So again the whole Rapelay issue was brought up by CNN, and maybe it's what I'm currently playing which is giving me some sort of different perspective on the whole thing.  Why?  Because I'm playing Bayonetta, that's why. 
 
I know, what does Bayonetta, which while sexual wouldn't be catagorized as an H-game, have to do with Rapelay which has quickly become, through no fault or ability to profit of it's own, the poster child for the genre?  It's a game of "six degrees of seperation" but it ties in tighter than I'd wish it did. 
 
In my list of PS3 games that I own, I put that Bayonetta felt like a 70s Grindhouse/Sexplotation film.  It was kinda tongue in cheek, hyper violent, and leeringly sexual but in an endearing sort of way.  The more I played it, the more I wanted to push through, master the techniques, and try to figure out more of what in the world was going on in the story.   It handles it's sexual content with a wink and a nod, and a lollipop planted firmly in cheek. If it wanted to it could shock and horrify, but instead does a nice job of walking the line between having the sexual content and relying on it.  In the end, Bayonetta's a blast because it's a twitchy action game with nice graphics, interesting visuals, and a story too convoluted to be threatening.
 
Shortly after I started playing Bayonetta, a report on CNN brought Rapelay back up again.  Months after the original reports on the game, a game that in 2009 was so 2006 to people who peruse Hentai games, it was back in the news again.   Rapelay has a catchy name that just rolls off the tongue into the ears of easily terrified people.  It's the new black sheep, being discussed in lengthy detail by people who probably have never played it.   And honestly, I haven't played it either since I'm not going to "steal" a torrent of the game, don't want to purchase the game, and I don't have interest to spend time with the game when better games sit waiting for me to play them.
 
"How easy is it for kids to get their hands on this game?", the CNN "reporter" asked.   The question that I wondered is, "Why would kids want to play a game in a language they can't understand when an easier to understand option is available to them?"  There's explicit sexual material all over the internet, so why wouldn't they go to something easier to get their hands on and operate if they're going to explore that.   And if rape is such a big deal, then it leads to this question that was only there because of Bayonetta's sexplotation/grindhouse links being freshly planted in my mind. 
 
"Why were people not this ticked off over 'The Last House on the Left' when it was released last year?"  
 
"The Last House on the Left" was released last year and includes a brutal rape scene which sets up the revenge scenario.  Rapelay also ends (if you let it end) with a revenge scenario for those you torment sexually.  The newly released version of the movie is a toned down version of the original 1972 film, which originally pushed the limits of the MPAA after it stopped enforcing the "Hays Code"  to find out exactly what filmmakers could get away without the restrictions which had been in place before.  That film was actually a modified version of a 1960 film called "The Virgin Spring".  The difference is that "The Virgin Spring" won an academy award for best foreign film in 1960.  
 
 "The Last House on the Left" wasn't going to win an academy award, actually it was going to have something else happen to it, strangely enough, in the place where the Rapelay situation began.  Remember, Rapelay was brought to light when a third party reseller tried selling the game on amazon.co.uk and the listing was pulled because it was a violation of Amazon's terms.  So like Rapelay, The Last House on the Left would be stopped from being sold in England, when it would be deemed unfit for distribution, and be caught up as one of the thirty nine films in Britain's "Video Nasties" list. 
 
Now while I'm pulling together what seems like a thin comparison between the film and the game, it's this banning that pulls the situation together.  You can correctly argue that the thing that's different between "The Last House on the Left" and "Rapelay" isn't the story, it's the ratio.  The Last House on the Left is a rape setting up a lengthy revenge scenario.  Rapelay is a lengthy rape scenario setting up a violent end.  The ratio of sex to violence isn't right for these two things to be directly compared with each other.  However, when you look at the rest of the Video Nasties list, it's littered with Italian sexplotation films, generally set in Nazi concentration camps, which have a similar rape-revenge motif and ratio.  Films like "Gestapo's Last Orgy", a better comparison point than "The Last House on the Left", gives a movie with a similar ratio of sexual violence to revenge and proves an important point. 
 
