A true masterpiece...

What was the start of all this?

When did the cogs of fate begin to turn?

Perhaps it is impossible to grasp the answer now,

From deep within the flow of time...

But for a certainty back then,

We loved so many yet hated so much,

We hurt others and we hurt ourselves...

Yet even then we ran like the wind,

Whilst our laughter echoed,

Under cerulean skies....

-Chrono Cross, PSX

I've been playing a lot of original Playstation games lately. I've been craving some of the mid generation games that I've always loved to play. My favorite game from this generation, and probably of all time, is Chrono Cross. Everything about this game attracted me: the story, the characters, the graphics. I've played a few RPGs on the Xbox 360 and haven't really been that impressed (I did just recently start playing Dragon Age and I guess I must admit I'm addicted to that game). Not many games have been able to grab onto me like this game has.

I've learned I'm a fan of the older generations of games, at least when it comes to RPGs. All the reasons I like this game pretty much sums up how these older RPGs are much better in quality than they are today. I miss when games had no voice acting. The only thing that accompanied the actions of the characters were the words that popped up on the screen. Chrono Cross came out during the time that games were starting to delve more into voice acting, but the makers of CC decided to keep their players reading instead of listening.

Each of the 42 characters had their own personalities. Many of these personalities are aided by the variety of accents given to the characters. Most of the characters have their own diverse way of talking. The heroine, Kid, speaks with a slight Australian accent, calling people "mate" and telling her enemies that she'll "kick their arses so hard they'll kiss the moons". Harle speaks with a French accent with the occasional French words and phrases gives a nice dash of sass to her character. Of course these accents can easily be done by voice actors, but it will always sound perfect when you're reading it to yourself.

One thing that will butcher a game for me is terrible voice acting. If the voices of the characters don't fit the actual characters and are just bad at acting out the certain situations, it makes me want to turn off the game and hide it in a dark corner forever. When you read, your mind takes over and forms your own version of the way a character speaks and acts. This is all ruined if the character is given an actual voice and the actor plays the part terribly. A character can be ruined by an actual voice. Part of the beauty of older games was reading whatever needed to be said. Players are able to interpret a character into the best they can be because they are partially formed within the person playing the game.

Something else that seems to be dying in the newer generations of RPG games is the silent protagonist. Since voice acting is almost a staple in games today, the silent protagonist becomes and unrealistic part of the scenario. If everyone else around the main character has a voice, there is no reason for him/her not to speak as well. Some games still hold onto it, but it seems to be a part of video games that is slowly dying. Silent protagonists gave the game developers a challenge. They had to give a character a personality through actions alone. The actions and choices are the only attributes that will give this character a bit of their own personality. The rest of the personality is up to the gamer himself. With silent protagonists, the gamer is able to create the character. A gamer can feel their own presence within the silent protagonist since they never speak themselves. I've always been a huge fan of the silent protagonist in Chrono Cross, Serge. I was able to make him into the ideal man for the situation he found himself in. The player knows something has gone wrong during the one part of the game where Serge gains a voice (well, text technically). He was a silent protagonist that was able to take his players and keep them interested in this magnificent game.

Even though Chrono Cross was one of the later original Playstation games, the makers chose to keep voice acting out when many other games were using this along with or instead of text. Now, it is hard to find a new game without voice acting, and as long as it is done well I can enjoy it. I will always have a soft spot for the more retro games though. No matter how amazing new games are, I will always be able to pull out my PS2 and enjoy playing Chrono Cross, as well as many other older games that existed before the mandatory voices were placed within video games.

From novel to movie...

As a future novelist, I look at authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and have mixed feelings about their success. Both have different reasons for their success, but somehow they were able to make their series' so popular that is made it to Hollywood. There are too many authors to count out in the world, and only a handful are "good enough" to reach star success.

Event though it is my guilty pleasure, the Twilight series is not exactly a well written series. The characters are cliche and predictable. I believe the story gives a bad message to teenage girls. Stephanie Meyer's success comes from taking the popular sexualized vampire figure and making it accessible to the everyday teenager. It has been done before, and Stephanie Meyer did it again, only with her own little twist. The Harry Potter series isn't a guilty pleasure. I'm okay with admitting I'm a fan of all seven books. I believe J.K. Rowling deserves her success. She is a brilliant writer. I did notice how many similarities there are between the Lord of the Rings series and the Harry Potter series though. That aside, she has a well written series compared to Stephanie Meyer whose book was meant for teens, and the book is at a 7th grade reading level.

I'm not sure if I would want anything I write to be adapted into a film. It's another form of art to express a story that has been told. At the same time though, I feel it's an excuse not to read a book. I know plenty of people who simply see the movie instead of taking the time to read the actual novel. I'm a fan of movies, but I definitely prefer reading. There are plenty of obstacles in the reading world with constantly evolving technology, and this makes it harder for reading enthusiasts to express the importance of picking up a book and reading it once in a while. It works your mind in a way that movies are not able to. Everything is laid out for you within movies. With novels, you have the ability to create something of your own. The authors create the characters, but readers take it a step further and make them real.

Some actors are able to portray characters extremely well. I thought Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were amazing as Ron and Hermione . They act exactly like I imagined them within the novels. Daniel Radcliffe on the other hand isn't the greatest actor. He definitely looks like Harry Potter should (a bit more attractive than the one within the novels), but he just cannot act. He tries to hard to be emotional and just ends up looking bad in the end. People who simply watch the movie cannot be impressed with this character. If they read the novels, they would see everything in a whole new light. They can have their own Hogwarts instead of constantly referring back to the ones created for them by Hollywood. As for Twilight, I wasn't impressed with most of the cast. I hate Kristen Stewart. She's not an actress, she's an awkward girl who can only play as herself. I know there are plenty of people who agree with me, as well as plenty who will want to rip my guts out for saying such "blasphemy". None of the actors truly "wowed" me within this movie. I still paid to see it each time though...and I'll do the same thing for Breaking Dawn as well. Again, it's a guilty pleasure. My hormones ooze lovey-dovey awws at the typical love story. Cliches are comfortable; that's why people like them.

If a director came up to me and asked me if I'd like to have my future novel/series turned into a movie, I would probably let it happen. The movie industry is it's own art form, and I'd be curious to see what they would do with my stories. I'd also be able to just write for the rest of my life and put my future kids, and probably grandkids, through college. I would simply hope that they can do a good job with what I gave them, and I won't allow them to let K Stew play any of my characters.