Thoughts on Overture (morning after remix)

[rallamajoop]

As promised, a bit more of a run down of what we actually got out of Overture once the story mode hit the web.

The not-so-good
Much as I try to claim I'm never in a fandom purely for the yaoi, it's hard not to feel let down. I mean, I'm sure no-one would ever expect the Sol/Ky thing to get full canonical confirmation, but we *know* they've been deliberately playing it up over the years - very likely just to draw in the yaoi-fan audience, so this was seriously out of the blue. I don't know how many people have bothered to watch that particular video, but believe me when I say that hearing Ky declaring how deeply in love he was with... er, what's-her-name, didn't do my fangirl heart any good. ^^;

It all gets pretty messy from then on in. We've got a major character romantically involved with someone who probably isn't someone we know, in a storyline that probably is an AU. Some interviews apparently support the AU theory, but people can play right through the game without knowing for sure one way or the other. I was originally working on the theory that GG2 wouldn't be strongly connected with GGX/GGXX but probably set chronologically after - so maybe they'd wrap up the PWAB plot in the X timeline then move on to finish off That Man with Overture, right? But if GG2's entirely AU but GGXXAC+ is still promising to include That Man's plans into its plot, then they appear to be trying to resolve the same plotline in two places at once, and that could get ugly. Awkward. Very awkward.

Eh, while I'm at it, I'll get the rest of my complaints out here before I move on to the positive stuff.

If That Man really was unmasked as promised, I must've blinked and missed it or something. We do see him fight, but he has a completely different voice and seems to be in a completely different form to usual. More confusion.

The explanation for why Ky no longer uses the Fuuraiken is about two sentences and implies it happened last week. How he got a new weapon so fast I don't know, it didn't seem well thought out. There's not so much as a hint as to where the Fuuenken's gone.

Still don't like Sol's new voice actor. He's tolerable, but quite apart from him not being what I'm used to, he doesn't even seem to be able to act as well as the rest of the cast. Sol may not have much emotional range, but some of his lines felt a bit flat. What worries me even more is that if they couldn't get his usual Story Mode VA for Overture, I don't really like our chances of them getting him for AC+.

The antagonism between Sol and Ky is gone - and I'm really not sure where. Ky clearly knows all about Sol's past, he doesn't even blink when Dr Paradigm starts calling him Frederick. I'd probably be all in favour of this if they'd given us the slightest clue when or how. Clearly, they must've made up well before Ky entrusted his son to Sol, but that's not much of a clue, and I really wouldn't count on the Overture series ever bothering to go back and clear that up. If this is meant to be a sequel to the original GG, they must've skipped a hell of a lot in the middle. Really, if the whole world is set in some complete AU where Sol never stole the Fuuenken and left the Order at all, it would explain a lot more.

The not-so-bad
All that's a bit of a shame, really, because up until the middle I was really enjoying the story. There's a lot of interesting stuff in it about the nature of magic, the Gears, Justice - and there was quite a lot more interesting stuff towards the end too, now I've found some proper translations. It's just a bit hard to know whether any of it applies to the GGX universe, which makes me that bit more uncomfortable about it.

I did really like the new characters too - though Valentine didn't make much impression on me. Sin spends a lot of the latter half of the game acting like a moody teenager. He's got some kind of issues with Ky which I couldn't fully make sense of, but I still did like him overall (hell, he probably *is* about in his moody teen phase in Gear years).

And, y'know, considering that they married Ky off to some faceless, nameless source of ongoing confusion, a lot of parts of that side of the story were actually handled surprisingly well. It may have come out of the blue, but in their (limited) defense, it was obviously supposed to have done. Izuna and Dr Paradigm nearly had heart attacks when they found out. And while we never find out much about what's-her-name, they did put some decent effort into underlining just how important she was to Ky and Sin. Not enough to really mitigate having this sprung on us, but it doesn't hurt. I do wonder whether we're actually going to see anything of her in later installments to the series. The funny thing is, I wouldn't actually count on that either...

