stuff in here, and while I recognize a few I’m 100% sure I won’t get em all, seeing as I’ve only played the two Gunstar games and Ikaruga myself. So point them out! And, without further ado, let's blast off! ---------- Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 13:27 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Aug 21, 2014 21:36
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Reserved, just in case
Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Aug 21, 2014 |
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Aug 21, 2014 21:37
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Stage notes!  Japan’s Ministry of Science is where the story of Astro begins. A world leader in robotics engineering, and producer of most of Japan’s high-end machinery, the ministry holds a powerful position within the futuristic world of 2003. Contained within its walls are countless rooms and departments, conducting a myriad of research projects and experiments, most of which are kept under tight security so as to prevent foreign spies from stealing Japan’s cutting-edge technology. The Ministry is responsible for creating all sorts of things, from experimental rockets to mind-reading devices to subway systems, but by far their most prominent role is the creation of newer and more advanced autonomous androids.  Robots are a mainstay of life in 2003, conducting jobs ranging from the lowliest of janitors to the most powerful of CEOs. As robotics has advanced, so, too, has AI technology, allowing Robots to function on a level comparable to the most able of human. Still, though, their induction into society is relatively recent, which means a good amount of negative opinions and resentment exists within the human populace. Though a recent act was passed giving robots rights nearly equal to humans, they are generally viewed by the masses as second-class citizens and actively persecuted, an outlook exasperated by Article 13 of the Robot Law: Robots may not injure (or kill) humans. This, coupled with a biased police force, means Robots are regularly illicitly framed, detained, and/or destroyed. It’s in this atmosphere that the Ministry of Science attempts to maintain order, helping to clean up and control robot-related disturbances, recycling scrapped robots into new ones and handling various issues regarding their activities.  Because of its responsibilities, it has a very sizable budget, which is partly what allows Astro to be born in the first place. Astro’s father goes a little off the deep end upon Tobio’s death, and squanders much of the budget and resources on Astro’s creation, with the intent that he be a work of art, a robot peerless in power and beauty. While many question the wisdom of creating a super-powered robot armed with lasers, machine guns, and rockets, it all ends up working out in the end – Astro’s father abandons him, O’shay picks him up, and Astro becomes a sort of monkey wrench for the Ministry, getting deployed whenever there’s a problem that needs fixing. As far as the game goes, the Ministry is…not really all that exciting. Admittedly, it’s just a tutorial area, but still, the Ministry has enough of a history that they could’ve gone a little further in designing it than just using a generic computer sim backround. And, if you were wondering, the only real differences in difficulty are the EX skills being limited to 99 in easy, 5 in normal, and 3 in hard, as well as steadily more ridiculous damage enemies are capable of giving and receiving. Intro movie! (that pic’s a link btw) While the devs may have neglected to show their stuff in the Ministry proper, they DID demonstrate their knowledge of the source material elsewhere. If you linger on the title screen, you’ll shortly be deposited into a little movie sequence as an extended version of the title screen music plays, with added singalong subtitles. What makes this special is that each of the images shown here is actually taken from an extra chapter Osamu Tezuka wrote for the compilation books of Astro Boy, titled “The Birth of Astro Boy”. It serves as an intro to readers as to who exactly Astro is and how he came to be, seeing as Tezuka structured the compilations in a manner of his choosing, not in the order of initial publishing. Moreover, the song playing is VERY similar to the original 1960s show opening theme, with that opening bit on the title screen with Astro’s head and the radiating splash being pulled straight from said opening.   It’s a stupid amount of attention to detail, and it’s a level that really does get maintained throughout the game. As for those images, here’s links to four pages containing most of the ones included in the movie. They’re all basically outlining how technology got to the point that Astro was viable, showing various scientists and their inventions. PAGE 1, PAGE 2, PAGE 3, PAGE 4. Astro’s moves! Being a beat-um-up, Astro’s offensive powers are a key part of the gameplay, and he has a sizeable amount of them. I’ll be going into them a bit here. Punching  Punching is Astro’s most basic of powers, possessing low reach but moderate damage. When punching an enemy, time will slow down for both Astro and the enemy, allowing you to hang in the air and continue your combo while also delaying the enemy’s retaliation, but leaving every other on-screen enemy to continue moving at a normal pace. Additionally, enemies without resistance to stun (which, for now, is pretty much all of them) will go cross-eyed and limp for as long as you’re beating them up, allowing you to stack enemies on top of each other and really lay on the damage. All attacks but the weaker laser finger and machine gun also make a bunch of colorful stars fly out of your enemies in a very satisfying manner, and this one probably produces the most, which makes it super fun. Astro’s fists are real instruments of destruction on other media, too, being capable of taking down steel doors without breaking a sweat. Kicking  Kicking is your main alternative to punching, usable with the command down+b, or else being executed automatically after a 3-punch combo. Kicking is a fairly strong move all by itself, but its true strength lies in enemies that aren’t resistant to stun – kicking them will cause them to careen across the stage, knocking into every enemy they touch, and bringing said enemies along for the ride if they’re not immune either. Generally speaking, this remains a great method of damage-dealing even late into the game, as you’ll usually get at least a few non-immune enemies in each wave, and can use them to inflict multiple safe hits on the ones that ARE resistant. In addition to being really useful combat-wise, it’s also super satisfying – there’s a musical effect to this move, where a chime will play for each enemy knocked into, gradually rising in pitch and splendor until everything is left decimated in your wake. Both punching and kicking can be amplified in power with a “Punch” upgrade. Astro’s not really known for kicking, to be honest, probably due to his short, stubby legs and preference for flying, but it’s still a cool move. Finger laser  Astro’s finger laser is your go-to long range attack, extending in a straight line the length of the screen and piercing through enemies, making it most effective when used at the extreme end of the screen. The finger laser isn’t overly powerful, but does multiple hits, so if you manage to hit a sweet spot where the beam stays over an enemy for its duration you’ll get some very respectable damage. Furthermore, upgrades in the “Laser” category increase both the power and, eventually, the width of the beam, allowing you to keep it on top of enemies more easily. As stated in the video, Astro’s finger laser was added in the 1980s animated adaption , and was often used as a kill move versus minor enemies and robotics, leaving them with smoldering holes where their important bits used to be. It’s a highly accurate, useful tool. Arm cannon  In terms of EX attacks, the Arm cannon’s your go-to damage dealer, and what you’ll be using against the game’s plethora of bosses and mini-bosses. Mechanic-wise, it’s the finger laser x10, and like the finger laser it enjoys both infinite horizontal range and piercing damage. It’s super-powerful, but for both laser types, you’ll get locked in spot upon usage (including when in mid-air), and it’s that fact that acts as the arm cannon’s greatest weakness: when using, any enemy left behind you basically gets a free shot at your back, so smart positioning prior to usage is a necessity. Like the finger laser, the “Laser” upgrades are this thing’s friend, making it even bigger, more powerful, more colorful, and even increasing the size of the little energy balls that come out when you activate the move. It even obliterates energy projectiles it comes in contact with! Astro’s Arm cannon was introduced in the 2003 animated show, shocking both Astro himself and veteran fans upon its discovery, and is generally about as powerful as you’d expect. Anything within its range enjoys a quick and merciless disintegration. Dash/EX dash  I’m grouping the normal dash together with the EX version because they’re functionally identical, save for damage-dealing capabilities. For Astro, his power of flight is hands-down the most iconic and memorable power in his repertoire. While laser beams and bad-guy punching are all well and good, there’s something about his ability to collapse his hands and feet into his body and blast off with rocket limbs that really captures the imagination of kiddies. It’s a super cool feature, and often gets used extensively in works to allow him to buzz like a super-powered hornet around his much larger enemies. In terms of the game, you don’t get quite as much freedom of movement, but you DO get to boost at high-speeds in any of the cardinal directions or their diagonals. Moreover, whenever Astro’s in a boost, he’s COMPLETELY INVINCIBLE, and can harmlessly fly through enemy proectiles. Your dash doesn’t recharge and can’t be used until you touch ground again, but for each upgrade in the “Jets” category, you can use it one more time without touching ground, meaning you can just boost back and forth willy-nilly. The EX dash, as said in-LP, isn’t really all that useful, primarily due to the fact that the other two EX skills are a button away whereas this requires you to press a couple simultaneously, but it IS potentially useful in that you can use it to get another mid-air dash when you run out. It, too, makes you invincible, and gives you the added benefit of damaging anything you come in contact with while dashing. It doesn’t do nearly as much damage as a Laser cannon, but it’s still respectable. The EX dash is also something of Astro’s “Power-pose”, given that he, like superman, likes to extend an arm in front of himself while flying. This is actually often used as final blow in flights, with him blasting through an enemy’s core or vehicle to take them out for good, which makes its relative weakness here kind of odd. Machine gun  Astro’s silliest-looking move, his machine guns are nestled firmly in his metallic buttocks, presumably because his hands were already decked out with the lasers. The machine gun isn’t as powerful as the arm cannon, but it covers the entire screen, and enemies that it doesn’t outright kill become stunned and immobile for a good bit after the move ends, making it as useful in normal encounters as the arm cannon is in boss fights. Upgrading it boosts damage, shot size, and general coolness, but I’d personally recommend you leave this thing for last and instead focus on laser, life, and punch, using the Machine gun for crowd control and finishing up with some well-placed smacks. Astro’s butt has been armed and dangerous from the very beginning, and I have to imagine this particular attack was added mainly for its humor value. Still, Astro’s shown some remarkable accuracy with it in the past, in stark contrast to his random firing here, and he can be quite a crack shot when need be. Music! A decent amount of music gets dropped on you at the beginning of the game, and they’re all fairly good. This game has an excellent soundtrack, but most of the really stand-out ones come later, so these one’s aren’t as good as it gets. Still, though, a couple are pretty cool, like the title screen theme being a reference to the 1960 anime intro. Incidentally, I wasn’t able to find an official OST, so all of these names are made-up by yours truly. #1: Title screen #2: Save select #3: Tragedy #4: Science ministry #5: Upgrade menu Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Aug 21, 2014 21:48
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BlueDude posted:Wow, you really know your stuff, don't you? I'm getting intrigued from your first post alone! Funny you should mention that, as I'll be making mention of it in a few of the upcoming bios! And yes, they promptly died after release. (Incidentally, I've seen it, it was actually pretty neat! They change the story up a bunch and add pretty obvious marketable characters and hip young teens, but the general feel of the thing is there, they got a decent amount of the characters in, and there's some fun in-jokes that show they did their research. It's got some great animation too, it's not amazing but it's definitely worth investing an hour or two in)
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Aug 22, 2014 00:39
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Star #1: =Astro Boy= Through the ages: Manga, 1963, 1980, 2003, 2009 movie, Pluto Manga See him in action: 1963 EPISODE 1; 1980 EPISODE 1, 2003 EPISODE 1 ---------- Seeing as this is the first one, I’ll tell you right now: I’m gonna link the 1963 series English dub, the 1980s version in its subbed form, and 2003’s as dubbed. You can probably find the other versions yourself if you have a preference, but that’s how the thread’s gonna work. 1980’s often considered the best, and I kinda agree seeing as it has a nice balance of cute 80s anime charm and action, so if you’re gonna watch only one might wanna make it that, especially seeing as it’s the last one Tezuka had involvement in. Though I do have a love for 2003’s from vague memories of seeing the few episodes that were broadcast on Kid’s WB back in the day, it’s a lot more action-oriented and has some great animation. 1963 is good, but slapsticky and suffers from changes in the dubbing process. As for the Manga, HERE’S A LINK to an Archive.org page with all the English-translated volumes. ...Or that's what I'd have liked to have happen, but all the legally-uploaded 1980s Jap episodes (as well as misc. others) got nuked in 2015, so I'm winging it like a plumber in the leaky pipe factory. I'll fix em as they go down, but future people'll probably have to fend for themselves. At the moment, all 1980 episodes are uploaded, but they're cut a bit differently from the originals, and miss a bit of content because of it. ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 00  – A super robot powered by a 100,000 horsepower engine. Uses his seven forces to fight for justice. It’s said that Astro’s hair was modeled after Tezuka’s hair when in the morning. In the original comic, Astro’s engine was upgraded to 1,000,000 horsepower. Astro first appeared in “Shonen” Magazine in 1951 in the manga “Captain Atom.” Dr. Tenma was a character who tries to banish all aliens from earth, but fails. In 1959, a live-action film was made, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.Astro Boy is, for many, the face of classic anime. Modeled to appeal to younger boys, he's gone through some visual re-works, but his general structure always remains the same: Big emotional eyes, red boots, twin head spikes, and a penchant for running around in his green-black underwear. He’s usually between 9-12 years old, and was born on April 7th, 2003. In Japan, he’s named “Atom” – a reference to atomic power, which he runs on. Designed by Dr. Tenma, the former head of the ministry of science, his origin story is a tale of tragedy. Modeled after Tenma’s late son Tobio, a young boy who always meets his end in a car crash, Astro’s initial role is to be taken in as his surrogate son. However, after living in peace for some time, Tenma always becomes dissatisfied with his son’s inhuman qualities and rejects him, selling him to a robot circus, or shutting him down, or otherwise cutting Astro out of his life. Astro eventually finds himself saved by one Dr. Ochanomizu, at which point his adventures begin. In the original comic and series, he was given a set of robotic parents (of which his mother was based on Tobio’s late human mother) by Dr. Tenma, who continued to watch over him, whilst Dr. Ochanomizu provided him with a sister named “Uran”, and later a slightly inferior replication of Astro himself named “Cobalt” for a brother. Only one of them shows up in this game. If you want to know more about the creation of Astro the comic, Tezuka made a series of pages giving a bit of detail on that particular subject. Here’s links to em: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT. Astro is unique from other robots in a variety of ways. For one, he’s established to possess a superior AI - this takes various forms depending on the series, ranging from possession of human emotions, to having a soul, to containing “Kokoro” (meaning “heart”). In the end, though, they all boil down to “he’s practically human”. In this game, the distinguishing thing is his “Omega Factor”, allowing him to grow as he comes to understand more and more people. This is rather interesting, seeing as the Omega Factor debuted as the unique trait of Astro’s main RIVAL in the manga and 1980s series, but we’ll get to that later.  Another main part of Astro’s persona is his plethora of super powers, referred to in the character list as his “seven forces”. These powers have changed a bit over the years; a complete list is as follows:
The “Seven forces” name is also used as the name for the omega factor and the 6 upgradable stats. They’ve cycled in and out depending on the time period, with the destruction generally escalating with the general violence of media (finger laser was added in 1980, cannon in 2003), but the general gist is that he’s strong as heck. Personality-wise, Astro tends to be as gentle and naïve as a regular child, but springs into action at the first sign of danger or injustice. He enjoys adventure, but usually tries to resolve fights without having to resort to violence. A mediator of sorts between robots and humans, his position is often used as a source of conflict, leading to him being pressured to side with either one side or another, a decision he always staunchly rejects. He’s known for saving the world from ASSURED DESTRUCTION, be it from alien invasions, evil scientists, or explosive devices capable of destroying the world, but often finds himself stymied by those that don’t trust, or outright hate, robots. As far as weaknesses go, it’s varied throughout the series. In older media, he tended to be capable of tearing through metal like butter and deflecting most sources of harm, but could be stopped by high-powered electro-mag guns or a lack of nuclear energy, which, bizarrely enough, he takes in through a valve…in his anus.  This is not a thing they generally keep in later adaptions. Strange butt-related quirks aside, he also has an openable chest plate in which resides his mechanical parts, electronic brain, and various gauges he can use to check his power level, which often gets targeted as a way of dealing direct damage. Later on, he becomes more vulnerable to physical damage and disrepair, which is where we see him in this game. Lastly, he’s occasionally stymied by THE MAN, being unable to apprehend evilpersons due to having no legal grounds for arresting them, which usually results in poor outcomes…until it reaches the point where Astro’s able to interfere. Oh, and as for that live-adaption thing: Here’s the first part of an episode of it. It came before the original animated series, but does have an animated section recreating the events leading up to Astro’s birth, the same scenes shown in the little bonus title-screen sequence involving the development of electronic brains, artificial skin, and the like. He’s probably the most recognizable and popular of Tezuka’s characters, and pops up in other works on occasion, though not as frequently as other faces. A superhero with stark differences to the American model of tall, dark, handsome, strong-jawed males, he’s a fun and appealing character that’s survived multiple generations and continues to be featured in works to this day, though he’s never made much of a splash on American shores. Recent works involving him include 2009’s animated “Astro Boy” movie (a decent, though not great, film that was met with complete and utter box office failure and contributed to its producer’s studio closing down), and the aforementioned “Pluto” manga which ran from 2003-2009 (an absolutely excellent work I highly recommend reading). Other facts: -Rewards and accolades include placing high on various high-profile top anime and cartoon heroes lists, and his induction into the Robot hall of fame in 2004. -Red boots were received from a female friend in the circus in the 1980s series -Weighs 62.7 pounds -His head is attached with a spring, and frequently comes off as a visual gag in the manga. -Receives the name “Astro” from Ochanomizu; Prior to it, he’s known as “Tobio” by Tenma. Named either spur of the moment, “Atom” due to the fact he runs on atomic energy, or due to a nearby plate reading “Astro tech omni” upon successfully reviving Astro. -Often freed from his contract under a corrupt circus manager named HamEgg through the passing of the Robot rights act, giving robots rights equal to humans. This allows him to attend a human school, among other activities, though much conflict comes from this notion of equality. -He does wear clothes on occasion, but more often than not they find themselves coincidentally blown to bits, leaving him in his classic bare-chested form. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Aug 22, 2014 02:22
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Fiendly posted:Woah, I just started a Let's Play of an Osamu Tezuka adaptation myself and I'm getting into the guy's impressive body of work in a huge way, so this is awesome to see! The game I'm doing was released about a year after this game was and was also published by SEGA, which makes me wonder if there's any other Tezuka licenses they worked on around then or if these two are all she wrote. Wouldn't happen to be THIS ONE, would it? I'd be interested in seeing that if you're translating or paraphrasing what's being said, Black Jack's a cool duder. Also, THIS PAGE tells me that other than some old Astro, Phoenix and Three-eyed one games (and tie-in games for the 2009 movie) that was indeed all she wrote. Shame, that.
