Well, it's about time I introduced you...
Jan. 16th, 2012 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsDespite saying after Yuletide that I could now blabber about this freely, I've felt self-defeatingly inhibited about doing so, but now it's time... These couple of weeks I haven't been posting, I have continued to obsess over the ridiculously obscure fandom my Yuletide recipient introduced me to.
Behold the quirky '90's anime fighting game glory that is Psychic Force!
Supposedly inspired by Clamp's X (which I've only seen in movie form) and often compared with X-Men, Psychic Force tells of what was at the time a near-future world in which certain people have begun to develop superhuman powers. Called Psychiccers, they can control various elements, they can all fly, and at least in the OVA they all have some form of telepathy. Cue the X-Men-esque "world that hates and fears them" stuff, psychiccers who try to liberate themselves through terrorism, and other psychiccers who fight for a better way, but the details that give it its heart and soul are different.
I will warn you, though, that the canon for this is deeply pessimistic. Seriously, the way to get off scot free in your ending is to be an absolute sociopath and not give the audience even the slightest possible shred of a reason to sympathize with you. Otherwise it's going to be bittersweet at best, and likely much worse. Don't get me wrong, bittersweet I can enjoy (to the point that it might be part of the appeal of this whole thing for me), but sometimes they go right over the top with it.
However, while it isn't as open-ended in its story as some fighting games, it is a pretty quirky form, with each character's story being mutually exclusive with some of the others and providing only fragments from which to construct an overall story, plus the OVA is frankly a mess and the puzzle game is a parody, so you're left with a situation where none of the canon sources can entirely be taken seriously, which can be liberating...
So, canon review links! As much for my future reference as anything else, but this is something where you could get the whole canon under your belt in a weekend if so inclined.
We begin with the first game, Psychic Force 2010 (which has now slid into "Oh, our old future" territory), introducing us to NOA's battle for Psychiccer Liberation, Anti-NOA's battle against the resulting terrorist violence, and others' battles for reasons of their own. I must warn you, the dub voice acting is at times stunningly awful (Wong is particularly excruciating), and it gives a different feel to the characters' personalities even when it's half decent. The playthroughs are cutscenes-only, about five minutes each.
-Attract mode intros of all characters (except Keith)
-Burn Griffith, Psychiccer of Fire: Anti-NOA's leader fights to save (in some sense of the word) his best friend, Keith Evans, who disappeared only to turn up later as the leader of NOA.
-Emilio Michaelov (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Light: member of Anti-NOA, struggles with his own extreme destructive power.
-Wendy Ryan (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Wind: member of Anti-NOA, searches for her missing sister.
-Sonia (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Electricity: fights for NOA --- and more particularly for Keith --- while lamenting her lost memories.
-Brad Kirsten (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Gravity: member of NOA, tries desperately to keep his bloodthirsty alternate personality in check.
-Richard Wong (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Time: helped to create NOA but has an even darker agenda of his own.
-Rokudo Genma: a Japanese magic-user who believes that all Psychiccers are evil.
-Gates Oltsman: a US Army Cyborg whose wife and daughter were killed by NOA.
-Keith Evans, Psychiccer of Ice and leader of NOA is unlockable to play but doesn't have his own story mode in this one.
Next up is the tie-in Psychic Force OVA which begins here on YouTube (click through to the other parts). It's really MiSTably awful to the point that fans blame it for killing the series (probably even worse because that link is the dub), but I did start with it and it did fill in enough specific detail to sink my teeth into, if only to rip out bloody chunks and alter or discard them in my own headcanon. It also has the basic canon shape of how 2010 starts leading into 2012, for the most part. (And yes, this has made me crazy enough to buy an anime I myself describe as "MiSTably awful." It was cheap...)
This is also a good time to mention Psychic Force Puzzle Taisen, a Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move game in which the Psychic Force 2010 cast appears as adorable chibi-fied parodies of themselves (whose chances for a reasonably happy ending are markedly improved). I've actually played this one and it's really quite fun. The playthrough videos of its story mode here are full playthroughs (losses cut out) in raw Japanese on a Japanese site that requires a free registration, but they're cute and funny, and I think I can get some basic gist of them:
-Burn (translation) on a quest to play some football (includes the opening video that I think was ripped straight from the OVA).
-Emilio (translation) on a quest to become cheerful and popular.
-Wendy (translation) on a quest to find a missing fashion accessory.
-Wong (translation) on a quest to fulfill his great and terrible ambition.