Overall... well, really quite disappointing after all that build up (on the sales front as well, apparently). And there's no helping that I'm still stuck on the issue of Ky's new girlfriend. Sol/Ky fandom's never been exactly huge and a plot development like this isn't going to help any, and I'm selfish enough when it comes to wanting new fanstuff to enjoy that that irritates me. =P

Guess we'll just have to wait and see what Accent Core Plus has in store.

But hey - no sense being all gloomy about it. So here's an off-the-top-of-my-head list of what you can re-interpret out of Overture from the Sol/Ky perspective.

1. The game has added a lot of support to any interpretation where Sol and Ky have gotten over their antagonism, told each other all their secrets and are generally Getting On with each other.

2. The game has stated quite clearly that Ky has no compunctions - religious or otherwise - about making it known what he's been doing in private with someone he's not married too but still in love with. XD

3. Turn it how you like, Sin still has two Dads. Sol is obviously very much part of the family.

4. C'mon, how much can we be expected to care about a relationship between a lead character and someone they're so very determined not to tell us anything about, huh?

I'm also coming up with all these terrible ideas for 4-koma parodies of certain scenes, but they're not going to be much good until the full contents of the story mode are a bit more common knowledge >.>

Comments

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Not at all - that's why I linked to this post in the first place.

I've only recently gotten into the series, thanks to much prodding from a friend, and I really enjoyed the cast and the stories, even though I'm as lame a controller-operator as you'll ever find.

Hah, you sound far too much like me. XD (Except where the friends didn't actually have to do much prodding, and the end was me winding up embarrassingly more addicted to the series than any of them ever were. >.>)

When I first heard of Overture, I was all "whooo", but now I'm more leaning towards "meh". I guess it's mostly the way they threw us all into cold water with the twists, the non-sequiturs, and the blatant "tralala, seems we forgot this tidbit in our crack-addled states *puff*". I feel the fandom wouldn't be reeling quite as much if they had bothered to explain a few setups.

So true. The plot itself was meant to be full of unexpected twists and new information, but asking the fans to put up with all the confusion over how the timeline fits together as well got to be a bit much. The real shame is I'm still sure I would've loved the story if they'd only fixed a few things.

And heh, not to worry on the Sol/Ky front. I am very much in love with this pairing, I don't care how many other people the canon marries them off to. I'm in the process of feeling my way into writing these characters, but... self-pimping in NOT a good thing when I haven't even got anything to back up my grand plans. XD;;;;

I only wish some of my favourite Japanese fanartists were feeling the same. -_- At least we've still got some outside hope AC+ will clear up the timeline issues a bit, and it's good to know English-language fandom is a bit more resilliant. ^^; After my last few major fandoms, I've been really disappointed by how little fanwork their is for Guilty Gear - especially when they've given us such great material to play with. But any mad hopes I might've had that GG2 could bring it more into the mainstream haven't come to much.

That said, I've been following your journal for a bit, and I enjoy your fanfiction very much, especially, of course, the Guilty Gear bits. This fandom has too little good writing, but I adore yours. Would you mind if I friended you? I promise I'm really quite docile. House-trained, even. ;D

Sure, friend away! ^_^ I'm not bothered, and hearing people enjoy my fic always puts me in a stupidly good mood.

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

Hah, you sound far too much like me. XD (Except where the friends didn't actually have to do much prodding, and the end was me winding up embarrassingly more addicted to the series than any of them ever were. >.>)

Haha, well, the prodding went mostly like, "OMG YOU GOTTA LOOK AT THOSE SEXY ABS AND ASSES", and I was like, "COUNT ME IN 8D". The only thing that made me reluctant to try playing was the gameplay itself - I suck at fighting games with button combos and timing and whatnot.

I only wish some of my favourite Japanese fanartists were feeling the same. -_-
That's true, so many GG art sites went boom and vanished. T___T And I'm really surprised that not more people are out there producing fanfiction. Most of the stuff seems fairly old, and... to be truthful, 95% of the time, so OOC and WTF it hurts. And there are such interesting characters to explore, too.

Yaaay! *friends*

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I suck at fighting games with button combos and timing and whatnot.

Oh, tell me about it. XD; Friends of mine are still reeling from the idea I'm addicted to a fighting game - usually I won't touch them with a ten foot pole. But usually they don't have the characters and plot of GG. And somehow, it is really fun to play, even if you're button mashing your way through.