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Aug 22, 2014 22:46
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Star #2: =Dr. O’Shay= Through the ages: Manga, 1963, 1980, 2003, 2009 movie, Pluto Manga See him in action: 1963 EPISODE 1, 1980 EPISODE 3, 2003 EPISODE 1, MARINE EXPRESS ---------- (I’m putting the Marine Express thing there to check him out seeing as the bio mentions it, but I’d prefer it if you held off watchin’ the whole thing just yet; there’s a better time later) ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 01  - He is a director at the Science Ministry. He adopts Astro as his son. He is a constant source of support for Astro. Because of his enormous nose, he is also known as “Dr. Elephant” overseas. He appears as “Dr. Narzenkop” in “Marine Express”. This is also the name he uses in the manga “X point on the south pacific”.Professor O’shay has gone through many different names throughout adaptions. Originally “Professor Ochanomizu”, he was changed to Dr. Packadermus J. Elefun for the English dub, then to Professor Peabody, and finally to O’shay for the 2003 adaption. He’s also occasionally known in non-Astro Boy works as “Dr. Narzenkop”. One thing that DOESN’T change, though, is his stupendous schnoz. No matter the adaption, his face is always dwarfed by the profound proboscis adorning his face, a splendid specimen of a snout if there ever was one. It’s the most distinctive aspect of his character (though it’s been rumored to have resulted from a slip of Tezuka’s pen), and often the primary target of dastardly villains aiming to harm him; those that grab it often find they’ve completely incapacitated the good doctor, and whenever someone holds him hostage against Astro they threaten to blow a hole in his nose rather than his head. Dr. O’shay, being the person who saves Astro after his abandonment, tends to be his most loyal ally and friend, and appears quite frequently within the works. He’s a genius scientist, oftentimes being depicted as having single-handedly advanced and popularized robotics through his life’s work, and is known worldwide. Upon Tenma’s resignation as Director of the Ministry of Science, he’s the first in line to replace him, a position he humbly accepts. As far as their skills compare, in this continuity Tenma’s the superior roboticist, whilst O’shay is far more morally grounded and has superior networking skills, which causes them to bounce off each other on more than one occasion. His role in the story is generally to brief Astro on the newest threat, send him on his way, then later retrieve him  Personality-wise, he’s a kind, caring, hard-working person, but can occasionally be prone to bouts of stupidity and wishy-washyness, like when he doesn’t buy Astro’s claims that obviously evil person is evil and such. Generally pacifistic, you’ll often see him popping up at UN conferences and bemoaning scientists who create weapons far too powerful for anyone to use, which means he’s generally against Astro going out and destroying things unless necessary. Of course, due the target audience, it usually ends up happening anyway. Quite tolerant, and one of the few consistently pro-robot spokesmen in the story. A typical conversation between O’shay and Astro in the 2003 version generally goes as follows:  – Dr, I want to do thing! Please let me do thing! – No! I forbid it! It’s TOO DANGEROUS! – But I WANT to do thing! – Oh, alright, fine. But BE CAREFUL!So he’s not always the most dependable. He’s really the only non-Tenma person capable of repairing Astro, though, so he’s still an important part of the cast. His position at the science ministry also helps quite a bit, allowing him to procure high-tech toys for Astro to use in his battles, to track Astro wherever he goes (using a “syncrometer” he planted in Astro’s chest), to arrange meetings with other influential people, and more. He’s also got a decent amount of bravery on-hand, stating multiple times that he’s not afraid of dying and then doing foolhardy things. He’s not strong, but is persistent. In non-Astro works, his personality tends to be a bit darker, but his strong convictions and morals are always present. As for “X point on the south pacific”, it sadly seems to be one of Tezuka’s works that have succumbed to the mists of time, and I couldn’t find hide nor hair of it, much less an actual translation. HERE’S a page giving an outline of its plot; if anyone has any experience with it, feel free to speak up. All in all, O’shay’s a fun and likeable character. You’ll be hearing me say this a lot  Other facts: -Is lactose intolerant, and gets diarrhea if he drinks milk. -Is married, though wife never appears Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Aug 23, 2014 03:23
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Tuxedo Ted posted:Neat, I was just thinking about this game and an old LP of it, and was sad that I couldn't find it again. I know right, I saw this in the LP request thread and an old one in the archives a few months back, but it seems to have disappeared since. Also, figured I'd ask here before shrugging me shoulders and going "Iunno" in the next part; anyone got a clue what treasure/sega related thing these two signs are referencing so I can go familiarize myself? They're probably the biggest mystery to me in the whole game and an hour of google-fu has given me nothing but links to Carrier command: Gaea mission.  
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Aug 23, 2014 10:24
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Green Jacket posted:Oh boy oh boy! Massive Tezuka nut here, so I'll be glued to this thread. Gourdguy also showed up for a couple frames in Metropolis, right when Kenichi and Tima get dumped into the...dump. It's part of a junk pile~. They had a couple little touches like that, like Lamp getting his candle for a split second. Not gonna lie though, I prefer Metropolis just because of ITS SOUNDTRACK. I could listen to that thing non-stop and never tire of it.
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Aug 25, 2014 07:15
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I'd have to say, as far as works made after his death go, I like it much better then say Metropolis (2001).
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Stage notes!  Metro City is a major Japanese settlement, a bustling center of commerce that enjoys all the benefits the technology of the future has to offer. Situated on Japan’s coastline, Metro City is filled with all sorts of wondrous attractions, ranging from a giant, state-of-the art sports center (where citizens can go watch a pulse-pounding game of rocketball) to a commercial spaceflight facility (where students can go on field trips to get a close-up view of celestial bodies), all of it connected by a cutting-edge series of subways and monorails. It’s also a success story as far as integration with robot life is concerned – the place is kept spic and span by its hard-working robot citizens, and seeing the latest in artificial life walking down the street or selling balloons to kiddies is a common occurrence.  Still, though, accidents are prone to occur, and robots such as the one seen above have been known to go haywire and become hostile towards passerby. It’s a rare happening, and usually attributable to the latest human scoundrel looking to seize power, but for cases where it’s necessary Metro City’s finest are quick on the scene with their electro-mag guns purring, their sirens blaring, and the noses of their dog-shaped cop cars blinking a furious red.  The city’s got something for everyone, with restaurants, schools and public parks to be found wherever you look, and everyone enjoys a high standard of living. And, most importantly, on any given day you might be able to glance up at the sky and see a bare-chested youth zipping by. In terms of the stage itself, it’s instantaneously recognizable as a Treasure endeavor. Getting dropped in from on high (and getting a glorious view of the skyline and scale of the city), you’re then left to traverse the colorful area while some of the most up-beat intro stage music I’ve ever heard blasts from your crappy GBA speakers. The skyline’s dotted with SEGAs and GUNSTARs, evoking past memories of self-referential billboards (buy your Gunstar Gum today? Dynamite Headdy on sale now!), and everything just comes together to make a really fun experience. Of note, however, is that stage design is really not this game’s forte – save for a few simplistic mazes, much of the stage traversal is just walking straight, with most of the game’s entertainment value coming from the cast of characters and the super-satisfying combat. The intro stage helps give a taste of that, with introductions to different enemy types (flying, mortars, rockets, stun-resistant), a stoplight enemy to practice dodging, and our first look at the upscaling trick they use to give the enemies some variety. The latter is especially noteworthy in its entertainment value; the devs pull off some really impressive sprites in the game, but they also do this thing where they literally just upscale enemy sprites so that  becomes  and it is amazing. This isn’t even close to being the limits of the up and downscaling done in the game, and some of the more outlandish examples are so over-the-top it becomes absolutely hilarious. Incidentally, each “chapter” is divided up into sections (generally separated by a black-screen transition), and though we can’t see the names just yet I figure I’ll provide them here. 1 – 1: Metro City; 1 – 2: World Federal Building; 1 – 3: Warehouse Battle; 1 – 4: Spider Robot; 1 – 5: Magnamite. ---------- Boss bios! Another Treasure staple, the inclusion of a boatload of bosses in every stage, is also coming along for the ride, and though it’s not quite on the level of, say, Alien Soldier, you’re still going to find yourself treated to a new fight against some oversized robotic foe every couple of minutes. These bosses are also most often Astro Boy references themselves, with their own backstory and history, so I’ll be grabbing their sprites, outlining their movesets, and providing any extra info here as well. Spider-bot 6000  Moveset:
As if to directly spite my previous statement, the Spider-bot 6000 is just a generic spider robot, so much so that the game specifically refers to it AS the “spider robot”. While it’s true that Astro’s dealt with various insect-like ‘bots through the ages, this particular one has not been featured previously save for a 10-second appearance in the 2003 series where the smaller spider versions go in to conduct maintenance on a power plant. Not exactly a rich history there. Still, it’s a good introductory boss, not really posing any kind of sizable threat to Astro while at the same time showing him how bosses work. Fights against the big bads in Astro Boy don’t involve any sort of contact damage, meaning you can nuzzle up nice and close to them to lay the smackdown. You’re not able to overlap sprites, but using Astro’s jets DOES let you travel through (SOME OF) your opponents and come out the other side, allowing a very welcome freedom of movement as you cave in enemy skulls. The amount of health remaining in a boss enemy is also helpfully represented as a series of balls at the bottom of the screen, so you can tell at a glance when to finish them off with a quick arm cannon. Magnamite  Moveset:
2003 appearance picture! See it in action! Magnamite was the monster of the day in Astro Boy episode 1, much as the rest of the enemies (save for the big-headed robot dudes) also appeared in episode 1. Don’t worry – Metro City’s the only section of the game taken wholesale from the Anime in that regard, with the rest of the game taking their influences from elsewhere. Normally, Magnamite serves Metro City as the main component in the power plant that services the entirety of the populace, guiding and controlling current to private residences and major businesses alike. Unfortunately, due to a mysterious man’s sabotage, Magnamite is overloaded when all power is directed to the Ministry of Science in an attempt to awaken a comatose Astro, which ultimately results in it going haywire. It’s not evil, so to speak, and ultimately gets defeated when Astro lets it discharge its excess power into his own body, but it doesn’t go down without tearing up a good chunk of the city first. As far as the fight against it goes, I’d normally describe this guy as a wake-up call boss…except for the fact that he appears in the first stage. Astro Boy: Omega factor doesn’t really pull its punches at any point, and Magnamite can and will wreck you thoroughly if you let it. Bosses in this game often don’t really have that large a moveset, but their moves cover large swaths of area and do tons of damage when they DO connect, which means careful positioning is a must. Magnamite’s a good intro to that, as attempting to Arm Cannon it in the face will just cause it to respond with a blast of its own, and I can guarantee that you will end up on the losing side of that exchange. Moreover, his desperation attack is an absolute beast and basically necessitates rapid and skillful use of your boost in order to finally land the killing blow. Not a walk in the park by any means. Still, Omega Factor’s fairly lenient in that death merely means your score gets reset before you get dropped right back into the fray, so with practice you’ll take this thing down without too much hassle. Oh, and if you’re wondering – MagnEmite’s the Pokemon, MagnAmite’s this boss. No jokes allowed. Music! Another bunch of music here, this time with some real gems. The prechapter jingle’s got this weird distorted voice saying “ASTRO BOY” and it’s bizarre and I love it, Metro City’s oozing with personality, and the two boss themes are great. The midboss one, in particular, is notable for being partially reused in Treasure’s 2005 game “Gunstar Super Heroes”, in the intro of the “Smash” track. I’ll link to it below as well for comparison purposes. #6: Prechapter jingle #7: Metro city #8: Conversation #9: Boss theme 1 – Midboss/Comparison Smash #10: Boss theme 2 – Magnamite #11: Stage complete fanfare Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2014 21:39
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Star #3: =Alejo= Through the ages: Manga, 1963, 1980, 2003 See him in action: 1963 EPISODE 6, 1980 EPISODE 4, 2003 EPISODE 4 Tezuka character list bio: Number 26  - He is a kid who is very knowledgeable about Metro City. He may hold a clue to solving the mysteries of this game. This character is thought to be a representation of Osamu Tezuka himself. In the manga, “Captain Atom,” Astro actually plays a side character, while Alejo plays one of the main characters. There is even a scene where a battle between Astro and Alejo takes place.Alejo, along with a few other dudes, is a member of the “School life” grouping of characters. Astro’s always been subjected to the misery of public schooling in his life, both to learn more about the human world and to provide a point of relation for the Japanese elementary/middle schooler target audience - as such, he’s given a couple recurring friends for whenever a school-related story pops up. Alejo’s original name is Tamao Oume, AKA Tamako, he’s the go-to nerd of the group, and his nickname’s presumably meant to be a play on “Tamago”, a Japanese omelet, in reference to his large egg-shaped glasses. He’s most often seen getting picked on and bullied by the school tough guy, but he and Astro immediately kick it off, which helps alleviate the heat on him a bit. Having a super-powered robot buddy tends to help when getting beaten up.  From what I hear, Osamu Tezuka had a bit of a rough school life, getting bullied for his shrimpy build and wavy hair, so I can buy the whole representation thing. As for Tamao’s appearance as Alejo here, however, he gets it significantly easier than he did in the past. He’s something of a gadget-maker in the 2003 show, with the anime link up there showing off a sick flying bike he made, and generally speaking his life is no longer abject misery. The fact that the bully gets made into a dumb member of the friend group and bastardized by the questionable dub helps a bit too. Moving on, the bio’s assertion that he “holds a clue” is really really overblown and also not at all relevant at the current time, so just ignore it. The reference to “Captain Atom”, however, is quite interesting. Captain Atom (originally known as “Ambassador Atom”) was basically prototype Astro Boy before he kicked off his own series.  It had a bit of a weird plot, involving a bunch of denizens of an alternative Earth escaping on a bunch of country-specific spaceships before their planet exploded, wandering space for a bit, and then ending up near our Earth after a while. The only difference between anti-earth people and regular-earth people was their overly large ears; otherwise, each and every person had an exact double from the other earth. Tamao was a dude on the Japan ship who ended up going off on his own and crash-landing on earth, before getting captured by an unscrupulous buisnessman and made to entertain a large audience by fighting a freshly-made Atom in a series of contests. It’s this fight the bio refers to, but it’s probably a good thing they didn’t include the pages themselves, because to make him look stupid, Tamao gets dressed up in a dumb hat…and blackface. Here’s links to two pages depicting the battle if you really want to see it. ONE, TWO The story ultimately ends with the space people coming to live on our Earth, overpopulating the place, starting a war for resources, and then finally having half the old Earth and half the new Earth people move to Mars. It’s a little rough around the edges, but still, if you want to read it you can do so HERE. Alejo’s always more of a supporting character, and as such doesn’t appear or do all that much, but it’s cool that the game hides smaller and one-off characters like Alejo around the environment for you to find. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Aug 27, 2014 19:02