-Brad (translation) on a quest to be nice to everyone --- but why do they keep getting mad?
-Gates (translation) on a quest to go camping.
-Sonia (translation) on a quest to find out Keith's true feelings --- and get people to stop calling her "Electric Lady."
-Genma (translation) on a quest to gather funds to go watch sumo.
-Keith (translation) on a quest to run a secret organization on a limited budget (includes the ridiculously cute story mode ending sequence).
Translations are my own, added after initial posting. (See below)
Finally, we have the second fighting game, Psychic Force 2012 (an a/u of this year, ooh, creepy... maybe...). The factions from 2010 have fractured and realigned; Keith now leads Neo-NOA, Wong has split off to form The Army. Some characters have disappeared, and new ones have come forward to continue the old missions or with new ones of their own. On the upside, we have Japanese dialogue with subtitles this time, so it's all good. We even get to start with Hikaru Midorikawa! Again, cutscenes only, about 6-8 minutes each, except the first one.
-Might (full playthrough in four parts, including battles and losses; click through to the rest), Psychiccer of Lightning: a Psychiccer Hunter who hunts and kills other Psychiccers, although he doesn't remember why.
-Patty Myers, Psychiccer of Tone: unaligned but a close friend of Might, searches for her missing mother.
-Wendy Ryan: now unaligned, searches for her friends from the previous game who have disappeared.
-Genshin Kenjou: another Japanese magic-user who believes Psychiccers are evil and goes to rescue a miko named Shiori.
-Carlo Belfrond, Psychiccer of Water: loyal member of Neo-NOA who fights ruthlessly for its original goal of liberation.
-Regina Belfrond, Psychiccer of Fire: Carlo's sister, who fights for Neo-NOA, but whose primary loyalty is to her brother.
-Gates Oltsman: captured and reprogrammed by Neo-NOA, he fights for them --- until his memory starts to return...
-Emilio Michaelov: brainwashed by The Army, he seems a bit too comfortable with his "horrible power" now --- until he too starts to break through his new programming.
-Setsuna, Psychiccer of Darkness: a member of The Army, his real goal is to defeat Wong and take over.
-Gudeath, Psychiccer of Gravity: also in The Army, he likes to kill other Psychiccers he sees as weak, especially members of Neo-NOA.
-Richard Wong, wants to rule the world, and now has his own Army to help him do it.
-Keith Evans, still fighting for Psychiccer Liberation as leader of Neo-NOA.
-Burn Griffith, in a coma since the previous game, but now he awakes... (He only has dialogue with Keith, so his playthrough is short).
And there you go, that's all of it! It seems an unlikely love, as I'm constantly warning you about it and feeling rather embarrassed by some of the stuff that's in here, but still, somehow it clicked. I think perhaps I hadn't allowed myself enough campy crazy shit lately, I can appreciate the bittersweetness that runs through it, or hell, maybe it's my chance to play with X-Men except J-pop with no Marvel Comics bullshit.
I feel like kind of a phony about this because I haven't actually played the fighting games yet, but that does go back to my roots in a way (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
notjessica can tell you how I grew up watching video games more than playing them), and in general there may be a nostalgia factor as I have a history with PSX-era fighting games (quicksilver_ink might remember, but I hope she'll be gracious and not rub it in; embarrassing old stuff, so embarrassing it's the one thing I've written since the mid-'90s that's not on FF.net).
I've been telling myself, tho, with my usual nerves about losing at video games, that might be an advantage of the '90s dark, pessimistic fighting game fad (although maybe I shouldn't call it that; I haven't played fighting games in forever, they might still be like that for all I know...). "Oh, no, I lost at Psychic Force 2010! My character didn't make it to their ending! So I guess they didn't end up killing the person they loved the most or descending into utter insanity or exploding for no particular reason, or maybe that evil didn't win after all. Darn..."
This is pushing me back toward translation, starting with the story modes from Puzzle Taisen. Actually that's what finally got me off my butt to post this, because I wanted to post those translations here and thought they needed the context. I've also gone so crazy over this that I've been finding/DLing/buying dojinshi for the first time in my life, so we'll see what kind of weird porn I've got myself into...
What else I'm going to do with this, I'm not really sure. Of course I wrote a Yuletide fic about it, and I have another in the works but have been having trouble staying on task with it lately. I'm also getting an elaborate headcanon to at least summarize for my own enjoyment, but I don't know what to do with it without wildly overcommitting...
