[ContrarianMalazanReader]

I hope they don't bowdlerise HK-47.

[Slow Ben]

Query: They wouldnt do something that stupid, would they?

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

Briar King, on 09 September 2021 - 08:05 PM, said:

QT….

KOTOR remake for PS5!

Also coming to PC thank god! https://twitter.com/...066933032439824
I hope it stays true to the original and is indeed an RPG game of the original caliber, without turning into an action adventure game..

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

I just replayed both the KoTOR I and II last year, wonderful stories through and through. Im guessing they do remove the D20 roll system from the combat, though I wouldn't complain if it stayed.

[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Slow Ben, on 10 September 2021 - 02:40 AM, said:

Query: They wouldnt do something that stupid, would they?

Answer: If they do, the meatbags responsible will pay.

[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Not-So-Great-Raven, on 10 September 2021 - 05:05 AM, said:

I just replayed both the KoTOR I and II last year, wonderful stories through and through. Im guessing they do remove the D20 roll system from the combat, though I wouldn't complain if it stayed.

Did you play the PC versions? If so, then I hope you made sure to install TSLRCM for KotOR II, and in case you didn't I strongly recommend you do.

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

ContrarianMalazanReader, on 10 September 2021 - 06:24 AM, said:

Not-So-Great-Raven, on 10 September 2021 - 05:05 AM, said:

I just replayed both the KoTOR I and II last year, wonderful stories through and through. Im guessing they do remove the D20 roll system from the combat, though I wouldn't complain if it stayed.

Did you play the PC versions? If so, then I hope you made sure to install TSLRCM for KotOR II, and in case you didn't I strongly recommend you do.

I did play the PC versions but unfortunately without TSLRCM. I was told I should first play it without and then try it with TSLRCM So might start a replay one of these days.

[D'rek]

First 4 episodes of Star Wars Visions done! Or as I'm now calling it, Star Wars: High Heels Edition. Really liking it so far, all the episodes are very different in not just artstyle and story but also tone, scenery, etc, yet all still feel like they fit into Star Wars just fine. If anything, the biggest crime is how short they are - a lot of 'em feel like they could easily have been a feature film if given a bit of a second act and time to show their characters' backstories.

The English dubs seems pretty bad. Awkward translations in some places, lame voice acting in others. I was hopping back and forth between English and Japanese w/ subtitles, but gonna stick to subtitled from here onward. Even then, the timing on the subtitles is frequently off, Disney seems to have not licensed the song lyric translations, and some people are saying their only subtitle option is CC-for-the-hearing-impaired (with all the [door closing whoosh] captions). Very annoying, especially when it's bajillion-dollar-Disney failing to do even the bare minimum while pirate fansubbers routinely do so much more.


First one is a grainy Afro Samurai-meets-Kurosawa film that is pure awesome.

Second one was the Colorido music one and I never knew I needed Jabba the Hutt and Bobba Fett grooving but trying to hold it in but I'm here for it. Lots of fun references in this one, and I like the change of pace since I think all the other ones are likely gonna be lightsabre fights.

Third was the Trigger/Imaishi Darth Waifu one, which unsurprisingly was very Trigger/Imaishi. Some people are going to love this, some are going to hate it. If you love it, go watch Promare. For me, I liked it but it's the least of the episodes so far. It seemed a bit spastic in its editing and there were parts that felt like they should have had more animation to them. But maybe that's 'cause I already know exactly what I was getting into with Trigger/Imaishi so my expectations cursed me on it or something.

Fourth was the Kinema Citrus/Made in Abyss-esque one, which was a bit janky in how the scenes flowed but aside from that really gorgeous and it's always cool to see ideas of alternate perspectives/uses of the Force and such. Great soundtrack, too (of course it is, it's Kevin Penkin after all).

[Imperial Historian]

I'm 5 episodes in and enjoying it so far.

The subtitles for Japanese/English are not great, my sister provided the initial script translation for the English dub, but the subtitles are supposed to be done by a separate team so not sure what's happened there.

First one is definitely my favourite, the third one was very over the top fun too, will definitely check out promare!

[QuickTidal]

That first one was SPECTACULAR!

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 02:03 AM, said:

Ok I could have gone without 3 even more so. Did not understand. Way to ott for me.

When you have a project like this, where you let a bunch of different high-profile creators go do whatever they want, invariably some of them are going to be more "out there" with their ideas than the typical canon they are branching from, and some are going to stick more to the traditional scope of the franchise. Some people are gonna like the former, some the latter, but having the mix is good 'cause there's something for everyone that way!