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Glazius posted:Are there any, like, plants or gardens, or are they all facsimiles? This isn't some bad future thing, they've still got nature and wildlife around. Metro City itself has a couple of central park-esque places, here's a random grassy screenshot because why not. E; except for the 2009 movie, that IS some bad future thing. Utopian sky people with crappy polluted ground life and the like, stuff we've seen a bajillion times before. Was probably my biggest gripe with it to be honest. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Aug 29, 2014 |
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Aug 28, 2014 21:19
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Star #4: =Wato Chiyoko= Through the ages: Three-eyed one manga, Three-eyed one 1990 anime, Black Jack guest star, “Yuko” 2003 See her in action: THREE-EYED ONE 1990 EPISODE 1, 2003 EPISODE 1, BLACK JACK 2004 EPISODE 2 ---------- (All credit for scanlated Three-eyed one manga pages go to The Little Corner Scanlation, read the two translated chapters HERE.) ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 02  - She is a very cheerful girl who is full of energy. Dr. O’Shay put her in charge of educating Astro, but she was kidnapped by robots. She always carries bandages with her, just in case someone gets hurt. She plays the female lead character in the anime, “The Three-Eyed One.” Her unusual name is derived from “Dr. Watson” of “Sherlock Holmes”.Wato’s our first foray into characters that really have no right being here but ARE ANYWAY. She’s from a series known as “The Three-Eyed One”, and whenever something like this pops up, I’ll be specifying the series from which they come in the reference pics. If it’s just an unlabeled date (1963, 1980, 2003), it’s Astro Boy. As far as her role in the game goes, she’s a generic princess to rescue to get the plot movin’. While it’s kind of eyerolly in how she’s presented as someone who’s gonna further educate Astro only to IMMIDIATELY get kidnapped and not actually teach him anything, I can let it slide just because it would not exactly be fun to have to sit through some math classes just to further her characterization. What I CANNOT let slide is the fact that they chose this particular character for the role. See, Wato should have been less  and more  because she is not a girl you normally mess with. In her story of origin, she plays a supporting role to the protagonist, one Sharaku Hosuke, a wimpy little second-year middle school student. He’s a dude that’s constantly getting bullied and beaten up, and she’s a girl that’s constantly kicking the rear end of whoever is bullying Sharaku at the current moment. She always chews the guy out about his weakness, but sticks around anyway, because the whole gimmick of the story is that Sharaku becomes a superpowered evil psychic when the large X-shaped bandage on his head is removed, and she finds that side of him interesting for some reason.  Pictured: Wato planning the next bandage-removing instance after Sharaku straight-up murdered a couple of people. Again, she is not someone you would normally just lug off, possessing some very respectable combat skills and a whole lotta spunk, with maybe a dash of insanity. She's also fairly intelligent, not to mention beautiful enough to grab the attention of many of the boys at school. In terms of the bio's bandage line, it’s a subtle reference – she’s not really carrying the bandages in case someone gets hurt, she’s carrying them so she can seal Sharaku’s evil side again. And incidentally, Sharaku Hosuke is an allusion to “Sherlock Holmes”, much as Wato’s name is to Watson. I personally wasn’t able to read past the second chapter due to a lack of scans, but apparently this is because the characters spend much of their time traveling the world and solving the mysteries of ancient ruins to try to uncover the secrets of Sharaku’s ancestry. That’s not ~quite~ all there is to her, though. She’s had cameo appearances in a variety of works (like the Black Jack episode up there), and there’s also a character in the 2003 Astro Boy series named “Yuko” who may or may not be based on Wato. While she’s significantly older than the 12-14 year old Wato of old, she strongly resembles the girl and acts as O’shay’s right-hand woman, much as Wato appears as O’shay’s assistant in-game - I won’t say she’s definitively supposed to be the same character, but the resemblance is certainly there and it would better justify her presence at the beginning of the game. In the show, Yuko’s very organized and forceful, is constantly followed by a flamingo robot named Momo, and spends most of her time forcefully telling off the Professor for not getting to his meetings on time. Again, she’d be more likely to be beating those robots over the head than she would be getting hauled away like a sack of potatoes. Other facts: -Is often described as a Tomboy, and has been known to crossdress on occasion. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2014 18:27
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Stage notes!  The Pacific Ocean acts as the setting in a variety of different Astro boy stories, most often separating a strange, mysterious area or civilization from the Japanese mainland. From undersea cities built by self-replicating robot bombs, to strange messages in bottles leading to a moving sea serpent island, to radioactive ghost ships, the Pacific is chock full of mysteries aplenty for anyone daring enough to explore it. In the context of this game, Astro’s sent to investigate a strange phenomenon that’s been melting airplanes mid-flight, one which has stymied law enforcement due to the lethally high temperatures surrounding the site. This particular chapter is interesting in that it’s actually a combination of two different iconic Astro boy stories – as such, I’m dividing it into two parts, and going into one of the stories in each. The first of these two, “The Artificial Sun”, starts off much the same as in-game. A certain area in the North Pacific has suddenly begun experiencing accidents, with passing ships and planes sending out SOS signals, speaking of giant fireballs, and then ceasing transmission. In light of these events, the ICPO sends a bionic detective to investigate the incident, locate the source, and neutralize it if at all possible. His investigation leads him to two scientists – its creators, Professors Hirata and O’shay. Given that the former has been dead for some time, O’shay becomes the subject of his investigation, and ends up divulging what he knows about the fireball. An artificial sun originally meant to be used as an energy source for the development of far-off planets like Pluto, the thing didn’t work as planned and ended up being stored and forgotten about until it recently disappeared. Shortly thereafter, a group of thugs come looking to kidnap the doctor, which the detective exploits by disguising himself as O’shay and getting brought to their Island fortress. Astro himself follows them, with the intent of destroying the sun and reclaiming the detective.  The island itself is usually known as “Fire Vase Island” within the works, and while this particular mashup gives naming priority to the other story involved in this chapter, Fire Vase does make a cameo later in the game. There’s more to the story, including a link connecting the two separate locations, but I’ll get more into those in the upcoming boss and character bios. Still, if you want, you can read it HERE, starting on page 152. In terms of the stage itself, this is the first of the genre-switches within the game. Astro’s flight capabilities make him a prime subject for some sidescrolling shooter action, and while Ikaruga this ain’t, it’s still a fairly fun switch-up. Gameplay depth is achieved through continuous waves of enemies and bullets (which will later require clever and rapid use of dashes to survive), new types of foes and attack patterns (like ones that explode into bullets upon being destroyed), and occasional midbosses, and overall it feels like a different game altogether. If it happens to be your thing, there’s even a multiplier mechanic in place so that you can score attack! Again, it’s not super-complex, especially by Treasure standards, but it’s still entertaining, and the multiple layers of Parallax scrolling coupled with the upbeat music make it a treat for the senses. Still, Astro controls much the same as he does in grounded stages, able to boost in 8 directions and use most of his weaponry; notably, however, his primary attack is changed from punching to a continuous finger laser. It’s for this reason that I personally recommend focusing on the laser upgrades when powering up, as they’re the most universally useful. As for the beginning part of Cruciform Island, BOY HOWDY IS THAT A LOT OF RANDOM CHARACTERS AND CAMEOS, POWERUPS FOR EVERYONE. This thing was a pain in the tuchas to prepare for, but at least it gave me something to talk about because lol at that stage design. That is not a maze by any standards, bad Treasure. It’s boring, it has random water pits that I’m pretty sure appear nowhere else, it has REALLY ANNOYING BAT ENEMIES THAT JUST WON’T DIE, and it has a random statue you have to destroy that had me searching all over to see if it had any relevance to the Artificial Sun or Cruciform Island or any other story but nope, looks like it’s just there ~BECAUSE~.  Oh, and if you were wondering, both Sapphire (no, you can’t enter that weird doorway-looking thing on her statue, I’ve tried) and Kimba will get things pertainin’ to them, just not right yet. Random lion kid too, he has no relation to Kimba normally but it works because he’s a bizarre hodgepodge of like 4 different references, it’s great. I won’t get into his dialogue, but do pay attention to the plot, it’s not all just circlejerking for comic nerds I swear. And finally, I just want to note that I’m pretty sure none of the statues or figures dotted around in the background and floor are references, but I could be wrong! This Kappa-looking thing strikes me as especially weird. Chapter names: 2 – 1: X Point, Pacific Ocean; 2 – 2: Artificial Sun; 2 – 3: Cruciform Island ---------- Boss bios! Hornet 63-E  Moveset:
The Hornet 63-E is just another giant version of a normal enemy, undeserving of anything more than a name I pulled out of my rear end. Astro’s faced off against a hive of robotic hornets before (who had actually enslaved a decent number of humans to do their dirty work), but this one really has no relation to that particular story. It’s a fairly standard shooter boss, with some mildly difficult-to-dodge patterns but no real long-term danger. Kinda boring overall. Artificial Sun  Moveset:
Manga, 1960, 1980 appearances! See it in action! The Artificial Sun, on the other end of the spectrum, is super unique and interesting and kinda sorta terrifying. It’s big, it’s bad, it will utterly destroy you if you are not prepared. Developed to serve as a power source for the colonization of Pluto, and created in part by Dr. O’shay, it’s a powerful piece of technology capable of creating immense heat, and is equipped with dexterous tentacles because…um…well. In any event, it’s stolen by a man going by the name of Kim Sankaku, leader of a gang of the same name and all-around bad guy. Using it to threaten and extort the countries of the world for money, he controls the thing from a remote island base via a large, organ-like control center; from there, he’s able to send it to any point he wishes, safe under the knowledge that no living thing can approach it. For that matter, few non-living things are capable of approaching it, and Astro really isn’t an exception. When he tries to fight it head-on, he gets a thorough sunburn for his troubles, ultimately ending up in a rather sorry state with every part of his body having fused into an unrecognizable metallic lump. Though he does eventually get better (thanks in part to absconding with another robot’s limbs), it’s one of his most dire defeats, and he ultimately has to fling the Artificial Sun into the real one via the organ in order to destroy it. As such, it makes sense that this particular boss fight is one tough cookie. What it lacks in attacks, it makes up for in sheer screen presence, pushing you to the limit as you try to weave in between its continuously expanding appendages. It might not at first seem that dangerous, but as time goes on, well…  Let’s just say you’re unlikely to ever encounter another boss with this much sheer screen presence. It’s an interesting style of fight, and while it starts to feel a tad bit unfair towards the end there, you’ll always be capable of getting to a safe spot to finish it off, provided you have the necessary skill and reaction time. My only real gripe is that, on higher difficulties, the thing’s huge health (coupled with the lag its growth causes) can make it drag on for a bit longer than it should. The lag also kinda gives it a cinematic feel though, so it's at least somewhat tolerable. Overall it’s a super slick encounter, made all the more cool by its entrance from the background, its highly intense boss music, and the giant unblinking eye Treasure apparently felt the need to slap onto its front. That last one is…a little unnerving. Oh, also, for the sake of thoroughness, HERE’S that picture Inspector Tawashi shows you at the beginning of the stage, HERE’S one of the pages it’s based off of. Big Rollie  Moveset:
Amazing three manga, anime appearance! See it in action! The Amazing Three will be getting their own bio, so I’m not gonna get into them here, but rest assured this bizarre contraption makes at least a ~little~ sense in-context. The Big Rollie is the three’s primary means of transportation within their original work, having been created by that horse in there and modeled after vehicles from their home planet. It’s capable of moving at 5000 km/h, can travel underwater, and with some modifications, is even capable of traveling through the air – notably, however, it doesn’t have much in the way of offensive capability. As such, this “boss” fight consists entirely of them bouncing around at steadily greater speeds, capable of doing no more than contact damage. While said contact damage is admittedly fairly high, they’re incapable of deviating from their standard path, and their health is utter rubbish, so if you just hang to one side and laser them continuously, you can finish off the last 33% or so with a well-placed arm cannon. It’s charming, but not particularly dangerous – notably, however, its boss theme is unique to this fight, and is in fact a simplified version of the Amazing Three’s opening song. Big X  Moveset:
Manga appearance! See him in action! Like the Amazing Three, Big X here’s getting a bio all for himself, so hold your horses. All you need to know is that Big X is both his superhero name AND the name of his power source. Also like the Amazing Three, the boss fight against Big X is a bit simplistic; he’ll teleport around, but he always gives ample reaction time before punching, allowing you to boost towards him and lay a punch combo down before he teleports away. He does have a bit more health than they do, and his “Boost #5” increases his strength exponentially (in hard mode, getting hit by it spells instant death) which makes him ever so slightly more difficult, but that’s about it. As seen in the manga page up there, though, Big X has actually fought Astro once previously, in much the same manner as we’re seeing here. This particular stage is filled to the gills with characters from other works, so it’s nice to have a fight against someone with precedent. And, once again like the Amazing Three, he gets a simplified version of his anime theme for music. Check the video embedded HERE and skip to 2:30 to hear it - or go here for however long this upload lasts! Music! Another batch of great music, with the Pacific Ocean and Artificial Sun ones being personal favorites. The former is just incredibly happy and upbeat, and then suddenly the Sun’s theme kicks in with these super dark and ominous low tones. It’s pretty drat good. And, of course, there’s the cool homages to the W3 and Big X animes – Big X’s even gets an odd little tone in it corresponding to where some kids yell “Yeah!” in his opening. One other notable thing – the conversation with Rainbow Parakeet has a unique, mysterious musical theme that isn’t otherwise used ‘til later. Keep it in mind~. #12: Briefing #13: Strange happenings #14: Pacific Ocean #15: Boss theme 3 – Artificial Sun #16: Cruciform Island #17: Amazing Three/Comparison anime opening #18: Cruciform ruins #19: Big X/Comparison anime opening #20: Mystery Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Apr 7, 2017 |
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Sep 9, 2014 16:54
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AnotherGamer posted:2 questions: First one's just because it's in the extended version of the in-game bio. I considered cutting them because I do not expect to be heckled by Disney for mentioning their stuff in an obscure nerd video, but eh, I had enough time to say em and figured might as well include the COMPLETE PACKAGE. You'll get them again when I finish up their individual bios. E; whoops, beaten, ahhh well. As for the second, Big X is really annoying me with a lack of sources, and while I'm almost positive it must be a reference I haven't actually found anything yet and if I don't find any scans soon it's just gonna be one of those things. At the very least, I can say that that particular style of bandage shows up all over the place, both for comedic injuries and as normal accessories to characters like Sharaku Hosuke and the Hyoutan-Tsugi.
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Sep 10, 2014 00:15
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Choco1980 posted:We're nowhere near 100% characters however. Note that there's one for each stat point in the game. They're just all over the place as you go. There's actually more than one per, near the end you keep getting them tossed at you despite having maxed everything~ On that note though this IS probably the most character-dense section of the game, even if some of them aren't given to you til later (Tawashi) so it's not always like this.