So yeah. There are, as ever, brainweasels, but most of the time it's terribly fun.
(And if you actually read all of that, you're a really good friend. ^_^;; )
Behold the quirky '90's anime fighting game glory that is Psychic Force!
Supposedly inspired by Clamp's X (which I've only seen in movie form) and often compared with X-Men, Psychic Force tells of what was at the time a near-future world in which certain people have begun to develop superhuman powers. Called Psychiccers, they can control various elements, they can all fly, and at least in the OVA they all have some form of telepathy. Cue the X-Men-esque "world that hates and fears them" stuff, psychiccers who try to liberate themselves through terrorism, and other psychiccers who fight for a better way, but the details that give it its heart and soul are different.
I will warn you, though, that the canon for this is deeply pessimistic. Seriously, the way to get off scot free in your ending is to be an absolute sociopath and not give the audience even the slightest possible shred of a reason to sympathize with you. Otherwise it's going to be bittersweet at best, and likely much worse. Don't get me wrong, bittersweet I can enjoy (to the point that it might be part of the appeal of this whole thing for me), but sometimes they go right over the top with it.
However, while it isn't as open-ended in its story as some fighting games, it is a pretty quirky form, with each character's story being mutually exclusive with some of the others and providing only fragments from which to construct an overall story, plus the OVA is frankly a mess and the puzzle game is a parody, so you're left with a situation where none of the canon sources can entirely be taken seriously, which can be liberating...
So, canon review links! As much for my future reference as anything else, but this is something where you could get the whole canon under your belt in a weekend if so inclined.
We begin with the first game, Psychic Force 2010 (which has now slid into "Oh, our old future" territory), introducing us to NOA's battle for Psychiccer Liberation, Anti-NOA's battle against the resulting terrorist violence, and others' battles for reasons of their own. I must warn you, the dub voice acting is at times stunningly awful (Wong is particularly excruciating), and it gives a different feel to the characters' personalities even when it's half decent. The playthroughs are cutscenes-only, about five minutes each.
-Attract mode intros of all characters (except Keith)
-Burn Griffith, Psychiccer of Fire: Anti-NOA's leader fights to save (in some sense of the word) his best friend, Keith Evans, who disappeared only to turn up later as the leader of NOA.
-Emilio Michaelov (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Light: member of Anti-NOA, struggles with his own extreme destructive power.
-Wendy Ryan (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Wind: member of Anti-NOA, searches for her missing sister.
-Sonia (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Electricity: fights for NOA --- and more particularly for Keith --- while lamenting her lost memories.
-Brad Kirsten (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Gravity: member of NOA, tries desperately to keep his bloodthirsty alternate personality in check.
-Richard Wong (Japanese version), Psychiccer of Time: helped to create NOA but has an even darker agenda of his own.
-Rokudo Genma: a Japanese magic-user who believes that all Psychiccers are evil.
-Gates Oltsman: a US Army Cyborg whose wife and daughter were killed by NOA.
-Keith Evans, Psychiccer of Ice and leader of NOA is unlockable to play but doesn't have his own story mode in this one.
Next up is the tie-in Psychic Force OVA which begins here on YouTube (click through to the other parts). It's really MiSTably awful to the point that fans blame it for killing the series (probably even worse because that link is the dub), but I did start with it and it did fill in enough specific detail to sink my teeth into, if only to rip out bloody chunks and alter or discard them in my own headcanon. It also has the basic canon shape of how 2010 starts leading into 2012, for the most part. (And yes, this has made me crazy enough to buy an anime I myself describe as "MiSTably awful." It was cheap...)
This is also a good time to mention Psychic Force Puzzle Taisen, a Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move game in which the Psychic Force 2010 cast appears as adorable chibi-fied parodies of themselves (whose chances for a reasonably happy ending are markedly improved). I've actually played this one and it's really quite fun. The playthrough videos of its story mode here are full playthroughs (losses cut out) in raw Japanese on a Japanese site that requires a free registration, but they're cute and funny, and I think I can get some basic gist of them:
-Burn (translation) on a quest to play some football (includes the opening video that I think was ripped straight from the OVA).
-Emilio (translation) on a quest to become cheerful and popular.
-Wendy (translation) on a quest to find a missing fashion accessory.
-Wong (translation) on a quest to fulfill his great and terrible ambition.
-Brad (translation) on a quest to be nice to everyone --- but why do they keep getting mad?
-Gates (translation) on a quest to go camping.
