Lion's War: a game blog

My personal game and art log for the Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions video game.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

(cross-posted to my livejournal)

One of my (shameful) new obsessions is A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I picked up the first book at my library in the shelf of books donated for sale. It had no dust jacket, but I thought it seemed pretty interesting from the first page and even if it sucked, I would only lose 50 cents. Well, I read it and the following books with increasingly morbid interest. Such drama, such violence, such powerful passion and even more powerful treachery!

It reminded me of the War of the Roses, a dynastic struggle in medieval England in which thousands of people died. The War of the Roses in fact was the inspiration for Final Fantasy Tactics, subtitled the War of the Lions for a reason. So there was part of the reason why I liked A Song of Ice and Fire so much! Huzzah!

If you really want to know more, you'd have to wiki War of the Roses and prepare for a looooooong read longer than longcat or read a couple of Shakespeare plays. But here are some interesting similarities. For example, both the books and the game start after a long civil war that you should know something about but you don't hah hah. Each warring family controls either the north or the south. A queen assumes regency for her son after her pathetic husband dies and directs her relatives to kill any other claimants to the throne. Many knights and even more peasants die. Corrupt churches get what's coming. Dragons rain fiery death. Female knights bust some nuts. Some unknown goes out to claim the throne for themselves, and to hell with anyone who gets in their way. Princesses are in another castle. A knight turns into a zombie, I shit you not about this one. But as far as I know, Final Fantasy Tactics does not have rampant twincest (I'm preeeeeetty sure), nor does A Song of Ice and Fire have a thunder god.

Sounds like fine entertainment? Well, they are thinking of making the books into a TV series and I would pay good money to see how they're going to cast a deformed dwarf or handle the dragons.

I would really prefer an animated movie based on Tactics, but no one cares about what I want.

Anyways, for those of you medieval history buffs who enjoy a good dose of fantasy and drama similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, this series is for you.

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Japanese fanart sites: part 4

This is probably the last update for Japanese fanart sites that are hopefully link-free. Again, if you have other sites to recommend, please let me know!

Sky Lodge by maiyue
Sky Lodge
FFT, FF12. Beautiful watercolor and digital paintings in rich colors. I guess technically this is not a Japanese site, but it is a must-see!

ジャポニカラクガキチョウ by アスパラ
Japonikarakugakichou
FFT. Graceful painterly sketches, plus a game blog with sketches of many NPCs. Also, an amazingly beautiful and sad animation of the epilogue. One of my faves!

Pine-Pinx by sueble
Pine-PinX
FFT, FF12, Vagrant Story. There's only 1 FFt fanart, but this artist has such lovely delicate paintings, I'll link it anyways!

APM by タカオ
APM
FFT, FFTA, others. The artist has a cute retro style, sparkly-eyed and absolutely precious. Colorful art and oekaki that you just have to see.

mangetsu-an by mangetsu
Mangetsu-an
FFT, FF12. Wonderfully rendered digital paintings and sketches, dreamy and natural. Actually, you'll have to search for FFT, but just enjoy the other fanarts!

7m by 藤縄
This last site I'm not sure about linking... I am terrible at Japanese so I'll not link it for now. Too bad! Because it was really funny and cute.

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

doujinshi: Brave Commander by K.A.R.

Brave Commander
Circle: KAR
Year: 1997
Pages: 26 pages
Characters: Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio, Delita, Ovelia, Alma
Rating: PG (a little blood)

Summary: A very pretty and clean style, quite detailed. The first story is my favorite, a gag story of Agrias getting decked out in dancer attire. A few more with Agrias beating everyone up, and then another funny one about Ovelia's married life. The last story is of course, about the epilogue, very sad.

page
Ovelia, now queen and married to Delita, is watching Delita sleep, and unfortunately what he says in his sleep pisses her off!!! *cracks up*

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

doujinshi: Flower Barrow by Kyofu no Miso Soup

Because I'm so utterly lazy, I'm going to review one of the Tactics doujinshi I bought off of eBay.

Flower Barrow

Title: Flower Barrow
Circle: Kyofu no Miso Soup, Kiriri Amasawa
Year: 2000
Pages: 38 pages
Characters: Ramza, Delita, Alma, Olan, Balmafula, Izlude, Meliadoul, Mustadio, cameos of pretty much every speaking character
Rating: PG

Summary: basically an adorable collection of gag stories, plus fanart from different artists. The art is as you see, cute, detailed, very pretty. The running gags seem to be Ramza's devotion to Alma, plus Olan and Balmafula's rocky relationship. There is a gag version of the epilogue between Delita and Ovelia that is just hilarious. This is pretty much my favorite one, if just for the variety of characters thrown in. Sheer genius, I say.

LAWL
In this comic, Ramza and Delita are basically arguing about whose sister is cuter. Hah hah! Kinda creepy, but very true.

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