That's true, so many GG art sites went boom and vanished. T___T

It's been a problem for a while. >< I put a post up on the solxky comm a while back in mad hope of tracking some of the recently lost ones down. Surprisingly, I did actually manage to find people who'd saved most of the lost art I was looking for. I could send them on your way if you like though (and if you have some tens of megabytes worth of downloads to spare. ^^;)

And I'm really surprised that not more people are out there producing fanfiction. Most of the stuff seems fairly old, and... to be truthful, 95% of the time, so OOC and WTF it hurts. And there are such interesting characters to explore, too.

Oh my god, there's actually someone else on the Internet who feels my pain. XDD Honestly, that's been pretty much exactly my thoughts ever since I got into the fandom.

I think the reason it's mostly old is that there hasn't really been any new canon in the main series (excluding a few minor side stories) since 2002, so fandom's been stagnated for ages. It can't help that so much of the story is from sources that never got an official English release either. You've really got to piece it together from bits from all over the place to get the full picture, and that's a crying shame when there are so many characters who are so many levels of awesome for fandom to play with.

I have all these crazy plans of creating my own Massive Plot Database for the series to finally get all the info together somewhere accessible. We'll see whether anything actually comes of it. >.>

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

And somehow, it is really fun to play, even if you're button mashing your way through.
XDDDD Yes... though in my case it's button-mashing and wailing "KYYYYY WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO MEEEEE" at the screen. Or Jam. She's... surprisingly easy to play. Sometimes I even manage to land a blow. *dies*

And yeah, I hear you about the plot. The plot was what convinced me to make the investment... I mean, it's hard to find a cast of such quirky, intriguing characters anywhere, let alone in a fighting game.

I put a post up on the solxky comm a while back in mad hope of tracking some of the recently lost ones down.
I saw that post and started my hunt from there. And wow, you'd really do that? Send it my way, I mean? That would be superspeshialawesome... and make me your slave. XD
No worries about the download... I'm running on broadband with a 50gig download limit.

Oh my god, there's actually someone else on the Internet who feels my pain. XDD
OH GODS YES. ;__; I swear... the Sol/Ky side made me cry. Fake French. Love confessions WTF. Bawling. Ukefication. Stereotyping. I found a handful of fics worth saving and treasuring. Yours and twigcollins' among them. The rest makes me bawl just thinking about it.
And Venom/Zato? The canon (okay, one-sided, but still) pairing and nobody manages to write it decently? I'm still in shock over that. XD;;;

You've really got to piece it together from bits from all over the place to get the full picture, and that's a crying shame when there are so many characters who are so many levels of awesome for fandom to play with.
That's true... and few people tend to invest that much time into getting their facts straight. And then you have Ishiwatari not knowing what he wants to make canon and what AU (I swear, like a fanficcer on FF.net, that man), so half the fanbase is left going "WHUT". And let's face it... if we compare some characters, especially between Overture and the X-verse, their characterizations clash blatantly. Don't even get me started on the mind-boggling concept of Ky getting it on with a female Gear and getting her pregnant. I mean, he fought Gears in a brutal war. He's not gonna go around making more of them, methinks. Not that I don't love Sin and all, but yes. *shuts up*

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I was actually enthusiastic enough to play through all 60 story modes from XX, but man did that take some doing. ^^; Quite a few only ever got done after I'd set the difficulty down to 'beginner'.

And yeah, I hear you about the plot. The plot was what convinced me to make the investment... I mean, it's hard to find a cast of such quirky, intriguing characters anywhere, let alone in a fighting game.

Oh, all kinds of WORD. =D

And wow, you'd really do that? Send it my way, I mean? That would be superspeshialawesome... and make me your slave. XD

I did offer to send what I'd found on to people when I made the post. ^_^ Art that pretty needs to be shared! (Actually, I was planning to do a second post offering to send it to anyone else who wanted my compiled collection, but one person who was supposed to send me her saved art never got around to it, and I didn't know whether to keep waiting for her or not.) I'll need to double check it's all sorted correctly first though - I'll drop you a line when I'm done.