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Sep 10, 2014 04:56
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Star #5: =Amazing Three= Through the ages: Amazing three manga, Amazing three anime, Pre-transformation, Pukko 1980 cameo See them in action: 1965 W3 ANIME EPISODE 1, 1980 EPISODE 27 PUKKO CAMEO. ---------- (All credit for scanlated Wonder Three manga pages goes to Two Pioneers, check their stuff out HERE and read the chapters without having to download HERE.) ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 05  - Team made of Bokko, Pukko, and Nokko. They are a part of the Galactic Patrol. Their orders are to research Earth, and destroy it with a proton bomb if necessary. They appeared in “Weekly Shonen Sunday” from May 1965 to May 1966. The human who befriends the Amazing Three, Shinichi Hoshi, is named after a sci-fiction writer. And Shinichi’s Teacher, Mr. Baba, is named after the comic artist Noboru Baba. During its run, this comic changed magazines as well as its contents. Yasuo Ohtsuka, of “Lupin the 3rd” fame, helped create the anime’s opening. The Amazing Three is known in the East as “W3(Wonder Three)”. “Lupin the 3rd” is a registered trademark of “TMS Entertainment.”“The Amazing Three”, known in the east as Wonder Three and often abbreviated as W3, has an interesting history behind it. The bio alludes to this a bit, what with the different names and the line about changing magazines, but it’s a fairly cool story involving industrial espionage, reboots, Kodansha bans, and reconciliations. I’m not going to get super into it here in favor of focusing on the characters, but THIS PAGE has a good synopsis of the whole shebang, would recommend. It’s a pretty decent read! Also pretty decent: the work itself. I’m not gonna lie, this one’s one of my personal favorites among the many works represented in this game. W3 is cool in that the namesake group isn’t the only trio involved – there’s actually two other main protagonists, a pair of brothers named Shinichi and Kouichi Hoshi, one of which is a hot-blooded, misguided but justice-seeking youth, and the other of which is a secret agent codenamed “F7”, who foils dastardly plots while living under the guise of a humble manga artist. The focus of the plot tends to switch between them, with the W3 watching from afar and assisting when need be, and it makes the story as a whole kind of feel like a bunch of separate-but-related arcs. Sometimes, it’s about Shinichi’s struggles in life as he gets into brawls with corrupt students and adults, while other times it’s about the exploits of his literally James Bond older brother, who’s working to destroy diabolical facilities alongside his fellow Phoenix agents. It’s an interesting story, and it’s all taking place while the W3 themselves look on…and decide whether or not humanity’s so disgusting they have to nuke the entire planet. The W3 is composed of three members: Bokko, the captain of the crew who takes the form of a rabbit, Pukko, the Lieutenant who takes the form of a Duck, and Nokko, the Engineer of the crew who takes the form of a horse. The lot of them make up unit three of the galactic patrol, a veteran unit well-known for their previous successes, who get sent to Earth after a summit of planets tie a vote pertaining to whether or not the savages on Earth should be destroyed – their role is to observe the Earthlings for a year, determine their worth as a species, and, if they should be found wanting, to blow the entire place up with an anti-proton bomb.  From left to right, that’s Bokko, Pukko, and Nokko; thing is, in order to blend in with the inhabitants of earth, they need to disguise themselves as earth creatures. As such, they employ a device known as a trans-disguiser, sucking up various fauna from their surroundings after landing in rural Japan, splitting up their genes, and combining them with their own to achieve their current forms…which, incidentally, VAPORIZES the initial subjects, at least in the original manga. Yikes.  It’s here that we see them for the majority of the work. They’re supacute, but they’re also more than a little dangerous, packing alien weaponry and tech in their pursuit of justice, as well as their own human sidekick. They end up hooking up with Shinichi after he saves them from a fire, and as such he often tags along with them and gets exposed to various extraterrestrial toys himself. As far as the individual members go, each of them has their own personality, powers, and role in the story, which I figure I’ll cover here even though they’re more of a single unit as far as the game goes. Bokko, the rabbit leader, is the most compassionate and human-siding of the three, taking an instant liking to Shinichi upon landing and generally putting the nix on any premature Earth-destroying. Being a rabbit, most of her powers employ her large ears, ranging from the sensible (good hearing) to the less sensible (shooting laser beams with varying effects from them, speaking telepathicaly), but being a CAPTAIN she’s also usually the order-giver, and as such has the powers of the other two at her disposal as well. Pukko, the duck lieutenant, is the most cynical, hot-headed and human-hating of the three, constantly complaining about their assignment and trying to prematurely detonate the Earth. He’s really stubborn, trying to avoid getting transformed into a duck and hiding things from his captain on multiple occasions, but he’ll grudgingly admit his wrongness when faced with the facts. His appearance is rather funny in that his hairstyle and penchant to show up with guitars is a pretty obvious homage to the Beatles (who were a pretty big thing in the 60s), though said hair is actually a wig that pops off whenever he’s surprised. For whatever reason, this guy’s the one you’ll usually see popping up as cameos in other works, like the linked 1980 Astro episode or this random appearance in the opening of 2004 black jack. Power-wise, he’s usually packing heat, but being a duck he’s also capable of flight and can create powerful shockwaves by flapping his wings. He can play the guitar a bit too, though whether or not he’s good at it is up for debate. He’s probably my personal favorite, just because of how much of a jerkass he is. Nokko, the horse engineer, is the most laid-back of the three, following orders but generally just keeping to the sidelines. He can be a bit goofy and comes off as thick at times, but that’s just the way he is. He often acts as the straight man to Pukko’s antics, keeping him in line despite his technically being a lower rank, and is usually the guy who steers the group back on-track and gets things done. Despite the obvious setback of being hooved, his power is the ability to create basically anything extremely quickly from whatever’s lying around, ranging from an alien surgery table capable of completely reforming someone’s body to the Big Rollie, their iconic mode of transport.  I went a bit into this in the boss bio for the three, but it’s basically an advanced alien all-terrain vehicle capable of going at superfast speeds, all while looking like a grungy old tire. Glorious. The three are super endearing, it’s a fun story with interesting plots involving poverty, ecology and other social justice topics, and it even has a definitive ending. The anime’s had some trouble over the years, with floods damaging the Japanese negatives and much of the original English dub having been lost to the MISTS OF TIME, but there’s still enough floating around youtube to get a good taste of it. The theme song of the show is especially catchy, I’ve been having trouble getting the voice actors belting out WANNNNNDAAAAA SURRIIIIII out of my head for the last few months, and it’s made even worse given that the battle theme for these guys is based off of it. It’s a fun show and I’d recommend. And, for the sake of completion, here’s the dudes they reference in the bio: Shinichi Hoshi the sci-fi dude, Noboru Baba the comic artist, and Yasuo Ohtsuka, whose name only googleresults in a Toei/Gibli animator by the name of “Otsuka”. The pages reference his works on Lupin too, though, so I figure the game just misspells it. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Sep 10, 2014 18:46
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Star #6: =Big X= Through the ages: Manga, Big X manga, Big X anime, 1980 cameo See him in action: 1980 EPISODE 28, BIG X ANIME SAMPLE, BIG X EPISODE 1 (will probably die soon) ---------- To be honest, Big X has given me a lot of trouble. I’ve found no translation of his namesake manga, very little uploaded footage, and limited resources pertaining to it; that said, he’s shown up in a couple Astro Boy works, and I’ll be using THIS PAGE’S series preview and episode descriptions to get as much into him as I can, so it’s not all doom and gloom. Any anime pictures I use are from either this tiny clip or said series preview, scroll down a bit and you’ll see it, I recommend watching just because it’s fairly short and you get to hear the original opening, complete with spirited yelling and “BIGU ECKSUUUUU”. Skip to 2:30 to avoid the Japanese exposition banter. ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 05  - Real name: Akira Asagumo. Uses the “Big X” to transform into a giant. Appeared in “Shonen Book” from 1963 to 1966, as one of the first giant heroes. “Big X” is actually the name of a chemical that gives him super powers. He yells “Boost 3” when he injects himself with Big X using a pencil-shaped needle. Boost 1, he uses the needle; 2, he turns to steel; boosts 3, 4, and 5 make him grow. In the anime, his source of power was changed to be a shortwave magnetic pencil. The enemy robot “V-3” that appears in the manga is named after V2 rockets. In the comic, he is called a “cyborg,” though his powers are not cybernetic. This was probably due to Tezuka’s background as a professor of medicine.Unlike many of Tezuka’s other heroes and stories, Big X conforms more to conventional superhero tales, being a good, strong, cleft-chinned male hero. His stories are more black-and-white, good-vs-evil then some of Tezuka’s other works, with his nickname literally being “BIG X, THE MESSENGER OF JUSTICE.” He’s big, he’s strong, he’s infallible, and he punches Nazis, so he basically has everything a hero in the 60’s needed. Within his story, Big X normally takes the form of mild-mannered Akira Asagumo, a young boy with great potential. 20 years ago, his grandfather, Dr. Asagumo, was a Japanese scientist hired by Hitler himself to assist Germany’s own Dr. Engel in the creation of a new superweapon, codenamed “Big X”. The two conspire together to delay the production of the weapon, and upon Germany’s defeat, Dr. Asagumo entrusts the weapon’s blueprint to his son, Sigeru. Unfortunately for him, in the current age a group of Nazi sympathizers come to lay claim to the blueprints, absconding with the secret and planning to revitalize the Nazi party with its completion. Sigeru’s own son, Akira, pursues them and manages to reclaim the final product, a drug capable of expanding the human body without limit – thus does he claim the name of the drug as his own, becoming the super hero Big X and fighting the Nazis (and Dr. Engel’s own grandson, Hans) in an effort to prevent whatever diabolical scheme they come up with next. As the bio states, the initial form the Big X chemical took was that of an injectable drug, but for rather obvious reasons this got changed when it took to the airwaves. Instead, it appears as a sort of ovoid amulet Akira touches to his body when he wishes to transform, allowing him to expand exponentially in size and also apparently materializing his superhero costume out of thin air.  Given that the source of his power is external, and not actually inherent to the boy himself, a lot of the conflict within his work comes from the misplacing/stealing of the drug – once he’s transformed, though, he’s a real force to be reckoned with, possessing punches capable of leveling buildings and strength capable of dealing with whatever form the Nazi monster of the day happens to take, like the V3 robots he mentions. From what I hear, Tezuka didn’t recycle the character all that much due to the fact that he “came to represent an overly righteous hero trumpeting justice”; still, though, the series gained a decent amount of popularity (due in large part to the fairly violent depictions of war, concentration camps and other atrocities) which meant Big X would pop up on occasion for cameo appearances. In Astro Boy’s case, he appears in the background of a few episodes, and takes a leading role alongside some other cameos in the bonus short chapter “Slippery Catfish in Imminent Danger,” an odd piece that serves more as a means to combine various characters from the series Tezuka had running at the time. You can read it HERE starting on page 93; it even features a short fight scene between Astro and Big X wherein the latter throws out some massive punches, much like in the game. Quite cool. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Sep 12, 2014 22:41
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Star #7: =Rainbow Parakeet= Through the ages: Manga, 1963, 1980, 2003, Rainbow Parakeet manga See him in action: 1963 EPISODE 12, 1980 EPISODE 39, 2003 EPISODE 8 Tezuka character list bio: Number 06  - Real name: Sherlock Homespun. He is a detective from England. Everything but his head was replaced by robotic parts, causing him to hate robots. He originally appeared as a theif, a unique kind of character for the time, in “Weekly Shonen Champion” from March 1981 to May 1983. His role in this game is based on his role in the anime, “The Stolen Sun”. He also appears as “Kato the Explosive Devil” in the 2003 anime version of Astro Boy. Tezuka thought of having different characters play different roles, like movie stars. He called this idea the “Star System”. Even Astro once appeared as a human character in “Black Jack.”Rainbow Parakeet is an interesting one in that his character has kind of melded with and absorbed another in order to become part of Astro Boy history. In the original “The Artificial Sun” story, a detective named Sherlock Homespun/Holmspun is tasked by the ICPO to investigate the case of the strange fireball terrorizing the world’s oceans. The dude had no resemblance to rainbow parakeet as we see him here, instead looking like his detective namesake with his British attire and pipe smoking, and indeed, as the story goes on, he ends up begrudgingly teaming up with Astro as they do some detective work to track down where the Sun came from and who is controlling it. He’s a master of disguise, which allows him to infiltrate the bad guy’s lair and ends up being a crucial part of the final showdown; still, though, he never shows up beyond this particular story. Fast-forward to 1980. Osamu Tezuka’s series “Rainbow Parakeet” is starting serialization, and the 1980 Astro Boy series is going strong. In his own series, RP is a master thief, traveling around and filling in for actors in reimaginings of famous real-world plays, stealing both the hearts and the wallets of his audience and evading capture by the officers hounding him. He’s a talented thespian, but he’s also capable of disguising himself as anyone and mimicking their every mannerism, hence his name – he can become any color of the rainbow, and he’s a master of mimicry. I haven’t been able to read it myself due to a lack of translations, there’s a decent bio here (apparently he’s up there with Lupin the 3rd as the original “Dashing Thief” archetype in manga), but the gist is his powers make him quite similar to classic Holmspun. As such, someone had the bright idea to use RP to fill the role in 1980’s take on the Artificial Sun, and thus, the two individuals combined into one. He didn’t survive unchanged, though. See, while both characters are masters of disguise, Sherlock Holmspun’s take on it is decidedly…unique. At some point during his work, a colleague of his was captured by EVIL MEN, and though he managed to save said colleague, a dynamite trap ended up severely wounding Mr. Holmspun. Unfortunately for him, his personal doctor was out of town, and the robot surgeons they got to operate on him just cut their losses and replaced HIS ENTIRE BODY WITH ROBOTICS…save for his head.  While some would be more than okay with this outcome, others would be less than thrilled, especially if they’re robot racists. And, as it just so happens, Mr. Holmspun falls into that very category! An ardent hater of robots, this guy staunchly refuses to work with or interact on any level with an artificial being, and his sudden transformation both exasperates his hatred and puts him into a staunch state of denial, insisting that he remains 100% human despite his physical setbacks. It’s kind of funny to see, even if his pigheadedness puts him at odds with Astro within his story. Still, though, he’s more than willing to put his new augmentations to use in his line of work, as the cybernetics allow him to alter his height and build to whatever he happens to desire. He uses it to mimic O’shay, the creator of the Sun, and get kidnapped in the doctor’s stead, so at the very least it’s not a complete downer. CHECK THIS OUT, it’s a pretty hilarious demo of his powers complete with DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUN reveal. Unfortunately for the Sherlock, the way the story ends up playing out involves him getting a bullet between the eyes and his head replaced with a robotic one as well, creating something of a humanoid Ship of Theseus, but for the purposes of this game that never happens. And it’s just as well, Robo-Parakeet looks kinda creepy. Oh, and as for that line about Kato the Explosive Devil in the Bio – he shows up a couple times in the 2003 anime, but he’s entirely out of his usual character, instead becoming a mad bomber who insists on communicating with creepy clown versions of himself. It’s more than a little weird, but as it says, the Star System basically lets anyone become anything, so whatever. Alternatively, it could be an entire extra layer of reference, as the official Rainbow Parakeet page shows a character named “Clown Tommy” who greatly resembles the thing, but having been unable to read the series directly I couldn’t say. Other facts: -Sherlock Homespun’s body requires frequent oiling, lest he rust up and become incapable of movement. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Apr 3, 2017 |
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Sep 14, 2014 21:32
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Star #8: =Wally Kisagari= Through the ages: Manga, 1963, 1980, 2003 See him in action: 1963 EPISODE 7, 1980 EPISODE 4, 2003 EPISODE 27, JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO APPEARANCE ---------- Watch a minute of the 1980 one, it’s probably the best intro to this guy you can get. ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 07  - Real name: Shunsaku Ban. This detective appears in many of Osamu Tezuka’s works. In the original Astro Boy, he appears as Astro’s school teacher. Stage 2 – 1 is named after his manga “X Point on the South Pacific.” The whites of his eyes became wrinkles and his pupils became the eye. Similar changes are seen in other characters, such as Disney’s Mickey Mouse. An interesting detail, given Osamu Tezuka’s great respect for Disney. “Mickey Mouse" is a registered trademark of “Walt Disney Productions.” Wally, Mr. Mustacio, Shunsaku Ban, Edgar Pompous, Daddy Walrus, Higeoyaji – this particular character has gone by many names, in many works. His list of appearances extends so far that it’s over a page long even when zoomed as far out as possible, and rather than say what he IS in it’d be easier to chronicle those works he’s NOT present in. Suffice it to say, Wally is about as iconically Tezuka as you can get. Based off a middle school friend’s doodle of his father, Wally’s character is as crude as his origins; a rough-around-the-edges, prematurely bald, short-tempered older man, he’s not exactly what you’d expect out of a hero, but drat if he’s not one of the most enjoyable personalities in the Tezukaverse. What he lacks in refinement, he makes up for in sheer charm: An old-fashioned country style, a boundless font of energy, and a heart of gold all serve to endear this guy to readers and make every appearance a treat. He’s goofy and weird, but also single-minded and diligent; he’s excitable and violent, but also just and morally grounded; he’s old-fashioned and strict, but also accepting and forgiving. He covers tons of bases and comes out all the better for it.  He’s Japanese through-and-through (in his own words, a “true-blue third generation Tokyoite”), living in an old-fashioned Japanese-style house, drinking sake and eating sushi, but while he’s set in his old-fashioned ways he’s far from a crotchety inflexible old guy. Wally’s always up for adventure and open to new ideas, and while his role in the Astro Boy series is primarily that of a schoolteacher he’s often seen tagging along with Astro on his world-spanning adventures, providing his own brand of humor and assistance along the way. And don’t go thinking said assistance is minor or everything; Wally’s a man of many, many talents, and is quite a capable dude when he needs to be. For starters, he and O’shay are long-time friends (Wally’s father owned the place where a young O’shay lived and practiced inventing crude robotics) which means he has a direct link to the Ministry and its resources. Secondly, he moonlights as an accomplished private detective, with connections to Metro City’s police force and some sizable deduction skills, which means he’s quite adept at tracking down and apprehending those villains too slippery for Astro to deal with by himself. And thirdly, he is an ABSOLUTE BEAST.  Wally’s packing some serious guns under that dapper suit of his, and he will have no qualms manhandling you into submission (or just straight-up throwing you through a bus) if you happen to piss him off enough. He’s a master of many fighting styles, a crack shot with a revolver, and has endurance enough to be literally crucified via electric cabling only to pop back a little later slightly annoyed, so it’s generally a bad idea to get on his bad side. Wonderfully enough, one of the best ways to get on said bad side is to be an rear end in a top hat racist around him, which means he’s one of the few reasonable people around to help Astro when things get dicey. He’s a good guy all around. ‘Course, I’d be remiss in not giving some mention to his non-Astro works here, seeing how the bio specifically mentions them. As it says, his design has changed a bit (compare 1963, 1980 pictures to see how the eyes changed to just the pupils), but his personality really hasn’t ever done the same – here he is as a good-natured but crass ramen shop owner (The Three-Eyed One), here he appears as a tough but kind safari guide/explorer (Jungle Emperor Leo), now he’s an old-fashioned but goofy Japanese fisherman (Wonder 3), and, oh look, a dude in the bleachers boisterously heckling a competitor for not playing fair (Prime Rose). When he shows his bushy face, you can always expect more or less the same old Wally you’ve come to know and love, no matter how small or large a role he happens to take. Lastly, I just want to take a moment to mention his role in Metropolis (2001), seeing as *I* made mention of it in the video.  This was my first intro to Wally the character, and honestly it’s one of the reasons I like him so much. He’s noticeably younger here, but still possesses the same traits his older self does – amazing mustache, goofy mannerisms, professional detectiving, and inherent kindness. It’s a good movie that I’d recommend, it used to have a full version up on Youtube but it looks like it’s been taken down (a fate I fear a large portion of this LP will fall into at some point, ACT NOW, the 2003 episode 1 links are already down in America), you can probably find it pretty easily at a library or something, here’s the trailer. EITHER WAY, it would be a good idea to watch it, as a couple BIG characters later down the line star in that movie and it’ll make their roles have more impact when we get there. That aside, the picture above depicts Wally (known as Shunsaku Ban) alongside his nephew, Kennichi, as they try to track down the organ smuggler Dr. Laughton. Kennichi’s often depicted alongside Wally and ~might~ be showing up later, but what I really want to mention is that bluish guy up there. He’s a robot detective that gets assigned to assist Shunsaku in his investigation, and he gets his name when Shunsaku absent-mindedly recalls his old dog named “Pero”. Well…  That dog existed. It *was* Wally’s dog in a chapter of Mighty Atom titled “The Hot Dog Corps”. And, wouldn’t you know it, the story revolves around a woman who kidnaps dogs, removes their brains, modifies them, and puts them into humanoid robots to create a legion of obedient super-soldiers. The result:  Pero becoming a blue-skinned humanoid dude with line markings extending down from his eyes. What does this have to do with the game, or Astro in general? NOTHING! But it’s just an awesome detail that blew my mind when I was first starting my research for this LP, having watched Metropolis a copious amount of times, and I wanted to share it~. And as for the X Point on the South Pacific thing, I mentioned in O’shay’s bio I don’t really know anything, and I STILL DON’T, I NEVER WILL, HERE’S THE OUTLINE PAGE. Lots of pictures in this one but I don't care, I really really like Wally. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Sep 16, 2014 16:57