From the sounds of it, I would guess #5, #8 and #9 should be more your cup of tea since they are kinda more "traditional" Star Wars ground.

[D'rek]

I'm done them all now.

The Ninth Jedi (#5) is by far my favourite, though #1 is still a fairly close second. Even though it is probably the episode that sticks closest to what a traditional Star Wars short story (especially a TV story) is typically about, it still has some super cool creative ideas, even things I wish they would incorporate into all of Star Wars. Feels like it could've been a pilot episode of a show I would really, really like to watch (way more than, say, Star Wars Resistance). And maybe it's just me but the way the camera moves/cuts in the action scenes has a live-action star wars-y feel to it.

Spoiler

Lightsabres that have their colour depend on the user? Damn, I wish that was a thing in the whole franchise!

The choreography on Kara-vs-hunter fight over the ice lake is beautiful. I like how she even swings her arms a little bit before winding up for the strike - lots of little detail like that. And the spinning jump dismount off the bike is rad as hell. I thought that was going to be the biggest moment of the episode, but then the six acolytes all being revealed from turning on their sabres at once was AMAZING.

Stuff like the mining harpoons, Juro's big droid, the old-man droid (who was hilarious), etc, really made the setting feel alive and bigger than we see in just this episode. Likewise, stuff like the 2 seconds of Kara doing Luke's practice-droid routine with the lightsabre to show she's fight-capable before we actually get to the fight is a much nicer bit of directing/prep than the other episodes where the kiddos just pick up a lightsabre and boom they're capable now. Kenji Kamiyama might be old and mostly retired from filmmaking, but he's still got great chops.

Both the two Science Saru ones, T0-B1 (#6) and Akakiri (#9), were very visually interesting with the art styles and all, but personally the stories felt a bit flat/predictable. Doing an Astro Boy homage with star wars is pretty neat, though.

The Elder (#8) - It's not doing any particularly "out there" art style, but I really like the character designs and general look of this one. The story was kinda flat here, too, though... I think probably if I saw this on its own I would think it's very neat, but being episode 8 of an all-at-once anthology with several much more creative storylines isn't doing it any favours.

Lop & Ochō (#7) was absolutely beautiful in a lot of scenes, especially the background art, and went in a pretty interesting direction... but the ending is kind of empty? And frankly I wish they *hadn't* put a lightsabre into this one, it felt forced in and the whole thing would have been perfectly fine if they just fought with other cool weapons (which Ochō does have!).


It's interesting that so many of the episodes did a sort of "Star Wars but old-timey Japan" aspect in one way or another. There's a ronin/samurai-archetype lightsabre wielder in 5 of them, plus the Kurosawa flair / kabuki character designs / etc. Not surprising, really... Star Wars took influence from old Samurai movies, so taking things full circle back around makes perfect sense, plus of course a Japanese studio/director/writer/whatever would potentially want to do a creative take of mashing their cultural heritage with the franchise. But I do wonder if there's some paranoid producers on the Disney side going "Doh, we shouldn't have just given each studio free reign and left it at that. Next time, we check the storyboards and maximum 3 samurai episodes!" Personally, I loved it, but I'm already an anime idiot so of course I do.

[QuickTidal]

I'm with Drek on this. The Duel and The Ninth Jedi are far and away my favourites. The Duel is aping Kurosawa on a level that makes me desire a whole series that looks and feels like that.

I will say that bringing up third place is The Village Bride. It was lovely, animated gorgeously, and the score....holy hells...

So yeah, I liked all of the shorts, but those three are my faves.

A really solid "season" if that's what this is.

Also, some of this could easily not be "elseworlds" and could fit into the far flung future of the main canon universe...

And the good news is if you liked THE DUEL....there will be a novel following the Ronin in October!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 23 September 2021 - 12:39 PM

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 03:37 PM, said:

7 is ok in the end but fuck it was so slow to get there.

How'd you ever make it through 10 Malazan books with that attitude?

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

Just watched the first three episodes of Visions. Star Wars has been in need of something this refreshing for year and years, finally someone had the courage to let people do it! Going to save the rest of the episodes for the weekend.

The Duel, my god that was definitely my favourite. Didn't even try with the English dub, because those always pale in comparison (read: suck) to the Japanese originals.

D, on 22 September 2021 - 08:32 PM, said:

First one is a grainy Afro Samurai-meets-Kurosawa film that is pure awesome.