-Sonia (translation) on a quest to find out Keith's true feelings --- and get people to stop calling her "Electric Lady."
-Genma (translation) on a quest to gather funds to go watch sumo.
-Keith (translation) on a quest to run a secret organization on a limited budget (includes the ridiculously cute story mode ending sequence).
Translations are my own, added after initial posting. (See below)
Finally, we have the second fighting game, Psychic Force 2012 (an a/u of this year, ooh, creepy... maybe...). The factions from 2010 have fractured and realigned; Keith now leads Neo-NOA, Wong has split off to form The Army. Some characters have disappeared, and new ones have come forward to continue the old missions or with new ones of their own. On the upside, we have Japanese dialogue with subtitles this time, so it's all good. We even get to start with Hikaru Midorikawa! Again, cutscenes only, about 6-8 minutes each, except the first one.
-Might (full playthrough in four parts, including battles and losses; click through to the rest), Psychiccer of Lightning: a Psychiccer Hunter who hunts and kills other Psychiccers, although he doesn't remember why.
-Patty Myers, Psychiccer of Tone: unaligned but a close friend of Might, searches for her missing mother.
-Wendy Ryan: now unaligned, searches for her friends from the previous game who have disappeared.
-Genshin Kenjou: another Japanese magic-user who believes Psychiccers are evil and goes to rescue a miko named Shiori.
-Carlo Belfrond, Psychiccer of Water: loyal member of Neo-NOA who fights ruthlessly for its original goal of liberation.
-Regina Belfrond, Psychiccer of Fire: Carlo's sister, who fights for Neo-NOA, but whose primary loyalty is to her brother.
-Gates Oltsman: captured and reprogrammed by Neo-NOA, he fights for them --- until his memory starts to return...
-Emilio Michaelov: brainwashed by The Army, he seems a bit too comfortable with his "horrible power" now --- until he too starts to break through his new programming.
-Setsuna, Psychiccer of Darkness: a member of The Army, his real goal is to defeat Wong and take over.
-Gudeath, Psychiccer of Gravity: also in The Army, he likes to kill other Psychiccers he sees as weak, especially members of Neo-NOA.
-Richard Wong, wants to rule the world, and now has his own Army to help him do it.
-Keith Evans, still fighting for Psychiccer Liberation as leader of Neo-NOA.
-Burn Griffith, in a coma since the previous game, but now he awakes... (He only has dialogue with Keith, so his playthrough is short).
And there you go, that's all of it! It seems an unlikely love, as I'm constantly warning you about it and feeling rather embarrassed by some of the stuff that's in here, but still, somehow it clicked. I think perhaps I hadn't allowed myself enough campy crazy shit lately, I can appreciate the bittersweetness that runs through it, or hell, maybe it's my chance to play with X-Men except J-pop with no Marvel Comics bullshit.
I feel like kind of a phony about this because I haven't actually played the fighting games yet, but that does go back to my roots in a way (
notjessica can tell you how I grew up watching video games more than playing them), and in general there may be a nostalgia factor as I have a history with PSX-era fighting games (quicksilver_ink might remember, but I hope she'll be gracious and not rub it in; embarrassing old stuff, so embarrassing it's the one thing I've written since the mid-'90s that's not on FF.net).I've been telling myself, tho, with my usual nerves about losing at video games, that might be an advantage of the '90s dark, pessimistic fighting game fad (although maybe I shouldn't call it that; I haven't played fighting games in forever, they might still be like that for all I know...). "Oh, no, I lost at Psychic Force 2010! My character didn't make it to their ending! So I guess they didn't end up killing the person they loved the most or descending into utter insanity or exploding for no particular reason, or maybe that evil didn't win after all. Darn..."
This is pushing me back toward translation, starting with the story modes from Puzzle Taisen. Actually that's what finally got me off my butt to post this, because I wanted to post those translations here and thought they needed the context. I've also gone so crazy over this that I've been finding/DLing/buying dojinshi for the first time in my life, so we'll see what kind of weird porn I've got myself into...
What else I'm going to do with this, I'm not really sure. Of course I wrote a Yuletide fic about it, and I have another in the works but have been having trouble staying on task with it lately. I'm also getting an elaborate headcanon to at least summarize for my own enjoyment, but I don't know what to do with it without wildly overcommitting...
So yeah. There are, as ever, brainweasels, but most of the time it's terribly fun.
(And if you actually read all of that, you're a really good friend. ^_^;; )