We've gone through this before.  We've seen a burgeoning media form try to push boundries and find out where they are in the public's eye before.  We've seen this with movies, we've seen it with music, and we're seeing it now with video games.   Older forms of media can't grasp what's happening, and are more concerned with the use of the object for shock value and attention, rather than have a true discourse on the invaders at their gates.  There's no reason for CNN, Fox News Network, CNBC, or other news channels to report on games honestly because the time people spend playing those games is less time spent watching their network and generating precious ratings which advertising dollars are based off of.  The pushing of the boundries shocks and horrifies these outlets easily, as Mass Effect proved before Rapelay was ever a glint in the news network's eye.   And they try to scare their viewers into staying with them, where it's safe, and they only show real atrocities instead of pixels being formed into fake ones. 
 
Another argument can be made that video games are interactive while cinema is passive, but both are visual storytelling methods, and it make sense that video games would borrow from cinema.  There's no need to reinvent the wheel, as many good techniques of visual storytelling already exist within cinema, and modifying those methods to interactive entertainment gives a familiar base for video game makers to work from.   Sometimes you get spectacular successes like Uncharted.  Sometimes it's so close and so far away like with Heavy Rain.  Sometimes it's so far away it's worth spending hours watching this very website to experience a beautiful trainwreck, like with Deadly Premonition.  Sometimes you dance on that thin line with a self assured sense of style like Bayonetta.  Sometimes, you cross the line and face consequences, like with Rapelay.  But all of these games are pushing the boundries and expanding video games from being seen as merely being a child's toy, and being accepted as much more.   
 
In the end, Rapelay may become video game's equivolent of Elvis shaking his hips on camera or Wes Craven taking an Oscar winning film and making it uncomfortably graphic, or it might become Body Count's "Copkiller" or "Gestapo's Last Orgy" and be a constant source of shame.  Whichever it is, the one thing it won't be, is alone as parallels to other media will always be there, if you just look long enough for the lines to blur a little bit.

So since my wife had to work the dreaded Black Friday, I decided to head to Gamestop with my son on Wednesday night to see if there was anything that could tide me over and make me forget that I didn't quite have enough money for a nice big screen TV, or a nice PS3 bundle (which hopefully by next year I'll have both of).  Having sold my SMT collection a while ago I held out a bit of hope that maybe I could replace some of that but honestly, I figured that the chances of that were slim and none.   
 
I never would have guessed that when I walked into the Gateway Gamestop in Salt Lake that Slim would meet me in the used PS2 game section.  A copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga was sitting in the section with the Ws along with a copy of Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories.  I looked around after plucking the two out, didn't find anything else of interest, then called my daughter and asked her if she wanted a DS game since I'd get more bang for the buck doing that then picking up Magna Carta or FF XII.  She said she watned Kingdom Hearts, or Super Mario Bros. so I picked up SMB (Kingdom Hearts, not in) and then went to check out and asked the best question I could have asked.

"You wouldn't happen to have Digital Devil Saga 2, would you?" 

"No, someone picked that and Nocturne off yesterday."

That definately brought some sighs to me until the person going and getting the discs stopped in his search, tilted his head, and pulled out a disc with a familiar logo.  "I'll take that instead of Disgaea." 
 
They sent someone to search for the case and the manager told the girl that if she was a case in the PS2 section with the spine not showing, to turn it around.  Smart guy as in the Madden section the girl found the case for Digital Devil Saga 2.  Nocturne was sold, otherwise it'd be the best B2G1 free ever, but at least my daughter's having fun with SMB, and I have both sections of DDS to keep me occupied over the holiday weekend.  
 
It's been so long I nearly forgot how damn good those games were.  I thought I might have been looking at DDS with rose colored glasses, but no, the game's still freaking awesome, and just a bit below Persona 4 as my favorite PS2 game this generation.  Having some familiarity with the game I've been speeding through the first one (at the end of the Solids battle now) and that moment that Argilla cries over her lost "comrade" still holds some power, although not as much as I remember.  I don't know if it's that I know the twist to the game, or if it's that their translators have done a better job of late delivering those moments, but it seemed to be lacking a bit comparitively to some of the turns in P3 and P4.   
 