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Glazius posted:Man, look at Astro, getting accused like a dude on Detective Island. You know, I've never really thought about that, but you're right. "Hey, you hear about that remote area in the Pacific where planes are melting and EVERYONE IS DYING? Let's go fly over there and see what's up!" ...Also. I've been trying to do an update a week, but four bios in a row burned me out a lil bit, and then this happened, and I guess what I am saying is that Astro's just gonna need to sit his rear end down and wait for a while more. *returns to playing quest medleys*
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Sep 22, 2014 20:48
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Stage Notes!  Cruciform Island, sometimes known as Crucifix or Cross Island, is our second destination within the stage of the same name. A large, remote, and top-secret location off the coast of Japan, Crucifix Island was until recently a benign and unremarkable location. That all changed when a standard survey of the area revealed it was hiding a fabulously rich vein of Uranium beneath its soil. Immediately upon its discovery, the Japanese government began a covert operation with the sole purpose of harnessing this immense natural treasure trove, and set upon converting the location in its entirety into a mine and storage facility. Though Japan was initially successful in its goal, collecting riches beyond their wildest dreams below the surface of the island (including gems and precious metals), such a lucrative venture could not stay secret for long, and thus did the hungry eyes of the opportunistic turn towards the island.  As you might have already gathered from the mention of him in the Artificial Sun story and the various dialogues with the personalities dotting the island, these eyes manifested themselves in the form of Mr. Kim Sankaku and his gang. The game refers to him and his group as “The Kinsankaku”, but regardless of spelling it’s a name that translates to “The Golden Triangle”. He’s leader of an international criminal enterprise, and each and every one of them wears said golden triangle upon their clothes – if you look closely when Astro jumps down, you can even see Kim himself sporting it. It’s Kim that ties the threads of this chapter together, bringing two of his schemes together to create an entirely new one, and the stage is lovingly crafted from top to bottom with this in mind. Whereas Sherlock Holmspun fit in with the Sun, Wally was originally a temporary teacher training the robot workers on-site, among them both Astro himself…and an incomplete, rebellious child robot named Pook with the ability to transform. Astro’s fall down a large pipe into the factory area mirrors a similar structural layout in the original story. The large cargo elevator harkens back to the original purpose of the area, and Kim’s dialogue about finding “the treasure” beneath the island but only finding Pook is a great nod to the original work. It’s all very well done and never fails to bring a smile to my face, ESPECIALLY when the game has all the heroes of justice assemble to the villain’s utter bemusement. And, of course, if you want to read the original story for yourself, you can do so HERE. In contrast to the ruins above, the factory setting is fairly straightforward and free of distractions, save for the V3 robots Kim bought (presumably straight from Hitler). They go down fairly easily, and the lift ride down only lasts as long as the enemies that guard it, but do try to go wild during your descent – a certain someone’s tucked away rather discretely, and while you’ll more than likely find him by kicking the enemies around or throwing out a random arm cannon, it never hurts to be careful.  GAH. What are you doing back there Magma, you are terrifying. Chapter names: 2 – 4: Dreadful Robots V3; 2 – 5: The Elevator; 2 – 6: Transformable Robot “Pook” ---------- Boss Bios! Dreadful robot “V3”  Moveset:
Big X manga, anime appearance! See it in action! DREADFUL ROBOT: V3. Big X mentioned these big guys by name, making reference to Kim’s purchase of them from “the evil country Carthage”, but to be honest I don’t know too much more about them given that I can’t find any sizable resources on Big X’s series. Regardless, they show up prominently on cover art, and a fight against one can be seen at 3:15 via the anime link up there, so presumably they’re a recurring foe within Big X’s universe. I’d further posit that it was Germany that created them, but that’s mainly just because I’d like to imagine the Führer tinkering in his robot workshop. Like many of the other small minibosses encountered so far, the V3 robots aren’t especially threatening, with largely telegraphed and easily dodgeable moves; after taking the first one out, however, you suddenly get FOUR dropped on your head without warning, and unless you already know they’re coming it’s pretty much guaranteed to damage you. Their numbers can be a bit discouraging, but thankfully an arm cannon’ll pierce through all of their large frames and take them out super quick. …I’m not sure what’s up with that weird gargling noise they make when they’re flailing, though. Hitler has a sense of humor? Pook  Manga, 1960, 1980 appearance! See him in action! Pook, hoo boy. The instant many of you saw the fight begin, one name likely flashed across your mind: Seven Force. Since its debut as Gunstar Green’s personal shape-shifting weapon/ship in Gunstar Heroes, this boss has had multiple cameo appearances and callbacks in varying Treasure works; in fact, there’s actually already been one reference to it in-game (the naming of Astro’s powers as his “Seven Forces”). But Pook here really drives the point home with his shape-shifting boss battle. And, like his predecessors, he is a BLAST to take down. Contrary to expectations, he only has 4 separate forms within this fight, which is admittedly a little odd; he DOES, however, transition between 7 phases at random as his health bar depletes, meaning you’ll get a couple repeats. I kinda figure he was probably planned to have more forms, like perhaps a dog or horse, but for whatever reason had to be downgraded. THAT ASIDE. I am going to be holding back on Pook’s individual bio for ~reasons~, so here’s the rundown on this guy: Pook was created by a man named Dr. Tozawa at a time when transformable robots were all the rage. Tozawa went all-out in his creation, but to do so stole funding from the Ministry of Science, and ended up arrested before he could finish up Pook. As such, the robot boy was left in an unfinished state, became bitter and uncontrollable, and was eventually transferred into the underground Crucifix Island robot school. Neither his appearance nor his personality were at all the meek, friendly one seen here, and he frequently got into brawls with the other students; he did, however, care strongly for his creator, and when Tozawa (with two other escapees) orchestrates a prison break and travels to the island Pook is overjoyed to be reunited with his creator. Tozawa fixes up the little bot, allowing him free reign over his transformative powers, and uses him in an attempted robbery of the island’s riches, but unfortunately for him one of his escapee comrades turns out to be an underling of Kim Sankaku, who kills Tozawa and attempts to exploit Pook for himself. Like in-game, Pook briefly fights for Kim, but ultimately ends up joining forces with Astro when he learns what’s happened to his father. Skunk, the second bad guy shown with Pook in-game, isn’t actually part of this story, but he IS known for manipulating little kid robots – he’ll get more love later, as he’s actually another one of my personal favs. Pook has a plethora of transformations, each with their own style of attacking, so they’re each getting their own section as well. This LP is nothing if not thorough. Quntole Force 
Original Pook transformation! “Quntole” is purported to mean “Condor” in “Quechuan”, the language of the Inca Empire, but as noted by the copious amounts of quotes there I am not exactly an expert on the language. What I CAN tell you is that, like the Cruciform ruins above, this boss fight has a lot of central/south American influences. Recognize this?  That’s one of the famous Peruvian Nazca Lines, and a slightly altered version of it shows up upon the transformation’s initiation. Each of Pook’s forms has one of these glyphs, and it’s a super-cool way to tie him into the ruins he was excavated from. Also cool: this form greatly resembles one of Seven Force’s own transformations! As far as the form’s battle goes, it’s visually impressive but not very powerful. Quntole’s fire honestly doesn’t harm you a ton, presumably because we’ve already been exposed to heat exponentially more intense, and the only real danger is the heavily telegraphed claw attack. Moreover, Quntole is the largest of Pook’s four forms, and is thus quite easy to punch to death. Cool-looking, but that’s about it. Leo Force 
Original Pook transformation! Pook’s always had a lion form for a transformation, but this one’s special. I got into it when he first appeared on the surface, but this guy’s Leo the Lion, better known to western viewers as Kimba the White Lion. His is one of the top three most successful Tezuka works, having been made and remade a copious amount of times; you can watch one of many episodes HERE, or check out the full-length theatrical movie HERE. Leo’s story is divided into two distinct parts, one focusing on his life as a cub and maturation into an adult, and the other looking at his later life as ruler of the jungle and father to two children of his own, with the latter being where the in-game design is pulled from. He’s a majestic, powerful and intelligent creature, but as far as I’m aware was NOT capable of conjuring up green energy auras and did not possess that gold/red gem that Pook’s forms consistently have. Close enough, anyway. The fight against Leo Force is simultaneously the easiest and the most difficult phase; Leo force is the hardest-hitting of the four, and is capable of covering large swaths of ground in very short order, but on the flip side of things he has absolutely no method for dealing with enemies behind himself. This means that if you manage to get behind him, it’ll take him a few seconds to turn around and prepare a counterattack, so if you time your strikes right you can punch him in the rear a few times, boost to the other side when Leo turns, and then repeat ad infinitum. As long as you make sure to control the big kitty’s position it’s cake, but if you can’t manage it you’ll take some serious lumps. EX skills are useable, but not entirely recommended, as Leo has a knack for activating his aura and tanking the whole thing. Hanumaan Force 
This one does not have an ORIGINAL POOK TRANSFORMATION, because as far as I’ve seen Pook never actually transformed into a monkey. It’s a pretty darn iconic Nazca line though, so WHY NOT. Its name is presumably derived from the Hindu God Hanuman, who is commonly associated with monkeys, and it’s the fastest of Pook’s forces. Hanumaan strikes swiftly and relentlessly, turns and moves extremely fluidly, and is quite honestly probably the most difficult one for me. His tail extends -just- under the length of the screen, which means you can hypothetically just stay on the opposite end and laser him, but his ability to move to his tail’s location means that won’t be lasting long and you’re probably better off just getting close and punching/supering him as quickly as you can. Alternatively, use your machine guns; they have the fun effect of stunning many enemies in place, Pook included, which’ll give you some breathing room and let you follow up with some punches. Bahamute Force 
Original Pook transformation! Bahamute Force is our last form for the day, and while many/most of you probably go straight to the “Final Fantasy” part of your brain upon hearing that name it’s far more likely a reference to Bahamot, the fish that supports the earth in Arabian mythology. This form delights in hiding from you, staying submerged more often than not and making damaging a pain; as such, immediately upon transformation you should try to get an arm cannon in on it to save yourself some hassle. Afterwards, your best bet is tracing its movements and moving accordingly – trying to snipe it when it emerges is ideal, but it can be tricky to hit Bahamute when it’s using splash, so your real goal here is to get it to expose its dorsal fin. One it does, use a laser finger, but don’t go for more than one – if it decides to use a faster version of the attack, you’ll be trapped and unable to dodge, so instead do a quick hop and check the speed before countering. Bahamute’s a little annoying to damage, so you might want to save your supers for him. Music! Only one new track, but that’s okay because it’s Pook’s battle theme and it is great. Unlike some other Seven Force callback fights, it’s not sporting the classic music or any variation thereof as far as I can tell (the intro notes kinda resemble parts of it?), but on the flipside it has a very…ethnic feel to it. It feels like “ancient ruins boss”, is what I’m saying, and I really like how it sounds. #21: Boss theme 4 – Pook Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Apr 3, 2017 |
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Oct 2, 2014 20:53
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Star #9: =Magma= Through the ages: Ambassador Magma manga, A.M. Live-action, A.M. Anime, 1980 cameo See him in action: 1966 LIVE-ACTION OPENING, 1993 A.M. ANIME EPISODE 2, 1980 EPISODE 28 ----------- You can read the manga HERE, I’m relatively certain it’s fan-translated but was unable to find the original source, if anyone knows it I’ll totes credit them. ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 30  - He is usually called “Ambassador Magma”. A Rocket-Man created by the guardian god of Earth, “Master Earth.” Magma, his wife, and his son can all be summoned by a special whistle. The live-action version created by P Productions is possibly the most famous. Tezuka was friends with the cartoonist, Ushiosouji of P Productions. There is much material that was created, but not published in the manga. The live-action version featured animation that was revolutionary at the time. It was created by Kenzou Masaoka, who is the father of Japanese animation. It was a very influential relationship that Osamu Tezuka had with him.It’s a rocket! It’s a man! It’s…A ROCKET-MAN! “Ambassador” Magma holds a special place in history as the star of the world’s first full-color Tokusatsu, predating even the famous Ultraman. He’s large, he’s metallic, and he has visible bolts, but he’s NOT a robot – don’t be fooled. Like many of Tezuka’s other main stars, Magma’s a fighter of the people, a defender of justice; unlike his peers, however, his duties are a little more…cosmic in scale. He was born deep within the Earth’s crust, made by a kindly old man known only as “Earth”. He’s a being of living metal, a golden giant, created for the sole purpose of protecting the Earth, and he’s quickly put on full-time duty seeing as the Earth soon finds itself threatened by a menace from outer space – the interstellar conqueror, Goa. Goa’s a force of universal evil, a plague that’s spread across the galaxy, and Earth is but the latest target of his ambitions.  It’s Goa that serves as the primary antagonist of Magma’s story, sending minions and monsters alike down to Earth’s surface in an attempt to ready it for his invasion. In turn, Magma fights the extraterrestrial onslaught off utilizing his host of superpowers: His large size and strength, his laser-firing antennae, his turbo-powered arms, and the arsenal in his chest are all powerful tools in his fight for Earth. Magma’s not hoofing it alone, though. He’s a family man, and has a Rocketonian wife and son waiting for him to come home, or occasionally going out to do some of the heavy lifting themselves. Wifey’s named Mol, and the kid’s named Gum… and is based upon yet another character. Defending the Earth’s a full-time job, after all, and the more the merrier, so co-staring with Magma is the Japanese Murakami family. This here’s the father, Atsushi, alongside his wife Tomoko – He’s a newspaper reporter, and is one of many charged by Goa to spread the word of the impending invasion. And this little tyke’s Mamoru, who manages to snap a pic of Goa and gets himself involved when Magma comes looking for the picture and takes a liking to the kid. Gum’s based on him, and as Mamoru’s already in the thick of things, he gets presented with a spiffy little whistle with which he can summon Magma and co. This whistle is the same as the one given to Astro in this game, and can be used to summon any of the three Rocketonians for assistance in fighting the forces of evil; they’ll drop what they’re doing, engage transformation and –  The game doesn’t really make this clear, but the classification “Rocketman” is not hyperbole – Magma is literally a man, that is also a rocket. He (and his family) are all capable of transitioning into a sleek, streamlined vehicular mode, and while it varies between a smooth and rough transition depending on the adaption, the end result is always an elegant, efficient, and deadly fighter more than capable of holding its own in an aerial battle. This allows Magma and Co. to rapidly come to Mamoru’s aid, to fight Goa in the air, and even to transport humans within their bodies – and it’s pretty drat cool besides. As for Magma’s Astro appearances: They don’t exist! The only time he’s popped up in an Astro work is as a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in the 1980 show, where he showed up (alongside Big X) in a big movie studio packed with various Tezuka characters. Having said that, though, he’s fairly famous in his own right – that live-action thing WAS pretty big at the time, and even got an English dub under the name “The Space Giants”, that links to the first episode for your viewing pleasure. It’s definitely a product of its time, and shows its age, but it’s actually still fairly enjoyable despite this. If you’re looking for something a little more modern, the 1993 OAV series might be more up your alley; it’s nicely modernized (for the ‘90s, at least) and has some pretty great gross alien action. Other facts: - Magma’s name comes from his birthplace being deep within the Earth’s crust; he’s literally an ambassador of Earth from the magma. - Magma’s whistle always makes the same distinctive sound, as heard here. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:37 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Oct 4, 2014 20:19
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:I still can't believe how you were supposed to find him. For the obscure/hard to find people (there's more egregious ones later) there's actually an in-game mechanic to alert you to their presence, so don't worry about it too much. I'll get into it later.
