A short analysis of Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4

By garison February 9, 2010 4 Comments

  

    
[Please keep in mind, I wrote this post in January of 2009, but I think it is definitely still applicable, and should be discussed. It never really got too much attention where I posted it before, and I would really like to see what the Giant Bomb community thinks about the subject. If you guys have a problem with me cross posting this from another site, just say so and I'll gladly delete it as soon as possible.]
 
Many video games have addressed romantic issues and sexuality before, but none so in the way that Persona 4has. Persona 4 is the only video game that I can think of at the moment that actually talks about homosexuality in aserious way, without poking fun at it, or just being flat out unprofessional. 

The part near the beginning of the game where you have to rescue Kanji from the TV world really got me thinking. This character just is so conflicted in his life. He has major issues with what and who he is attracted to, and inside the TV, you really get to see his true emotions come out. He is FLAMING gay. He talks about how he hates talking to girls, how douchey they can be, and that he would much rather enjoy the company of males. 

In his life in the real world, he puts on a charade and acts tough by being in a biker gang, skipping school, and beating up other kids to show off how tough he is. Kanji's dungeon that you have to save him from in the game is actually a bath house where he runs around in nothing but a tiny sumo wrestlers outfit, yelling to the world about how much he loves pecs and how he needs to find a boyfriend ASAP. The boss of the dungeon is a giant wide-shouldered, head-less man holding large "male" signs as weapens with red roses growing all over his chest, on which Kanji rides on top of. Please tell me this isn't the gayest character you have ever seen in a videogame.

It's not only his sexuality that Kanji is worried about, he grew up in a textiles (cloth) shop, and is a talented sewer, but he get's teased for it. Kanji's true fear is the fear of being rejected. 

I really love how brave Atlus was with releasing a game with with stuff like this in North America. Let's just wait 'till the FOX News people get ahold of this 'GAME IS PR0N" business...    

4 Comments

Please read a few thoughts that I have about BIT.TRIP RUNNER

By garison February 9, 2010 4 Comments

 

  
[Hey, I'm new to Giant Bomb. I'm garison, um, I'm from other sites around the internet, and I have been chilling on gaming blogs for about 2 years now. Hope to see y'all around the site!] 
 
IGN posted some videos a while back of Gaijin Games' newest entry in the Bit.Trip series, Runner. Let me tell you, from the videos alone, I am kind of not impressed by how the game is coming along. 

What I loved about the first three games in the series was that they were all so abstract. Each game was filled to the brim with absolutely beautiful abstract designs and patterns, they were so different from pretty much every other game on the market, and still are. But with Runner, it seems like Gaijin is abandoning what made the first games so different, and making just another videogame. 

I apologize for coming off as such a rabid fanboy, but I'm a bit worried for my favourite downloadable game series at the moment. I'm sure the game will probably be amazing, and it will probably be just as fun (if not more) as Beat,Core, and Void. It just looks like Gaijin decided to make a platformer/music game, and literally just that. The graphics are repetative and boring, nothing really special. Commander Video also looks slightly retarded when he runs. 

I know that the developers said that the 6-part series will represent the progression of the history of videogames themselves, so I guess this is how they decided to do that. 

Who knows, maybe I'm just overreacting. I'm kind of having trouble putting my thoughts into words. But I have total trust in the guys at Gaijin Games, so I have no doubt the game will be a total blast when it comes out. 

Yeah!     

4 Comments