I still understand why people love Nocturne and to a lesser extent DDS and want a SMT4 instead of another Persona game.  To those people, go back and play Nocturne or DDS and seriously take a look at how much their storytelling has advanced this generation.  I fall into the camp now of not caring if it's another Persona, a mainline SMT, or another attempt at episodic gaming like DDS.  I just want to see the wizards at Atlus R&D1 continue advancing their storytelling skills and continuing to tell interesting stories, and I want to see the localization team at Atlus USA continue to bring those moments through the barrier of language.   
 
I'm pretty happy that I have more parts of the collection back in my grasp again.  And even with as busy as the Gamestop was, I'm pretty happy they didn't just toss the disc in a blank case and hand it off.  They were all really helpful and even sold me an Edge card that i didn't intend to get, just because the people there went the extra mile finding the case and recognizing a 5 year old PS2 game by it's disc artwork and even with the amount of people in the store, searched and found the case which was hidden in with the thousand or so used PS2 games in the center bin.  Sure, their corporate philosophy might be banal, but every time I've gone to the one in the Gateway their people have been outstanding and it makes it a little easier to shop there because of the people that work there. 
 
Now if I can just get my daughter to stop opening and closing the DS and laughing at Mario talking to her and get her to actually, ya know, play the damn game.  At least it stops her from trying to play World of Goo which she thinks is a good idea for about 10 minutes until it frustrates the hell out of her, then she goes back a few days later thinking she should play World of Goo, for another 10 minutes. 

So it's the 3rd of July and my work's graciously given me the day off.  To top that off, my paycheck actually hit my bank account on time even with the holiday strangeness and I decided to take the day to pick up a part of my SMT collection that I recently sold.  Considering today is episode 100 of the Endurance Run, it seemed like Persona 4 was as good of a get as any as not having it has been making me itch to play it again.

So I took a risk, hit Gamestop's website and checked to see where the game was available and it gave me two locations.  One had the game new, and one had the game new and used so I called the one that had the game new and used, made sure it was there, and then plotted out the trip on the wonderful Utah Transit Authority so I could head over there and pick it up.  Problem was that UTA's site was busted so I used Google Transit to plot it for me, got the directions and times, and took my 3 year old (who loves buses and trains) to get it.

After paying a bill and missing the first bus, I decided to hit the train station and pick up the bus there for the backup set of times and that's where everything went to hell.  The monitors displayed that Friday the 3rd and Saturday the 4th, the buses would run on Sunday schedules.  Now I'm not sure if Google Transit is taking that into consideration so I decide to fly blind into the other location and hope that Gamestop's website is correct that they have it in stock.  Train into a station two stops away and a bus ride over to the west side of Salt Lake to Valley Fair Mall, not my preferred place to go.

It's not that Valley Fair Mall isn't nice (it's not, but that's beside the point) but I worked there for years and have seen my share of issues including a firefight that broke out in the parking lot just outside of a tournament that I was running.  My father taught me to stay out of harm's way, and I didn't like bringing the three year old there, but that'd be the least of my worries.  The MAX bus across wasn't running because today's "Sunday".  The 15m bus that would take me there was now running every hour because today's "Sunday" and when the bus was supposed to get there, it didn't.  So I waited... and waited... and 15m later it finally arrived, people pouring out of the bus and then almost 50 disgruntled people pouring into the bus.  Three bicycles, four strollers (including my own), and someone who looked like they weren't able to walk and was being carried around by three guys.  I don't event want to imagine what the deal with that girl was...

So we get there and less than two miles away from the station there's ISSUES.  The bus driver pulls over and begins calling and a few minutes later UTA trucks show up and pop the back of the bus to find out we just broke down.  Nice deal with 90 degree heat and an overcrowded bus. Fortunately we're less than a mile away from the UTA bus staging area so they call out another bus, but we all had to get out while he took the bus SLOWLY back to the terminal.  Of course the three people carrying the chick who looks like she can barely walk dump her right outside the door forcing people to gingerly step around them because, you know, there's not another 20 people who need to get out.