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Oct 5, 2014 18:10
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GimmickMan posted:I thought Treasure's Seven Forces were just them trying to be cute referencing just the name but no, they are the very same concept. Oh Treasure, you are true to your name. Honestly? I'd recommend playing it. My personal stance on LP has always been that it's a way more enjoyable experience to play the game yourself, so the point of my stuff is to supplement the game with things you wouldn't necessarily know FROM playing it. Like, I want people to pick up the game, play it themselves, then go "Wow, I didn't know X was a thing! That WHOLE SECTION was taken from Y? Holy poo poo, I never knew you could do Z!". When I went through the game myself, I wanted to know more about the subject matter, and figured I'd share whatever I found, which is the whole reason this LP exists in the first place, amateurishly presented and written though it may be. But seriously, if you're interested in the game check it out, even MORESO with this particular game because it pulls some stuff that I can tell you right now just won't have the same impact as it would to a live player. It's not even that long, you could totally finish it in a day. E; also remember that thing I said about Theatrhythm taking up my LP time? Replace that with Smash 4. I'm workin on it I swear Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 12:03 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 11:42
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Stage Notes!  The Tokugawa Lunar Mine & spaceport is but one of the many holdings of the Tokugawa Corporation, a world-spanning conglomerate with fingers in many of the world’s technological and resource-related pies. Its President and CEO, Mr. Tokugawa, is a self-made man who has devoted his entire life towards building the company towards ever further heights, and has since been rewarded handsomely; he’s the single richest man in the world, and one of its most influential figures. The Lunar Mine is both the top-earning facility of the corporation and the main headquarters of the same. With a complex extending over 1,500 meters below the surface of the moon, and with a myriad of branching offices and stations, it is so efficient and high-yield it single-handedly produces enough energy and fuel to power the entirety of Metro City – one of the largest and most technologically advanced metropolises on the planet. Because of this (and other feats), the Tokugawa group is world-renowned for their business acumen and contributions to society; recently, however, the aging Mr. Tokugawa has been grooming his son Daichi to take the wheel in his stead, despite some misgivings within the upper management relating to said son’s history and activities…  The Tokugawa Mine, and this story’s main premise as a whole, is lifted more-or-less wholesale from a pair of 2003 episodes (numbered 6 and 7 in the English release) created for the third animated Astro Boy show. Notably, however, while both Daichi and his father are new characters, the MAIN focus of the story – Atlas – is a very important recurring cast member, and through his mere presence makes the episodes into something of a reimagining of older plots. Moreover, the whole “moon base” vibe, plus the numerous cameos from entirely unrelated works, make this stage in particular feel like it doesn’t belong to any one distinctive show. See, Astro Boy’s a series from the 50s and 60s. During this time, certain things had happened, and certain things had yet to happen. It was a time of wonder and scientific discovery, and as a work of science fiction, Astro frequently found himself heading the journey into the vast depths of the final frontier. From tightly-controlled journeys to the distant surface of Mars, to brightly-lit and bustling commercial spaceports, to, yes, expeditions to the moon and whatever secrets it might hide, space has always held a special place within the adventures of Mighty Atom, and the Tokugawa plant is just the latest in a time-honored tradition.  The stage has got some nice scenes and a low gravity gimmick (the artificial gravity device is broken!), but to be honest, it’s also one of my favorite examples of where this game is lacking in polish. Omega Factor’s strengths lie the research and love given to Tezuka’s work history, its strong plotting (for the genre), its charming visuals, and its amazing boss fights, but I cannot deny it’s majorly lacking in the STAGE DESIGN department. Fighting in this game is simplistic and fast; enemies are fodder, nothing more, and serve only as a passage from one section to another. In Metro City and Cruciform Island, they got it right, throwing only a few enemies at a time at you and allowing the player to straight-up skip a large fight scene if they so choose, but HERE the screen has a nasty habit of locking on you, forcing you to sit your rear end down and pick off the enemies one by one, and the stage just does NOT accommodate this. Early-on, there’s a big vertical section with a bunch of giant mooks spawning in from nowhere, and because the screen arbitrarily locks on you, you have to spend a minute and a half slooooowly jumping up, punching a few of them, falling down, punching a few more, rinse, repeat. It’s not especially fun, and they really should have either spiced the place up a bit, allowed you to move on, or given you an extra way to bypass the annoyance. And it keeps happening after that too; walk forward, lock, fight lower enemies, fight upper enemies, move forward a bit more – and then they throw godawful bat enemies at you in an environment not at all suited to fighting them! It just really annoys me, because there’s bits and pieces of what could have been there; the stage follows the layout seen in the pic at the very top of all these words for the most part, but leaves out the cool little vent passages that would’ve let a savvy player bypass the annoying bits! They include environmental obstacles that could’ve been used to make some sort of platforming challenge, but never really get capitalized on! It’s grating at best, but at the very least it culminates in a VERY fun boss battle and a cool scene, so it’s not a total wash. …now I just have to wait for someone to inform me I’ve missed some giant shortcut all this time. Chapter names: 3 – 1: Tokugawa Plant on the Moon; 3 – 2: Goblin Roboid; 3 – 3: Power Plant Reactor; 3 – 4: Observation Deck; 3 – 5: Astro Vs. Atlas ---------- Boss bios! Goblin Roboid  Moveset:
Astro Boy manga, Duke Goblin manga appearance! “The Roboids that appear on the moon are the robots from “Duke Goblin.” Since they are controlled by psy power, they cannot act through their own will. The original Astro Boy story features an episode entitled “Roboids” as well. They are super robots who evolved to have the ability to self-reproduce.” That quote’s an excerpt from Mr. Tokugawa’s extended bio in-game. It is also, incidentally, the only real info you get on these things. I’ve always found their presence to be one of the biggest enigmas in the game; I mean, the V3 robots were justified as being bought by Kim, they went out of their way to establish that, but here it’s just “SUDDENLY: MINIBOSS”. There’s no reason for them to be here, and Astro straight up goes “Goblin shaped Roboid!” like it aint’ no thang, and it’s just ugh, UGH, why are you here Roboid, stop. REGARDLESS. Roboids are something of an enigma to me outside of the game as well; Duke Goblin’s another one of those lesser-known series, and as such is lacking in both English adaptions and in animations, primarily due to the fact that Tezuka bit the dust shortly after making it. From what I can gather, the Goblin itself is a giant bronze statue created in ancient China, possessing extreme psychic and destructive power but no conscious will or means of animation on its own; it seems like an interesting enough story, but the Roboid seen here only bears a passing resemblance to all the pictures I’ve managed to dredge up of the original Goblin, which makes me suspect that it’s merely a hastily shoehorned-in reference. Much more relevant, in my opinion, is the Astro Boy story titled “Roboids”, but again, they don’t really resemble the ones seen here, and in fact each have their own distinct look and personality rather than all being carbon copies of each other. The name is a sort of derivative of android, in that androids are robots that look like humans while Roboids are things that look like robots but aren’t, and they starred in a rather lengthy story involving their quest to gather resources from Earth and DESTROY THE HUMAN RACE. They “evolved” from normal robots on a distant planet where their creators died out, and, like the Duke Goblin version, possess some psychic abilities, which is presumably why the two characters are being crossed over here. They’re capable of reproduction, but the force sent down to Earth is pretty soundly routed by Astro and a hodgepodge of other battle bots, leaving Astro the sole survivor, not including a couple non-battle Roboids who skedaddle. As for the fight against them, they’re more of a threat than the V3s were I’ll give em that, but at the same time there’s only really one attack you have to watch out for, and you’re given more than ample time between enemy attacks to strike back so it’s not too big an issue. They're very raucous and wield twin lightsabers though, so you certainly won't be bored. Atlas  Moveset:
Manga, 1980 young/grown, 2003 Daichi/Atlas appearances! See him in action! Both Atlas AND Daichi are actually getting their own bios, so there’s not much to put here as far as backstory goes. Suffice it to say, Atlas is a major figure in Astro Boy, introduced first as a minor story villain in the comic but then given a repeated role as major antagonist within the 1980s series, to the point that nine of the fifty-two total episodes were devoted solely to the various conflicts between them. This version, Daichi-Atlas, is a separate character from that Atlas, but carries many of the same traits and motivations. One of the biggest links between him and Astro is the idea that they’re “brothers” in a way; in the 1980s, this was due to being based on the same blueprints, but here, it due to the fact that they were both commissioned for building by grieving fathers and created by the same man – Dr. Tenma, as Atlas so dramatically reveals. Daichi died a while back in an accident, which lead Tokugawa to approach the erstwhile director of the Ministry and request a replica be made, complete with Daichi’s old memories. While people who watched the anime episodes he’s first featured in might be a bit confused by this due to the fact that he’s presented as a mistreated robot kid from the start, rest assured this is just one of those dubbing things where implied death is considered not acceptable for children’s programming and rewritten. Tenma creates Atlas for two reasons: out of pity for Tokugawa, and out of a desire to see Astro grow and reach his full potential. Atlas represents a lot of major milestones for Astro and possesses many of the same abilities, through his battles with the young robot unwittingly awakening Astro’s own arm cannon ability in a highly-cinematic battle sequence, but his most distinctive ability is probably his possession of a soul, or kokoro, or – as it is presented in the original story and the 1980s anime – his Omega Factor.  The Omega Factor was, initially, the only thing differentiating Atlas from Astro, a device removing the boundary between human and robot by allowing him to perform evil thoughts and actions independently, placing no limitation on Atlas’s free will. It’s a very interesting inversion that the power of unlimited growth and choice was instead given to Astro here, and is the first instance in which Astro Boy: Omega Factor begins to step outside the boundaries of already-existing material to create its own story, its own niche within the various versions of the saga. In the same way, it’s a good example of how close the characters of Astro and Atlas are in terms of their history. This won’t be the last we see of Atlas, by any means. NERDY STORY ANALYSIS ASIDE. The fight against Atlas is difficult. That’s the truth of the matter. He’s highly mobile, hits hard and fast, uses your own tricks against you, and has a wide-open space in which to chase you down. This also, incidentally, makes the fight against him really, really fun, as you’re given free rein to jet wildly around the screen right along with him and counter his supers with your own versions. This is the kind of non-stop action the game really excels at, and coupled with the amazing boss theme (and stupid amounts of attention to detail when it came to some of his sprites and dialogue), Atlas washes the moderately mediocre taste of his stage right out of my mouth and is just a straight-up treat to fight. Nothing beats predicting his movements and ending point only to get there first and EX dash right through him, or counter his cannon with your own, and as the difficulty level also adjusts the properties of some of his moves you can treat yourself with as easy or as grueling a fight as you want. I can’t even get mad at him when I die, because Astro sloooowly spirals down until he reaches the bottom of the screen while Atlas follows at a distance watching and it’s all great, ALL GREAT.  …and then he goes super mode. This game’s bosses often have surprisingly few powers, but those they do have cover a lot of bases, so even though Atlas doesn’t have a dozen separate attacks you’ll still feel threatened at any given moment. His overload adds another element to watch for and makes it even more important to zip around super fast, and when coupled with the intense (if a little cheesy) speech mid-fight, this is easily the most high-energy fight in game so far. Music! Tokugawa plant doesn’t really do anything for me, but I suppose it’s got a decent space vibe going, and the periodic clapping sound is interesting at least, although a different clapping song has already captured my heart. Atlas’s theme has a delightfully epic sound to it though, and continues the trend of really memorable boss themes. #22: Tokugawa plant #23: Boss theme 5 – Atlas Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Apr 16, 2017 |
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Oct 22, 2014 00:50
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JamieTheD posted:Man, I didn't realise how much I missed the 2003 dub acting until the Tenma segment. I also can see the mashup, although I'm less fond of it for this level because... Well, Tokugawa was an rear end in a top hat in the 2003 manga. One who learns the error of his ways, sure, but... Well, I'm sure you'll get into it when the time's right! Yeah, Tokugawa's a massive idiot in everything, but he hasn't really been characterized much in-game yet and there's way more egregious stuff than "trick us into dealing with his rebellious robotized replacement son" later on soooooooo.
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Oct 22, 2014 23:12
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Star #10: =Jetter Mars= Through the ages: Jetter Mars anime See him in action: 1977 JAPANESE ANIME OPENING, JETTER MARS ARTIFICIAL SUN RIP-OFF Tezuka character list bio: Number 34  - A super robot that had secretly been developed. The completion date was set for 2015. He was the main character in the self-titled anime released in 1977. He looks similar to Astro because Tezuka designed him as [a] modification of Astro. But unlike the super hero Astro, Jetter Mars is much more human-like. His body was built to grow and change, just as humans do as they age. Dr. Yamanoue appears instead of O’Shay (Dr. Ochanomizu in Japanese). There is a “Yamanoue Hotel” in front of the “Ochanomizu” train station in Japan.“But OP!”, I hear you say, “You already DID Astro Boy’s bio!” “Yes, my hyperbolic ham-brained reader” I respond, “But this guy’s different! Kinda.” Jetter Mars is incredibly interesting to me, not so much in the context of his story, but rather in how he came to exist in the first place. Had Tezuka had his way, Mars might never have even existed; he was and is VERY much a product of circumstances, and is quite frankly one of the most obscure Tezuka characters represented in this game. To understand this character, a knowledge of his background is needed, but if you want to skip the next couple paragraphs then just go ahead and read THIS and THIS, as they’re where I’m pulling most of my info from. See, Osamu Tezuka’s initial conduit for supplying anime to the world was an animation studio he founded known as Mushi Productions. This was the place responsible for producing the original Astro anime, as well as other Tezuka works (Leo the Lion) and various well-known and respected series like Tomorrow’s Joe. Everything was going swimmingly for them until the 70s, at which point they landed themselves in a bit of financial trouble and went bankrupt; this caused the rights for many of Tezuka’s shows to change hands and fall into hazy legal territory, leaving them temporarily untouchable. By this time, Tezuka had already moved on from Mushi, founding another animation studio named Tezuka Productions and moonlighting as an animation director at Toei Animation, where he harbored thoughts of remaking, or creating a sequel to, a certain famous series in spectacular full-color.  This proved to be a bit of a problem, as Astro’s rights were presently unobtainable. With an expectant Toei waiting for the next BIG THING from him, and facing difficulty reclaiming his works, Tezuka made a compromise: he retooled Astro’s look and location just enough to get around the legal hurdles, tweaked the story, and marketed it as a brand-new series, one which was neither Astro Boy nor a successor to it: JETTER MARS.  The result was something of an Astro reboot; Mars is his own character with his own backstory, but there are parallels to Astro everywhere you turn, so it’s difficult to avoid comparing the two. His hair, facial structure, underwear and boots are all very clearly inspired by Astro’s; his body was created and fitted with weaponry by a black-haired scientist (Yamanoue) whereas his mind was molded by a more kindly older scientist (Kawashimo); he has a robot sister with a similar hairstyle to Zoran/Uran (the girl that’s shown up briefly at the file screen and beginning of chapters 2 and 3), and he lives in a futuristic world prone to robot and machinery-related mishaps, some of which are ripped wholesale from Astro stories (like the headless robot DamDam featured in the intro). Tons of Tezuka characters also make the rounds in the show, which makes the work as a whole feel somewhat recycled. HOWEVER. Mars’s series does differentiate itself from Astro’s in a couple ways. His powers are presented a little differently, losing the whole “seven” theming and exchanging legjets for a flight-enabling cape, but more prominent is the change in story tone. Rather than focus on the conflict between humans and robots, Jetter Mars the show instead looks at the development of the young bot’s personal feelings and emotions; as the bio mentions, he’s made more human-like than Astro, capable of growth and maturation, and this also applies to his mind – he comes out a blank slate, with no concept of right and wrong, and his two fathers (Drs. Yamanoue and Kawashimo) have very different plans for him. Yamanoue names him after the Roman god of War, fitting him with weaponry and intending to use him for militaristic purposes, whereas Kawashimo creates his brain and wishes for him to be more a keeper of the peace, with many episodes featuring these two opposing viewpoints and how they cause Mars to grow as both a robot and a person. It’s an interesting concept, but it doesn’t really get fully explored, mainly because of the small scale of this particular series – It was never drawn as a Manga prior to creation, it only lasted 27 episodes, and it was largely forgotten as Tezuka moved on to other things. The series never got an English dub, and the obscurity makes finding subs a pain, but there are quite a few Spanish-language episodes of questionable quality on Youtube, as well as a single subbed episode I was able to locate, so if you happen to be fluent in the language go ahead and knock yourself out. It’s basically the only place you’re getting a taste of this guy, as he’s never shown up in any other works that I know of – Tezuka all but abandoned him when the public reception to “Mighty Atom, but not” was mixed. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Oct 23, 2014 19:57
