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[PS2] [PS3] Wanda to Kyozou

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[PS2] [PS3] Wanda to Kyozou

Unread postby icycalm » 01 Jun 2015 12:07

Review: http://culture.vg/reviews/in-depth/wand ... 5-ps2.html

I have not read or skimmed or even heard of an opinion on this game that's not mindless neckbeard frothing, so merely the fact that this seems to have been written by a real person would have been enough to make it warrant special attention. Beyond that, it's also very thorough and convincing and well-written, so I ran with it.

Too bad it spoiled the game for me, but these are the drawbacks of being the editor. Absolutely do not read if you haven't played it.
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Unread postby jeffrobot494 » 01 Jun 2015 20:12

Great review. I really enjoyed this game.
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Unread postby El Chaos » 02 Jun 2015 00:01

Agreed, nice review. I have a couple nitpicks.

Veelk wrote:Getting on the colossus requires figuring out where the sigil is hidden and what you have to do to make it work. You might have to bait it into attacking you, or trick it into hitting something it shouldn't, or use the environment, or use your horse, or just climb to a particular point, and that's assuming you even know where you're going since you don't know where the target is.

While the sigils are indeed hidden, it's possible to hold the sword up and gather light to pinpoint their exact location once the fight with the colossus starts. It might not always be possible to do this since you need to be outdoors and the sky must be clear in order for it to work, but if I remember correctly it did work on most battles.

Veelk wrote:However, Agro just isn't fun to ride, as I got to keep slapping her bum just to keep her moving at her modest top speed.

This sounds like the author was under the impression that he needed to keep tapping the button in order to spur Agro forward. This is not the case, you can hold it down and keep going at top speed. And also, I'm not sure where he got Agro's gender from, I was under the impression it's a male horse.

Finally, I know I shouldn't go by official URLs, but it seems the official romanization for the game's name is Wander, not Wanda. The main character's name is also spelled "Wander" in the credits for the American version of the original PlayStation 2 release, for what that's worth.
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Unread postby icycalm » 03 Jun 2015 02:17

The American version of the game is irrelevant for our purposes. The Japanese URL is a clue, but not a very strong one.

The original review called the protagonist "Wander", and I had to edit every single instance of this to change it to "the wanderer", which took considerable time. That's why I don't want to change it back before I am fairly sure that I should.

My romanization of the title and my use of the name "wanderer" for the protagonist comes from an article or interview I read regarding the game ages ago, which if I remember correctly said that the "Wanda" in the title is supposed to have the dual meaning of Wanda the female name, and "wanderer", which apparently is rendered in Japanese in the same katakana form. "Wander" is a meaningless stupid name that sounds like something an American localization department would have come up with.

Having said that, the Japanese Wikipedia page gives the game's cast as follows:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF% ... 8%E5%83%8F

キャラクター

前作ICOと同じく、ゲーム中の台詞はすべて架空の言語である(日本語字幕付き)。

ワンダ (Wander)(声:野島健児)
主人公。少女の魂を呼び戻すために古の地にやってきた青年。剣は片手で扱うが振るときはなぜかフリーハンドも一緒に振る。
モノ (Mono)(声:生天目仁美)
魂を失った少女。ワンダにとっては特別な存在のようである。
ドルミン (Dormin)(声:中多和宏・氷上恭子)
姿無き天の声。魂を操る術を持つと言い伝えられている大いなる存在。ワンダが巨像と戦っている時に巨像を倒すためのヒントを教えてくれる。その目的とは…。
アグロ (Agro)
ワンダの愛馬。ワンダの足として、共に戦う仲間としてワンダに尽す。
巨像 (Colossus)
禁断の地に住む凶暴な魔物達。人型、獣型、さまざまな姿をしており、陸や湖、空や砂漠の各地に生息している。16体存在する。非常に巨大で体に毛のような草が生えており、青白く光る弱点を持つ。
エモン (Emon)(声:坂東尚樹)
ワンダの行為を阻止する為に、仲間と共にやってきた老人。


But Wikipedia, Japanese or not, is not a very reliable source for this kind of thing either, and I have noted several instances in the past in which the Japanese Wikipedia contributor took titles from the English page of a game.

Compounding the problem is that no one has ever called the game "Wander to Kyozou" -- not even the English Wikipedia. Everyone calls it "Wanda to Kyozou" which means "Wanda and the Colossi", so where the hell does the "Wander" come in?

So I'll leave things as they are until we get some new piece of info in that points us one way or another. Finding that article/interview I mentioned would be a start. If anyone has other suggestions, let's hear them.
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