Couldn't have said it better.

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 04:23 PM, said:

And I think I was wrong yesterday? This is like Marvel What If and not official canon right cause that shit in 3 was way to crazy for normal SW.?!

Does Star Wars even have a consistent canon now? Even post-Disney haven't some of the TV shows conflicted with the new movies?

In any case, yeah, none of this is officially canon. Some of them could definitely fit into the universe just fine, others not so much.

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

D, on 23 September 2021 - 04:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 04:23 PM, said:

And I think I was wrong yesterday? This is like Marvel What If and not official canon right cause that shit in 3 was way to crazy for normal SW.?!

Does Star Wars even have a consistent canon now? Even post-Disney haven't some of the TV shows conflicted with the new movies?

In any case, yeah, none of this is officially canon. Some of them could definitely fit into the universe just fine, others not so much.

Disney threw all the good canon stuff into legends and replaced it with all its own silly stuff, which I still refuse to accept.
Considering that, I don't think the stuff in 3 was so far fetched (okay some of it, but with enough explanation it could still fit..)

[Imperial Historian]

Not-So-Great-Raven, on 23 September 2021 - 05:00 PM, said:

D, on 23 September 2021 - 04:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 04:23 PM, said:

And I think I was wrong yesterday? This is like Marvel What If and not official canon right cause that shit in 3 was way to crazy for normal SW.?!

Does Star Wars even have a consistent canon now? Even post-Disney haven't some of the TV shows conflicted with the new movies?

In any case, yeah, none of this is officially canon. Some of them could definitely fit into the universe just fine, others not so much.

Disney threw all the good canon stuff into legends and replaced it with all its own silly stuff, which I still refuse to accept.
Considering that, I don't think the stuff in 3 was so far fetched (okay some of it, but with enough explanation it could still fit..)

Spoiler

He chopped a star destroyer in half with a lightsaber after fighting in space with no breathing apparatus for a good 5 minutes

I mean it was great, but I dread to think what you think is far fetched!

[D'rek]

Imperial Historian, on 23 September 2021 - 05:31 PM, said:

Not-So-Great-Raven, on 23 September 2021 - 05:00 PM, said:

D, on 23 September 2021 - 04:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 04:23 PM, said:

And I think I was wrong yesterday? This is like Marvel What If and not official canon right cause that shit in 3 was way to crazy for normal SW.?!

Does Star Wars even have a consistent canon now? Even post-Disney haven't some of the TV shows conflicted with the new movies?

In any case, yeah, none of this is officially canon. Some of them could definitely fit into the universe just fine, others not so much.

Disney threw all the good canon stuff into legends and replaced it with all its own silly stuff, which I still refuse to accept.
Considering that, I don't think the stuff in 3 was so far fetched (okay some of it, but with enough explanation it could still fit..)

Spoiler

He chopped a star destroyer in half with a lightsaber after fighting in space with no breathing apparatus for a good 5 minutes

I mean it was great, but I dread to think what you think is far fetched!

The best part of #3/The Twins is how

Spoiler

the droid needed to put on a helmet to go out into space

[Not-So-Great-Raven]

Imperial Historian, on 23 September 2021 - 05:31 PM, said:

Not-So-Great-Raven, on 23 September 2021 - 05:00 PM, said:

D, on 23 September 2021 - 04:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 September 2021 - 04:23 PM, said:

And I think I was wrong yesterday? This is like Marvel What If and not official canon right cause that shit in 3 was way to crazy for normal SW.?!

Does Star Wars even have a consistent canon now? Even post-Disney haven't some of the TV shows conflicted with the new movies?

In any case, yeah, none of this is officially canon. Some of them could definitely fit into the universe just fine, others not so much.

Disney threw all the good canon stuff into legends and replaced it with all its own silly stuff, which I still refuse to accept.
Considering that, I don't think the stuff in 3 was so far fetched (okay some of it, but with enough explanation it could still fit..)

Spoiler

He chopped a star destroyer in half with a lightsaber after fighting in space with no breathing apparatus for a good 5 minutes

I mean it was great, but I dread to think what you think is far fetched!

Palpatine creating a clone of himself and transferring his consciousness into it via "dark magics" is far fetched for me. And didn't Leia also survive in space without a breathing apparatus? Also far fetched for me. So considering what dumb shit Disney has already put in the movies...

But yeah, I agree not all of it made sense. And so far #3 was my least favourite one (of the first 3 I've watched).