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Star #11: =Fumoon= Through the ages: Next World manga, Fumoon movie See her in action: FUMOON MOVIE ---------- You can read “Next World” HERE, credit to kickthekitty for scans and midhras for editing. ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 35  - New type of human created on Batei Island. They are researching the Universe. Fumoon is actually the name of her race, and her real name is “Rococo.” She first appears in “The Next World” in 1951. The new design was based on the 1980’s anime episode, “Fumoon.” Sho Sakaguchi, student of Osamu Tezuka, acted in and developed that episode. It was rare for Tezuka to trust someone to have such a big role in his animations. Sakaguchi was also involved with the animes “Bunder Book” and “Phoenix 2772.” Sakaguchi was the concept artist for “Marine Express” as well. The title for “The Next World” came from H.G. Wells’ movie “Things to Come.” (“Noah” was apparently the initial title that Osamu Tezuka planned to use.) Titles of his early works were heavily influenced by Western movies. Some movie titles Tezuka was fond of are “Metropolis” and “Lost World”. Ironically, the futuristic world of “Metropolis” was supposedly Wells’ inspiration for “Things to Come.”Sometimes, less is more, and the above bio namedrops a stunning amount of different works that really would not translate well to commentary, so I’ve shortened it in the video. However, while the bio might not be bitesized, its subject certainly is – Fumoon, hereafter referred to as Rococo, is a tiny little thing capable of being lifted by a single Wally hand. She, and her race the Fumoon, debuted in (and are more-or-less exclusive to) a series known as “The Next World"; in it, they’re a race of nuclear mutants, created by extensive atomic testing on a remote (and, previously, extremely beautiful) island known as Batei, a Japanese word meaning horseshoe. As intelligent as any human, they’ve made it their goal to protect the earth from any threat, external or internal, and as it so happens that includes mankind, who’ve been rather careless in their treatment of their planet as of late. However, we’re not their biggest concern – that’d be the giant death gas cloud that’s been radiating out from a decade-old supernova, one that’s been making its way steadily towards earth and extinguishing everything in its wake. The Fumoon people take it is their cue to get the hell out of Dodge, altering and cramming as many animals as possible onto their space gondola, in the hopes that they can find a new home and start anew – a small hitch in their plan arises, however, when a scientist surveying the island discovers a high-ranking Fumoon and takes it home in hopes of presenting it at a nuclear conference and bringing experimentation to a halt.  Fumoon’s story is chock-full of social commentary, featuring expies of the US and Russia and the damage their pigheadedness causes the world, and while the symbolism and metaphors to serious issues can get a little heavy-handed at times, it’s still worth a watch/read – especially when the tension escalates a bit. As a race the Fumoon are highly inteligent, devoting much of their time to the scientific and scholarly arts, and while they’re generally a peaceful people, they DO have a certain superiority complex when it comes to dealing with others, which manifests itself in rather sarcastic dialogue, and a sassy Rococo. In terms of their species appearance, though, Rococo is hardly indicative of Fumoon as a whole. Whereas she’s as graceful and elegant as you’d expect an anime’s heroine to be, her compatriots are…somewhat less so, possessing stouter bodies and less vibrant coloring. However, they DO all share one particular trait – the antennae on their head. Said appendage is capable of doing all sorts of interesting things, like performing acts of telekinesis (complete with glowing eyes) or communing directly with the minds of other lifeforms, a necessary trait given their distinct lack of mouths. Their antennae even helpfully light up when speaking, so you know who’s who.  The Fumoon use their free time to pursue various hobbies, including the studying of the cosmos; this particular pastime is both what alerts them to Earth’s coming crisis, and, presumably, why Rococo is aware of some “Goddess of Justice” leaving the Universe. That particular line honestly never makes complete sense in the game for a multitude of reasons, but again, don’t worry about it too much; the game likes to allude to things in the dialogue of extra characters, and in the case of Rococo here I can’t imagine most people find her in their first playthrough. I sure as heck didn’t, but wanted to show off this bit of foreshadowing and make the trek through Tokugawa plant more visually appealing so you GET HER NOW. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Oct 25, 2014 16:39
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Star #12: =Hecate= Through the ages: Princess knight manga, Princess knight anime See her in action: PRINCESS KNIGHT EPISODE 2 ---------- Hecate is incredibly awkward for me to write about, for a number of reasons. Firstly, the series she originates from, “Princess Knight”, features a separate main character, one which has yet to be represented in person and provides much of her motivation. Secondly, while I’ve read the entire manga and am well-versed in the story, I did so via my LOCAL LIBRARY, and cannot find a suitable online source for either manga scans or anime dubs. And thirdly, the anime keeps going up and down and up and down in a perverse game of copyright whack-a-mole so either the link'll work or not who even knows. ---------- Tezuka character list bio: Number 36  - She collects human’s sorrow and pain to use them as ingredients for her magic. She originally appears in the anime “Princess Knight”. Her personality and design are very different between the comic and the anime. Her personality changed from a very tomboy-ish girl to a very introverted girl. This Hecate is based on the “Princess Knight” that appeared in “Nakayoshi”. Hecate is pronounced “Heh-ka-te” in Greek. Hecate is the Greek goddess of darkness.In simple terms, Hecate’s a witch. Or, rather, a witches’ daughter. See, Hecate hails from a series wherein the main character, one Prince(ss) Sapphire, was born erroneously containing both the gentle pink heart of a girl and the courageous blue heart of a boy, while Hecate herself is rather lacking in the femininity department. Hecate honestly doesn’t really care about that rubbish and is more than comfortable with her tomboyish attitude, but unfortunately her mother Madam Hell is less than thrilled – thanks in no small part to her desire to marry Hecate off to a suitable prince, thus grabbing power for her daughter and, by extension, herself. To this end, Hecate’s supposed role in the story is an antagonist’s motivation; Madam Hell wishes to capture Sapphire, extract her girl heart, and give it to her daughter, thus doubling up on fem-ness and catching the eye of an eligible suitor. It’s not as simple as all that, though. “Princess Knight” spends a lot of time focusing on strong female characters, and while its star has some issues when it comes to that, Hecate really doesn’t; she knows what she wants and does what she pleases, and there’s no room in her plans for gobbling up a ball of stereotypical girlyness. Thusly, whenever her mother manages to capture Sapphire and extract her heart, Hecate sneaks out through the back door and gives it right back to her. She’s a mischievous and headstrong girl, but most certainly isn’t evil, and more often than not finds herself helping the protagonists despite her namesake's rather ominous title.  Nice or not, though, she IS the daughter of a powerful witch, born through her hellish magic, and as such she’s in possession of some sizable demonic powers herself. She’s capable of the basic stuff like casting fireballs and flying through the air, but much more notable are her transformative abilities; from the standard witchy snakes and spirited felines to the less-standard goats and…mushrooms…Hecate’s form is ever-changing as her mood dictates, and she’s even capable of conferring these powers unto others via potion. It makes her a fun character, as she’s constantly casually showing up in odd forms in front of the less magically inclined, and often leads to her stealing the show whenever she appears. Like many of the other characters in stage 3, Hecate doesn’t pop up too often in other works, much less Astro Boy. Nevertheless, the series she’s from HAS been redrawn and reprinted on three separate occasions, with the bio’s namedropping of “Nakayoshi” being the third and final of the magazines the remakes ran in. It was a girl’s comic magazine, and Princess Knight is actually fairly well-known as being one of the pioneers in “Shojo” manga, as well as fairly ahead of its time with feminist themes, which made it a good place for a character like Hecate to flourish. Her in-game dialogue doesn’t really give a lot of insight to her character, and she won’t be showing up again, but I like her, or at least her manga version. The anime seems to make her a bit of an airhead as “Zenda”. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Oct 27, 2014 19:34
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Stage notes!  Ah, Antarctica. The mythical southern land. Home to fewer than 10,000 humans, hostile to most forms of life, and protected by international treaties, it remains one of the few areas on Earth left relatively untouched by human hands. …so read the century-old history books one might find in the Metro City library archives. In modern times, the Antarctic region, once a lonely and inaccessible place, has been steadily populated and industrialized, giving birth to brand-new countries and governments doing their best to live and build a comfortable society within the brutally cold and hostile environment. Technological advances have allowed humanity to bypass these hurdles and grant the barren landscape the ability to support life, but the infrastructure needed to get those systems up and running requires extensive cooperation with more durable comrades to set up and maintain, which places Antarctica in a decidedly unique situation – Humans and artificial lifeforms have begun to coexist in a peaceful, mutually beneficial manner within the region, one of the first instances of such a cooperative effort in a world that views robotics primarily as tools to be used. However, such a drastic deviation from the world’s accepted norms has a tendency to bring attention, and with it the ire of those less than inclined to change the old ways – and indeed, the region has been been plagued by protests, riots, and terrorism brought on in response to the country’s steady march towards equality. As a result, the country as a whole has become something of a hotspot for political and social activism, drawing the attention of media world-wide, and when word got out that a robot was campaigning for the position of Antarctic president, all bets were off as to what lay in store for the young nation’s future.  Much like Cruciform Island before it, the Antarctic is an amalgamation of two different stories: “His Highness Deadcross/The Robot President” and “Black Looks”. And, again like stage 2, the stories share a central link: Racism and oppression. - The newly elected robot president, Rag, hails from the former story, and reprises his in-game role sans Duke Red and Nuka as the first of his kind to ever hold that position, though the country he leads is instead an ambiguously-located one known as Gravia. In the story, he’s presented as competent, likeable leader who finds himself stymied on every front by the machinations of the Deadcross Party, a group of extremist robot-haters who wish to forcibly remove Rag from office and instate their own leader as president. Astro (with Wally chaperoning) gets called in by Rag’s aide to help bodyguard him as they prepare for his inauguration, at which point Astro too becomes a target. You can read it HERE. - The second story, Black Looks, takes place in Antarctica, and supplies its setting for the level itself. As opposed to Rag’s troubled but optimistic presidency, this story presents the Antarctic as a hotbed of racism and prejudice, with a society clearly segregated against robots and a life of constant fear for them due to the looming presence of “Black Looks” gang members, an international terrorist organization dedicated to destroying every mechanical being in a position of power. Said gang members have infiltrated both the governing bodies and the police forces of the nation, and when Astro and Wally visit Antarctica themselves based on clues given to them by a partially broken robot, they again find themselves questing to take down the person responsible for the regional strife. You can read it HERE. You can see how certain story elements are were taken from one or another of the stories (or even both, as Wally’s recurrence shows), but there’s a bit more to it this time around. People foreign to either story show up alongside Rag, for instance, and the mode of transit taken by Astro has a bit of a storied history of its own – I’d highly, HIGHLY recommend taking the time out of your day to give THIS MOVIE a watch in the intervening time between this and the next few updates, as it’s incredibly relevant and will make the coming areas make a lot more sense. The most significant and eye-catching difference stage 4 brings with it, though, is a tonal shift. So far, we’ve been questing through fairly standard kid’s cartoon fare, with enjoyable characters and boss battles aplenty but nothing especially unique plot-wise. Here, though…  …we go from traipsing about through jungle islands and space stations while punching cute robots, to fighting off literal terrorists as a highly sympathetic character is suddenly and without warning blown to bits at a bitterly ironic moment. I remember doing something of a spit-take at this point in the game, because there’s really nothing whatsoever alluding to this kind of serious event so far, and the game really capitalizes on it by abandoning the episodic mission structure in favor of flowing straight to the aftermath. I do have to mention that this turn of events might not carry the same weight for those familiar with the source story, as something similar DID happen to Rag there, but the intensity of the scene gets cranked up to 11 in the game version by making it much more explosively permanent – originally, he just got knocked out and had his brain swapped out with a dummy Deadcross controlled until Astro fixed him up again. It’s another of those instances where Omega Factor strays outside of established canon and starts to write its own story, and is completely enjoyable with or without knowledge of the source material. As for gameplay, it’s a bit of a weird case. I mean, the land section is simplistic to a fault, but it’s also short, has very interesting scenery (I really like those Rag billboards, okay?), and introduces probably my favorite enemy type in the game: the Black Looks.  I don’t care what you say, these guys are great because they are human and they are terrorists and you get to BEAT THEM UP…and yes, they, too, are given up/downscales, to the point of ludicrousness. It’s pretty great. Air section is air section, it’s amusing how you basically go nowhere what with heading out and coming right back, but the stage’s boss is a really odd choice and the whole scene just feels a bit weird, like they couldn’t figure out how to translate doing presidential things with Rag into gameplay so they just sent you on a wild goose chase. Regardless, it’s presented decently and introduces some new concepts (attacking from both sides, indestructible obstacles) so it stands well enough on its own. Chapter names: 4 – 1: Antarctic President; 4 – 2: Above the Antarctic Ocean; 4 – 3: Follow Carabs!; 4 – 4: Robot Tank Carabs ---------- Boss bios! Black Looks leader?  Moveset:
WHO IS THIS MAN? WHAT DOES HE WANT? WILL THE REAL DEADCROSS PLEASE STAND UP? The uncertainty is killing me, I just don’t think I can talk about this guy without confirmation. Regardless he’s easy as sin and goes down super fast, so either cannon him a couple times or just maintain a steady laser. He attacks infrequently and in extremely easy to dodge ways, so if you can’t manage a win here I really can’t help you. He’s just an upgraded version of his underlings, really. Carabs  Moveset:
Astro boy manga! Hoo boy Carabs, might want to check in with your Orthodontist, that is quite the overbite you have there. Carabs is many things, among them a beetle, ugly as sin, and really annoying to track down. It’s never shown up in any animation I’ve been able to locate, comes from a decidedly odd story, and has BUGGER ALL to do with anything else going on in this stage, making it a really odd choice for an end boss. REGARDLESS. As fake Deadcross states, Carabs is a giant, experimental tank developed in France, meant to be a failsafe in the event of a conflict with one of its neighbors. France has since repaired relations with said neighbor, but the tank itself was stored away, as simply disposing of it seemed like a terrible waste of money and resources. As is wont to happen in this kind of situation, the tank gets stolen (by a group of psychic schoolboys, which is admittedly less common) and wrecks everything in its path until Astro steps in to save the day, alongside some random alien visitors. It’s a weird and slightly unfocused story, but if you want you can read it HERE starting on page 83.  Carabs, or Karabusu as it’s known in the story (Carabus is a type of beetle), has a myriad of powers, ranging from extremely durable armor to the ability to transform into a hard-hitting battle bot, and as such, the game instead chooses to make it fly and shoot bullets out of its new ugly mug because WHY NOT. The armor’s the only part of Carabs that really makes the transition from comic to game, and it’s admittedly rather effective, as it allows Carabs to perform head-on bashes, but the problem is they sacrificed the face-plating to make that lovely visage. As such, taking Carabs out basically boils down to lasering it in the face, which can be a bit of a hassle given that its sheer bulk often prevents attacks from the back. The strategy is mainly to circle around the giant hunk of metal, take some shots, and then back out again once it starts getting too close for comfort, but it’s a little more difficult than that makes it sound; Carabs doesn’t have very effective projectiles, but it DOES have obscene amounts of contact damage and a body too big to boost through, which means if you get cornered you’re going down. It’s a decent air battle, and has that classic “turns redder as it takes damage” gimmick, but it’s not very memorable, as Carabs doesn’t have much in the way of its own personality. It doesn’t even get its own boss theme, instead sharing with the Artificial Sun, meaning much of this stage’s impact has to come from the story. …just wanna say I had to piece the drat thing’s sprite together over half an hour from 4 separate images. You’re too big Carabs, stop. Music! Carabs doesn’t have its own theme, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing memorable to be had here. First up is the theme from Astro’s self-reflection on the Marine Express, one which goes on for a good bit longer than one would normally stick around for and has a nice mix of melancholy and hopefull-sounding bits. Second and third are both Antarctica themes, the first of which is really short and loopy and thankfully only gets used here as it’d probably drive me batty listening to it any longer. The second, though, is the theme for the stage itself, and I really, REALLY like it. It’s a lot tenser than anything we’ve heard so far, and matches the whole setting of “Terrorists trying to bring down the newly-earned peace” quite nicely. #24: Blossoming soul #25: Antarctic beauty #26: Terrorism Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Apr 3, 2017 |
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Nov 7, 2014 17:47
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Just a note, there's not gonna be any character bios for this part. The Duke and Nuka are both PROVISONALLY REGISTERED in the Omega Factor, and there's some stuff in the next part I'm gonna need to include in Rag's bio, so YOU GET NOTHING. ...I'll try to do it quickish tho.
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Nov 7, 2014 17:50
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Kurieg posted:Rag's Antannae convert trust into power. Yeah, I giggled when I first heard that. I've only seen it mentioned in the 1980s anime, but it's so perfectly ridiculously idealistic I had to include it. They even glow to indicate the support of the populace 
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Nov 7, 2014 20:23
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You know what's sad? Not having lots of words written about decades old children's cartoons. That's pretty sad. It made me so sad, that I decided to go outside the planned scope of this lp and make an extra little do-dad for those of you interested in checking out an entirely unrelated show that will never ever have any semblance of relevance in your life. SO. I don't know if this is going to be a thing, as these actually take a fair bit of time to set up, but I'ma give you a  GUEST STAR BIONot sure if I've made this clear, but I'm actually using this LP as an opportunity to introduce myself to more old series, although I'm more into reading manga at libraries than I am into anime. To this end, I (might) be making bios for other Tezuka series that I don't know a lot about and interest me enough to go check em out externally, which I can tell you right now is a list that only really contains Alabaster, Dororo, and Buddha. So those might pop up if I'm feeling bored and have free time. WORDS ASIDE. HERE IS MORE WORDS FOR YOU.