Huge credit by the way to the bus driver, you can tell that he's fuming pissed, considering his radio didn't work and the bus was overheating, but he stayed professional and pleasant the entire time, if he showed that frustration in a more overt way it could have been chaos.  Nice job of keeping his cool and making a bad situation stay bad instead of getting worse.

Ten minutes later the next bus comes and we all begin the process of getting back on the bus.  At this point I want to break this girl's arms too so she's a complete invalid.  Something about her and her three friends are just setting my teeth on edge.  I guess it's a good thing since an old friend boards and we talk about old times and new.  He's been travelling and playing with a band and we talked about their tour bus breaking down in TN and that he'd happy to be back.  We finally get there and I hit the next nightmare.  The roads by the mall are torn to shreds for "construction"... more like "deconstruction" and cars are flying by paying little attention to the traffic signals.  I finally get across the street and head into the mall.

And then it dawns on me.  I'm going to get there, and the horror stories I hear about Gamestop's website will come to fruition.  I sigh, hope that the Game Pedler will have a copy if Gamespot doesn't and head in.  It's gutted, but it's there and I pick it up.  I hand the Edge card I had with some trade in credit and find out later that the one I was looking for was hidden behind my old UDE judge card.  At this point I don't care, it's still $10 off what I paid for it the first time, and at $29.99, I pick it off and go on my way.

Back through the deconstruction and I can tell, my son's getting tired, hungry, and thirsty.  We'd be back home right now if not for this nightmare.  My son's definately better behaved than the other kid of approximate age (I'm going to say he was 3 as well) however, who is in the middle of a raging fight with his mom about bubble gum.  My son watches in horror and amazement and looks up at me.  I shake my head and he does what he normally does when presented with a situation like this, stands behind me and deathgrips my legs.  I check the time on my transfer and things aren't looking good so I call UTA to find out when the next bus is supposed to be here (thanks for not having a schedule posted at the stop) and find out it's going to arrive... 4 minutes after the transfer expires. 

You've got to be kidding me.

A different bus arrives though and is going to take me one train station closer and get me there faster, so we jump on, hit a timely connect with the train, and now pizza's cooking.  Wait... no, pizza's done.  Chi and Cora are watching Noggin, and Persona 4 is back on my shelf, where the damn thing belongs.

One SMT game back in the collection, six more to go until it's back to where it should be.  And with all of that the one thing that sticks out in my head?

Damn, my friend's band shared a stage with Ozzy Osborne.  That's ridiculous.  He's still the Prince of F****** Darkness, just ask Sharon.

You are The Hierophant

Divine Wisdom. Manifestation. Explanation. Teaching.

All things relating to education, patience, help from superiors.The Hierophant is often considered to be a Guardian Angel.

The Hierophant's purpose is to bring the spiritual down to Earth. Where the High Priestess between her two pillars deals with realms beyond this Earth, the Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. He is well suited to do this because he strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. The Hierophant's only problem is that he can be stubborn and hidebound. At his best, he is wise and soothing, at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.

Wow... I'm still thinking about Sony's press conference and the one thing that keeps jumping out at me in what was otherwise a great presser was the PSP Go!  I mean, it looks great, removes the battery burning UMD drive, should cost less because it's missing that part right? 

$249

You're kidding me right?  $249 for what is effectively a gimped PSP? 

I'm perfectly happy to ride the wave that this is going to generate though, don't get me wrong.  I'll pick off FF VII on Friday from the Playstation Store and look forward to the other 49 PS One classics that they're going to support the system with.  The fact that they're going to throw support at this thing means that as a PSP owner I can ride the wave having already paid the buy-in, but this system needs about $50 cut off of it.

Well, back to watching G4's Nightcap with some Giant Bomb influence...