OH GODS YES. ;__; I swear... the Sol/Ky side made me cry. Fake French. Love confessions WTF. Bawling. Ukefication. Stereotyping. I found a handful of fics worth saving and treasuring.

Pretty much a textbook list of everything you'd expect from badfic, and poor GG fandom is so small, the badfic writers are almost all we've got. >< But the series has so much potential for more! We should really trade notes on what little goodfic we've found, though I don't think I have more than a handful wirth reccing either. Which reminds me, I've been meaning to go through twigcollins' fic as soon as I find a minute for it...

And Venom/Zato? The canon (okay, one-sided, but still) pairing and nobody manages to write it decently? I'm still in shock over that. XD;;;

I guess because that one is so clearly defined in canon, there's a limit to what you can do with it while keeping IC? Zato being his manipulative bastardly self and Venom being hopelessly smitten doesn't give you a lot of room to maneuver.

And then you have Ishiwatari not knowing what he wants to make canon and what AU (I swear, like a fanficcer on FF.net, that man), so half the fanbase is left going "WHUT". And let's face it... if we compare some characters, especially between Overture and the X-verse, their characterizations clash blatantly.

And that there is pretty much the whole damn problem with Overture in a nutcase. -_-

Actually, that part I'd give them some credit for. Ky's plotline in the original GGX was mainly about him having to question what he'd believed about Gears being evil thanks to what Justice said to him at the end of the first game. When he heard about a sentient Gear who was peaceful, he went out to see whether this was the evidence he needed to prove his old view wrong - and he did change his mind about Gears after meeting Dizzy. You don't have to twist that too much to get the story they wanted for Overture, but it's still a pretty miserable concept for an AU. And it hardly begins to explain the rest of the problems.

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you very much. ^^

We should really trade notes on what little goodfic we've found, though I don't think I have more than a handful wirth reccing either.
That would be awesome. Though my list is pretty much you, and Twig, one borderline fic on FFnet and one epic that isn't Sol/Ky but is very much worth a read on its own.

I guess because that one is so clearly defined in canon, there's a limit to what you can do with it while keeping IC?
Of course, there's the canon limitations, but it doesn't all have to be about twu wuv and sexxors for me, so I would've been content with Venom pining away and Zato being an ass. XDDDDD Though I actually found a canon loophole I plan to exploit sometime in the future.

Ky's plotline in the original GGX was mainly about him having to question what he'd believed about Gears being evil thanks to what Justice said to him at the end of the first game.
Well, let me rephrase that. My reasons for it being mind-boggling are not because I think Ky thinks Gears are evil, but if I go by what I know from X-verse, Overture still gives us so little backstory to this FREAKING HUGE plot point that it sounds like a half-assed story.

Same with the sudden lack of Sol/Ky RAWRHISS. Not that I want them at each other's throats (though hey, a little pissyness and snark is the spice to my yaoi cake), but an explanation would have been nice. I can't see Sol conversationally remarking on his past over Sunday afternoon tea, but Overture almost makes it sound like this is what happened.

...Uh, I'm getting off my soapbox now. >____>

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I've checked my fanart folder, and the total is just short of 100 MB (counting my own and others' collections of art from sites which are no longer in business, have removed old work or aren't trusted not to, some less well sorted stuff from Korean sites and *ahem* quite a lot of NSFW stuff). I've got accounts at MegaUpload, RapidShare and SendSpace, but I just remembered a lot of people can't get all three to work, so let me know if you've got any preference.

That would be awesome. Though my list is pretty much you, and Twig, one borderline fic on FFnet and one epic that isn't Sol/Ky but is very much worth a read on its own.

Just got to reading Twig's fic yesterday, myself - and now I'll be flattered that people think I deserve comparison to her. ^_^ Mm, but she writes some nice stuff. And what I wouldn't give for another twenty authors like her in this fandom.

Most of the rest of my own list is in the borderline category itself (basically 'great fic *if* you can ignore thisorthat problem'), but at least there's a list at all. Might be easier to discuss over chat of some kind so I could check what you have or haven't read/enjoyed already, though I'm getting the impression our timezones aren't that well suited for that. ^^;

Though I actually found a canon loophole I plan to exploit sometime in the future.