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Nov 12, 2014 18:11
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Guest star #1: =Marvelous Melmo= Through the Ages: Marvelous Melmo manga, Marvelous Melmo anime See her in action: MARVELOUS MELMO OPENING THEME ---------- Read Marvelous Melmo Vol. 1 HERE, credits for the translation HERE. ---------- Magical, magnificient, marvelous Melmo! Do YOU know about the candy that Melmo has? Osamu Tezuka was a man known to experiment with his works, creating futuristic sci-fi robot adventures, historical dramas, criminal mysteries, and stories of every other bent and make. He wasn't known to balk at straying into the dark and depressing, just as he was quick to jump head-first into slapstick comedy; indeed, the man's extensive portfolio is a testament to just how much he experimented, never lingering too long on one thing before starting afresh with a new project. He's known as the God of Manga for a reason, and paved the way in many genres well-known today; it should come as no surprise, then, that he also made pioneering forays into that time-tested mainstay of Japanese animation: the Magical Girl show. Enter Melmo. A young girl, nine years of age, and recently forcibly separated from her mother by way of a car crash, Melmo’s the oldest sibling among a group of children on the verge of being taken in by a cruel and greedy Aunt out for their house. Worried about her children’s fate, Melmo’s late mother in heaven begs for a temporary reprieve from the clutches of death, but to no avail. Her plight does not fall upon deft ears, however. Though return from the land of the dead is not possible, the heavenly fathers do have mercy on her soul, and come up with a compromise: They will give the mother’s children the means for which to take care of themselves. And thus, a jar full of magical candy is created and delivered to the young Melmo.  These sweets come in two distinct variations: blue, and red. When a blue candy is consumed, the eater advances in age by a decade, while munching a red one reverts the recipient to their form from 10 years ago. In this way, Melmo’s able to temporarily become a surrogate mother to her younger siblings, as well as have little age-related adventures of her own as she learns about life and the world around her. Melmo herself is a little immature and naive with her newfound powers, and plays a little too fast and loose with the aging one for my tastes, but the guidance of older friends and a fairly strong moral center help keep the reins at least loosely held on her precocious ways. Additionally, the power to transform her body into various animals by popping a pill of each type is eventually introduced, and opens the floodgates to a whole host of additional subject matter pertaining to animal relationships and the similarities humans share with them. “Marvelous Melmo” was created in the early 70s, and from what I’ve seen is rather fondly remembered by many of the time period. It’s a fun-filled and lighthearted romp through the adventures of a little girl playing around with the oddities of life and aging, but it’s also hiding something of its own agenda – Tezuka originally conceived it as a medium through which to introduce sex education to the kiddies of the time. Melmo’s a child naturally, yes, but she’s also a buxom young lady, and her adventures take her through lessons pertaining to motherhood, puberty, and the biology of life. She’s characterized as a girl discovering and playing with her changing body, albeit at a comically accelerated pace, and while this actually comes across fairly well and innocently most of the time, the simultaneously-released anime holds the rather dubious honor of panchira pioneer – that’d be panty shots for the less-corrupted among you. Don’t let that discourage you, though – when it's not flashing a 9 year old's bloomers at you (it doesn't often, thankfully) it’s actually a legitimately engaging and enjoyable show, including much of that “serious subjects presented in a comedic manner” that Tezuka was so great at. While the manga itself feels a little incomplete and disjointed (almost like its purpose was to let the author draw lots and lots of big spreads of Melmo in costume and nothing else), the anime instead pulsates with the unmistakable influence of DOCTOR Tezuka.  You can really feel him letting loose with his medical training at points to drive the whole sex education thing home, like when a full minute and a half is spent showing the transition of a fertilized egg from zygote to blastocyst to fetus or the umbilical relation between mother and child. It’s a good example of an edutainment show that doesn’t sacrifice a substantial story, and held my attention enough to bring me past initial curiosity and watch a very sizable chunk of the episodes. Melmo doesn’t actually show up in Omega Factor at any point, but she has made the jump to other series on occasion, and features cameo appearances by certain Astro Boy characters in her own work. Moreover, as one of the first shows to popularize the Magical girl theme(and, more specifically, the transformation sequence), it’s fairly historically relevant, regardless of your personal feelings on the genre. Plus, the parents of the time apparently got pissed off at the show and it’s no-nonsense depiction of animal anatomy and sexuality, which is always a plus. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Apr 30, 2017 |
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Nov 12, 2014 18:12
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Hey remember when I said I'd try to do the next part quickish? HAHA that was a funny joke right, I am the king of humor and you are silly for trusting me. ...Yeah, so. Black friday got me some new toys (Final Fantasy X HD's trophy list can suck my knob), and then relatives convinced me to make a commemorative thing for my grandmother's 80th using quite possibly the most disgustingly monetized piece of glorified powerpoint pie I've ever had the displeasure of acquainting myself with, which basically came together to say NO UPDATE FOR YOU. And now I am posting this to say HEY rear end in a top hat REMEMBER THAT LP YOU'RE DOING? YOU'RE ON THE HOTSEAT NOW BUB, GET WORKIN'. So maybe now dumbass op will talk over a videogame for another 10 minutes and in so doing stop feeling guilty for a couple days, you never know. LP is hard guyssssss
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Dec 11, 2014 18:32
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Stage notes!  The Marine Express - A glorious marvel of modern engineering, revolutionary mode of transportation, and culmination of years of work, this recently-completed railway is nothing less than a modern wonder of the world. Envisioned as the first fully-submerged means of mass transit, this undersea super train boasts speeds of over 900km/h, traversing 25,000km of tracks enclosed in a reinforced self-repairing polymer tube, and surrounding passengers in scenic underwater vistas with the highest level of civilian comfort money can buy. The train’s still relatively new and is undergoing some testing and renovations, but tracks have already been laid between Tokyo and America’s Los Angeles aquaport, with stops along the way at the island of Ponape and the Samoans. Here’s a handy little map of the planned route – It’ll provide a great alternative to air travel, bring more tourism to the islands on the route, and make intercontinental goods transport a cinch. Really, it’s all goo…wait a second, aren’t we forgetting something?  When this game stops being episodic, it doesn’t pull its punches – sources flow past at a blinding speed, and it can be a bit hard to keep track of what exactly is going on. We’re still in the thick of the DEADCROSS SAGA, but it’s going a little…off the rails, so to speak, as his story segues into and merges with that of another Tezuka work, namely the animated movie Undersea Super Train: Marine express. Created in 1979, as part of an annual 24-hour network charity event called “Love saves the Earth” (one of three such movies, with another being the previously covered “Fumoon”), Marine Express is a compilation work, bringing together a sizable horde of Tezuka protagonists and recycling them into a brand-new story focusing on the titular train and the conflics that arise between the passengers on the train’s maiden voyage. We’ve already been introduced to a number of the cast, Duke Red and Skunk among their number, but far more interesting to this particular LP is the inclusion of Wally, Astro and Rock, as a private investigator, mysterious son of the train’s designer, and conductor, respectively. Their inclusion presents an easily-exploitable link between our current dilemma and the out-of-context movie, and allows for an interesting little change of pace. The Marine Express isn’t native to Astro’s world, but IS heavily involved with all characters present, and is moreover not particularly intrusive to the current setting. Certain aspects are a little out-of-place, admittedly, and it might not be immediately obvious to everyone that all those black looks members are crowded inside a polymer tunnel hundreds of meters below the ocean’s surface (and hundreds of MILES away from civilization), but all in all it works out pretty well as a Deacross escape route. To a…certain extent, at least.  LEAVING THE TRAIN AND ITS QUIRKS UNTIL LATER, this stage also fleshes out the relationship between Deadcross and our late President Rag, in a sequence of events far more faithful to classic Astro Boy fare. The original story had Deadcross opt for a more subtle manipulation tactic in order to both destabilize the government AND seize power for himself, but the backstory remains essentially the same – Rag’s created in the image of Rock (although Rock himself goes unnamed in the manga), and is meant to campaign on the behest of his master; Rag, in turn, eventually develops his own opinions, rebels, and campaigns on his own, eventually winning the presidency for himself until Deadcross takes revenge. Some of the still images used in-game ARE based on older manga panels as a little treat to those familiar with the source, and all-in-all it’s a nice way to flesh out a very one-dimensional character relationship…although Deadcross/Rock himself will be going a little further than his original self, due to the addition of the Marine Express to his story. Regardless, the basis of the plot remains the same as last time: the chapter “His Highness Deadcross”, there it is again if you want a SECOND DOSE. As far as stage gameplay goes: It’s…actually a bit of a challenge now. Stage 5 brings with it some sections that are legitimately fairly rough, both on-land and in the air, with it becoming particularly brutal when it makes you go through the longest aerial section so far and fight a boss immediately on the same life bar, while giving you no checkpoints or hearts along the way. The train brawls aren’t exactly cake either, and the withholding of a hidden heart when playing on hard mode is just the icing on the difficulty cake. Still, though, it’s not all bad – the Black Looks members, bless their hearts, try their very best but are sometimes stymied by the rather sizeable size difference between themselves and Astro, which can be taken advantage of quite easily. Chapter names: 5 – 1: Deadcross Escapes; 5 – 2: Marine Express, Antarctic Station; 5 – 3: Marine Express, Ruins; 5 – 4; Marine Express, Inside ---------- Boss bios! Marine Express  Moveset:
Marine Express exterior one, Exterior two, Interior, Control room! See it in action! (See the opening paragraph if you wanna get more info on the train’s specs, I’m not going into them again!) The Marine Express, created as a joint effort between America and Japan, means many different things to many different people. To its Japanese and American financers, Boon and Director Credit, it’s a means of making money; to its creator, Dr. Narzenkopf, it’s a detestable monstrosity he was forced to build, set to bring ruin to his isolated homeland of Polynesia, while to his adopted son, Rock, it’s one of his father’s final and crowning achievements, and must be made to succeed at all costs. To others, however, the Marine Express is a potent tool to be used for criminal undertakings, while their pursuers board for the express purpose of stopping such chicanery. What starts as a seemingly benign test run of a futuristic and promising rail line quickly spirals out of control as old rivalries flare, people begin to die, and undersea threats like volcanoes and sharks take advantage of the tension on-board…which all comes to a head when Narzenkopf’s mysterious second son, Adam, reveals himself to be a robot tasked only with the destruction of the train from the inside. That aside, the Express IS a durable thing, made to withstand undersea pressure and dangers, but generally speaking, it is NOT designed to carry weapons, instead being meant for civilian purposes only. This might make the fact that we’re fighting it seem rather odd, but actually…  …it does fit in with the lore. See, while the train isn’t meant for sinister deeds on the surface, a group of criminals (with Director Credit secretly heading them) have decided it’d make an excellent means through which to smuggle state-of-the-art weaponry out of the USA. To this end, they’ve utilized the copious amount of test dummies within as camouflage, with each of them being loaded to the gills with illicit hand-held laser weapons. These weapons all utilize an odd jewel set upon them, capable of both killing upon direct contact with a human and the rapid dissolution of human bodies; funnily enough, however, they prove rather ineffective when used against Astro’s more sinister incarnation within the movie, which I personally like to see as justifying why the thing’s in-game attacks do little damage to you when compared to past bosses. And yes, they are rather ineffective. None of the Marine Express’s attacks are overly damaging, all can be dodged fairly easily, and an arm cannon is capable of taking both upper weak points out at the same time; the difficulty in this fight, rather than lying in the fight itself, comes from the fact that it comes after the grueling gauntlet of enemies thrown at you during the aerial section, likely leaving you with sub-optimal health levels and kicking you back to the beginning if you cock up. Concentrate your fire on the glowy bits (the train’s only weak points), move slowly and deliberately, and you shouldn’t have many problems, provided you come in with enough health to tank a couple shots; on hard mode, each only takes 4k health, while I’m sitting at 50k max with only two upgrades. The fact that the train always cycles through its weapons from top to bottom in sequence during its first phase makes it even easier, so it’s not something that should give a ton of trouble. Finally, I just want to note – all the Marine Express info I’ve given so far should be taken with a grain of salt, as the in-game version is already in full operation, and heads to Antarctica of all places, which was most certainly not a part of its original planned route. Deadcross+Roboid   Moveset:
A dual rematch boss means many things; Players have to adapt old strategies for new situations, designers have to come up with a way to make both bosses work at the same time…and let’s players don’t have to bother making new boss move lists or bios~ (although I did have to get a little fancy with their sprites, given the unique inside-train-car camera angle this fight is presented with). Deadcross, with his pet palette-swapped Roboid, returns for a rematch! Or, well, the first one was a fake, but you get my meaning. He fights the same regardless, SO. This fight’s an interesting one, with rather unique mechanics to it. Your arena’s more contrained than previously, meaning dodging vertically’s a no-go; you get a displayed health bar, but it only applies to deadcross; and, interestingly, there’s actually a few ways to approach the battle. The thing to remember is this: Deadcross is the weaker of the two, but he’s also the only one that matters. Beat him, and the Roboid dies automatically. It’s not quite that simple, however. While Deadcross can be COMPLETELY stunlocked into punch combos, the Roboid cannot, which leaves you with a dilemma. If you focus on attacking Deadcross, the Roboid will likely hit you with its long range, but if you try to take out the Roboid first, Deadcross will wisely head to the opposite side of the train car and start sending shockwaves your way. Therefore, the best strategy is generally to attack Deadcross in such a way that he’s layered on top of his Roboid companion, dashing back and forth to keep him there and dodge the Roboid’s telegraphed attacks. This allows you to damage them both at the same time, and also leaves them ripe and primed for a quick arm cannon, guaranteed to hit them both at the same time and quick to recharge given that you’re getting two hits for the price of a single punch.  Once you take out the Roboid, Deadcross is literally defenseless and can just be beaten into submission; still, though, I actually rather like this fight, as working around the giant Roboid (where did those come from again?) while focusing on the wimpier Deadcross is fairly interesting. Music! Only one new track this time, exclusive to the MARINE EXPRESS, I’m getting a little tired of typing that :V It’s nice and high-energy, I don’t think it’s particularly in reference to anything (the original movie had a more laid-back theme to it), but it fits well with the HIGH-OCTANE CHASE AFTER A PRESIDENT MURDERER. Last and least, just as a bit of added coherence, that tune you hear at the end of the stage may have shown up once before… #27: Marine Express Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Mar 19, 2017 |
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Jan 29, 2015 00:53
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BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER Let's just pretend that was my winter break, mmkay? Shouldn't have any problems that bad from here on out, I was in a bit of a funk and got lazy E; also got the bios for Rag, Black Looks and Deaddy queued up I am GOING TO BE ON TOP OF IT FOR AT LEAST ONE UPDATE DANGIT Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 00:54
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Star #13: =Rag= Through the ages: Manga, 1963, 1980 See him in action: 1963 EPISODE 43, 1980 EPISODE 11 Tezuka character list bio: Number 12  - The world’s first robot president in Antarctica. He has many human enemies. He appeared in the episode “His Highness Deadcross,” but had not “Black Looks”[sic]. These two separate stories have been combined into one for this game. Noriko Ohara was the voice actor for the anime in 1980.No president has looked this dashing since the Kennedy administration I tell you what. Rag’s the popular, good-looking, optimistic elected president of Antarctica, home to a new population and government doing their best to live and build a comfortable society within the brutally cold and hostile environment…but you knew all that, didn’t you? Rag’s interesting in that, unlike pretty much all of the characters given bios so far, he doesn’t really stray beyond what you see in game – I actually started writing his bio a while back, realized this, and then copy-pasted it and repurposed it as the post for part six of the main LP. Don’t be fooled, though; regardless of, or perhaps BECAUSE of his faithfulness to his roots, Rag comes out guns blazing as one of the first major players in the story. Driving the plot of two chapters all on his own, it’s perhaps a testament to Tezuka’s stories that, even in the extremely pruned-down state we get here, his plight manages to come across and still maintain its original feel and integrity. Originally the President of the country of Gravia, Rag’s election is something of a milestone in the universe of Mighty Atom, marking the first instance of a non-human political leader in the history of the world. Securing office through a combination of charisma, political acumen, and widespread support from the extensive robot population within his country, Rag’s set to bring some real change to the way his people are treated at home and abroad – sadly for him, however, elements of the human populace aren’t entirely on board with the whole “our creation taking control and drastically restructuring the entirety of society” thing, and resolve to do their damndest to put a stop to Rag’s nonsense through any means necessary.  Most prominent among the dissenters is the Deadcross party, a group of violent like-minded humans out for blood and headed by their leader, “Lord Deadcross”. You should be quite familiar with his antics by now, as they do match up fairly well with the in-game depiction (up to and including Rag’s untimely, if more private, demise at Deadcross’ hands), but the most recent chapter in the game reveals there’s more going on then immediately meets the eye. Rag’s origins get an added layer of depth when it’s revealed that he was, in fact, a stand-in meant simply to promote the presidential campaign of a human, a skilled but morally bankrupt man identical in appearance to Rag, a man who goes unnamed in the original work but has since been replaced by a different recurring villainous look-alike named Rock. It’s thanks to Rock’s tutelage that Rag gains his knowledge and steadily develops his morals and independent thoughts, adding a very welcome layer of complexity to a story that was previously just about a bunch of overblown racists trying to take over the government; Rag’s usurped the position his creator was intended to fill, in so doing setting off the chain of events leading to his own assassination, and it makes Deadcross/Rock a much more dynamic character than a lot of the other Astro Boy villians because of it. Plus, it justifies Rag’s odd name…  …In that he’s literally designed to be a Rag Doll, a stand-in for the true presidential candidate before coming into a life of his own. It’s a bit reminiscent of stories involving toys coming to life, like the Velveteen Rabbit or Pinocchio, with a dash of political intrigue for good measure. Rag’s a tool, crafted to appeal to and be played with by voters (he even gains energy from the trust they place in him), but he manages to create his own identity despite this and move past the effigy he was originally created to be. It should be noted, however, that while Rag’s story comes to a happy ending in the original work, he’s not so lucky here – rather than getting his electronic brain temporarily removed, he really did get smashed to pieces by a bomb, so don’t go expecting any reappearances by president Rag – his campaign is over. Gamwhiz1 fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Jan 29, 2015 22:42
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Tuxedo Ted posted:Ok, so Rock build a robot copy of himself to be a jerk and run for president while he stays home. Rag gains sentience and goes against his evil directive, doing just the opposite. Nah, it was just one of his mooks dressed up to look like him. See -  So he's learned his lesson maybe. I do like Rock's chain of thought there, though; "Man, running for office is, like, SO much effort guys. I'm gonna make it easier by designing and building an incredibly advanced robot, teaching it everything it knows over the course of who knows how long (including how to do all the campaign things I am not going to do), then slipping in later to...continue sipping martinis, but in the president's office now?"
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Jan 30, 2015 02:23
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