So as Eirikr said in response to my earlier blog post, it's starting to hit the fan now.  Either I'm getting lucky at what I have ingested at the time of the boss fights, or the level's leading me to have the right tool for the right job, but Ose at the end of Nihilo wasn't as bad as I'd imagined he'd be.  And after that, things got messed up.  I don't know what shocked me more, Gozu Tennoh's dying or Diasoujou casting Mamadoon on my party.  I was completely expecting Samsara, but his SP drain attacks to start the fight off were annoying enough, didn't need him jigging my party on top of it.  Fortunately Matador was making it so when he'd try such silliness he'd skip out on the rest of his turn, and I was able to push through enough physical damage thanks to Focus attacks and Naga healing himself every strike to get through without having to burn a bunch of SP items.  

So I've progressed out of Ikebukuro and went to the Assembly of Nihilo.  So far it's treading the line of being challenging without being so obtuse that i'm not able to figure out what to do next.  I've had to jet out a few times in the grind down below due to massive SP consumption, but I've been able to retrieve the four Kilas and I'm prepping to head down into the heart of the Assembly to find out what lies below.  I'm having issues with the progression, as it's hard to tell where you're at, especially after P3 and P4 where you have an idea how far along you are because you know there's an end date in sight.  Coming out of those games and heading into Nocturne, not having that security blanket of knowing about how far you are is by far the most jarring part of the game right now. 

So after finishing the Answer in Persona 3 FES, I was left with the options, play through Devil Summoner in preparation for Devil Summoner 2?  Go through the Digital Devil Saga one more time (the first game in the series being my favorite in the SMT universe)?  Maybe go off the beaten path, do some God Hand, or some Shadow of the Colossus? 

But there it was staring at me.  Taunting me.  The game that's sat on my wall of shame for nearly five years.

So I opened up Nocturne again and shook my head as I put it in the PS2. 

I've tried it when I first got it, and unfortunately got busy and just drifted away from the game.  Tried getting back into again and got smoked by Matador, got busy, and didn't feel like spending my down time getting angry at a video game.  Again life interfered right as I hit Dante the first time.  And now I'm going to try it one more time.

Spending six months playing Persona games doesn't seem like it'd be a good preparation for the ass raping which commences when Nocturne gets going, but the game's been much easier this time around.  I'm not going to grind away at information this time, it's five years old, I'll hit a FAQ if I need it, although I'd rather not.

Matador... I remembered I had to protect against something so I put in my physical skills, and dragged all of my resist physical demons into battle.  Matador then showed me that he had one more trick up his sleeve, and thanks to my party being weak to force, he Mazan'd his ass off causing the second wipe of the game.  (The first caused by an unfortunate meeting with a group of Angels, who seemed hell bent and ultimately successful in Hama'ing my MC.)   Uzume got fused and brought in, and all was good in the world as Blob's resistance to physical and Uzume's healing helped grind out Matador and I moved past the first sticking point.

Dante got a good shot in on me the first time as well.  But Focus attacks and using Blob's Tarunda made him waste half his turn on casting Lucky Star, I was buying time, 20SP at a time with a character who I would rather have attacking than wasting his time casting Marin Karin on Dante.  I think that WILL NOT work.  Momonofu used Focus attacks and was doing 300 after Blob ran out of SP and Dante began enraging my party.  Kakami did the healing duties and Dante who was tougher the first time around fell relatively easy compared to the first time I met up with Capcom's product placement. 

We'll see how things go from here.  I've finished the first Kalpa and decided to back out and progress through the "real world's" storyline for a whlie.  To Ikebukuro again, now that Dante's out of the way and Thor fell thanks to me spending some Macca on the info rather than time on the Internet.

I guess the thing I'm noticing the most is that unlike the Persona games, Macca's HARD to come by.  I might be missing a trick, but as much as I'm happy to have the Demonic Compendium I'm not liking how expensive it's going to be to drag everything out and begin fusing.  Looks like the game wants me to grind, and grinding's not something I'm caring to do right now.  But it's the price for picking that game up off the shelf rather than maybe going through Devil Summoner, refamiliarizing myself with the combat, and then playing the second DS. 

At least Raiho is happy... when my three year old isn't pulling him down off the shelf and playing with him.  Thankfully the symbol on his hat doesn't do anything, otherwise that doll would be lost in my son's room, stashed somewhere that it's not going to be easily found.