Ah, we can always count on there being loopholes somewhere in canon, can't we? *g* Venom's pretty far down my own list of personal favourite characters, but that's certainly not to say there wouldn't be some interesting things that could be done with him.

Ah, then consider me in agreement. Really, probably the only reason that's not bothering me is that there are just so many things Overture hasn't bothered to explain to us that that particular one is lost down the bottom of the list somewhere. I could believe that we're expected to just assume that meeting her was what changed his mind about Gears. I'm not accepting that Ky's was given kingship of a country (apparently) less than five years ago and no-one even bothers to mention in passing how it happened. Ditto the changes to the Sol/Ky relationship.

Damn but I'd like to see any canon source show *how* changes like that could have happened, but skipping to the end misses us out on all the good parts.

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

Wah, sorry for the late reply. DX;;;

Uh, all three work fine for me, though I generally prefer Sendspace or Megaupload since they're not as stingy with the download speed.

Just got to reading Twig's fic yesterday, myself - and now I'll be flattered that people think I deserve comparison to her. ^_^
It's true, though. *nods* I wish I could write like her (or you), then I wouldn't have to hide my stuff in a big dark hole and cower in fear of the collective fandom wrath. XDD

I see you found my MSN contact. I added you back. :)

Damn but I'd like to see any canon source show *how* changes like that could have happened, but skipping to the end misses us out on all the good parts.
Oh, I completely agree. For me, the "getting there" is more rewarding than the eventual result because you can see what shifts, and who changes, and... everything, really.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Okay, cool. I went with Sendspace then (http://www.sendspace.com/file/be4754). Enjoy! (I can recommend the contents of the folders labeled 'Croix' and 'Play-Do' particularly.)

I generally use AIM/gmail chat rather than MSN, but I figured I'd give it a try. ^^;

Y'know, I had this momentary crazy thought of, "Hey, what if that is exactly where they're going with the Sol/Ky relationship in the X series, and they didn't talk about it in Overture because the Ky/what's-her-face thing is the only real difference between the worlds and they didn't want to go through the same thing twice!"

I think this is what we call wishful thinking. >.>

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

Wooow, thank you so much!

AIM doesn't work very well for me, unfortunately. I don't know what it is, but the thing keeps cutting its own connection.

and they didn't talk about it in Overture because the Ky/what's-her-face thing is the only real difference between the worlds and they didn't want to go through the same thing twice!"
GODS, DON'T I WISH. >____>

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

BTW - just had a look at a couple of your fic (the Axl/Roxas ones, specifically) and, modesty aside, I think you're selling yourself short. I liked your characterisations and there was some nice writing there too. Anyway, it should go without saying I would be *very* willing to encourage you to try your hand at Guilty Gear, and if I could help out by offering beta reading or whatever, just let me know. ^_^

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

Waaah, thank you. *bows deeply* I'm very flattered that you think so. I tend to be not pleased with my own writing on a general principle, so I'm always a little afraid how people are going to react.

And if I ever do muster the courage to write some Sol/Ky, I will gladly take you up on your offer.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Perfectly fair - there *is* a lot to be said for being your own worst critic, at least that means you're always trying to improve (whereas I've been fairly relaxed with most of what I get to posting these days and I'm not certain whether this is a good sign or whether getting spoiled for nice feedback is going to make me lazy ^^; Not that I'm in any way complaining about any of the feedback I get, believe me. >.>)

I was about to add something along the lines of 'anything you contribute to the fandom can only improve the average fic standard', then I remembered just what the average standard *was* and realised that wasn't much of a compliment. But, er, you get what I'm trying to say, I hope. ^^;

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess that's true for me. XD I have a perfectionist complex, so I can't say my critiquing myself like that is the healthiest thing in the world, but when I compare some older stuff of mine to the way I write now, I'm actually a little proud of myself. XD;;;;;

And I think it's great that you've been able to relax. I think that's more a sign of growing comfortable with your style than anything like laziness. And the good feedback is wholly deserved. :)

Haha, thank you. *bows again* I'll take it the way it was intended.