RPGmasterBoo

Nothing guarantees the superiority of things not done by rote, but the likelyhood of them being better is greater and artistic responsibility is more pronounced. If you pump out things at the rate the japanese do, no one can keep track of what you do and its old news by next week. Most EU albums take approx 1-2 years to make and thats a lot of time and effort to devote to 60 pages of a comic. Plus you can expect very serious criticism from a lot of respected people in the art world, and if you don't want to make a fool of yourself you better do it right, whereas a typical manga artist, really answers to no one, and can recitfy a possible screw up in a week of work. Not that its easy to screw up since most of the time the demand is for more of the same. Like in Love Hina or Ruoruni Kenshin, which after the 4th volume are basically all the same all the way to the end.

Then you read another and find out the second aritst has done the same. And another. And another. Why? Because there is a database of stock characters with accompanying appearance traits. By the way the eyes look and the shape of the eyebrows you can tell if its a good guy or a bad guy or an innocent person etc. That isn't art - its standardization of the telenovela sort where every character's role and traits are obvious from their physical appearance, with the exception of a purposely deceptive character. Manga is stylish, and has great ideas about motion and implied movement. It can even be a good, fun read like Great Teacher Onizuka. But manga is also quick. One of the best european masters Hugo Pratt, could in a good day draw two full boards. That was his artistic limit, to create something he would accept and publish. This is why his comics were world known, and have their chapter in the history of modern art. Now a 50 page manga can be drawn in a weekend of work. If the very best can manage 7-10 boards per week then there's something very wrong with every japanese being able to draw 10 times as much. They have their approach and that's fine, but you can hardly expect it to garner any sort of respect amongst the old US/EU crowd. Pratt - Corto Maltese in Siberia

Thought he was familiar from somewhere. You have your impression, I have mine. If we're both biased the truth is somewhere in the middle, and that still doesn't show anything incredibly impressive about Berserk. Lets even presume for the sake of argument that I completely misjudged the plot - that still leaves the average drawings. What I have against manga is that it has grown beyond an artisitc diversion to a cheap style that destroys everything. There is no way around the fact that manga is absurdly easy to draw, and circumvents one of the hardest things about drawing - human characters and faces by making them a combination of easily made stock parts. Its mass produced in tons, and artistic value has to suffer. That is unacceptable for me, when I read a comic I expect a certain level of artistic talent and a reasonably good scenario. manga never has the first part.

They are, with the occasional one being something more. But the fact of the matter is that Berserk relies on cheapness and shock value to be "unique". In the world of manga it might be top dog, but that says more about manga then about Berserk. Your avatar is tiny but if that is indeed a character from Akira superimposed on a Deus Ex cover, you have (in Akira) the moment where manga said all it had to say. Graphically that is. From then onwards its been rinse, lather, repeat.

Woe betide Arcanum for including bestiality and setting a precedent.

So did I. About 13 volumes of it, so I could hold this conversation. Comics are about graphics and storyline, with the visual side being the dominant. Berserk is average visually at best and the story is an overlong exercise in emo wankery, with copious amounts of blood, killing, rape, pseudo suffering, pain and all of it made to appeal to a 16 year old, testosterone filled teenager who could substitute an absurdly evil and digusting world for something deep & mature. Its selling point is its morbidity and nothing else. The same gripe I have with Dragon Age.

Berserk? Come on, man - the shading is on the level of an art college drop out. If you want the perfection of black and white technique you've got Milton Caniff and Hugo Prat's Corto Maltese, or Alex Thoth or a hundred other US/EU artists. Both of them could draw better than berserk with all the fingers on their hands broken. I don't know where this attitude of Berserk being a good comic among manga lovers comes from, probably because its different from the usual extremely white and empty look of most manga. If you want medieval perfection Foster's Prince Valiant has never been surpassed. Frezzato? Is that Keepers of the Maser? Of course not all of it was good, but there was an explosion of outstanding talent, not just one genius but a dozen of incredible artists.

As someone who grew up on the work of the previously mentioned authors, I can't agree. Any fool can draw manga with a meager amount of practice. Manga and US superhero comics are the hamburgers of the comic world, intended for mass comsuption.

They've stopped working seriously a long time ago. Not really, France is the only country that's doing something and 90% of it is manga trash.

Whats up with Yahtzee, wasnt a new review supposed to be up yesterday?

'Tis all true. Gone are the days of Moebius, Bilal, Pratt, Goscinny and Uderzo, Herge, Loisel, Serpieri...

*Hangs head in shame

That's BIS, not Bio. Besides, this would be better:-The maker tells me to kill. -[iNTELLIGENCE]So the Maker tells you to kill? That was actually included in Fallout 3.

I'd say he's already round enough but that would be rude and out of place. Btw, Maria-o, why Caliba? He's not exactly the most loveable of Shakespeare's characters.

If mkreku is correct, more like Super Mario

I admit, s-he had me with that lesbian thing.

The review is rubbish. He could have summarized it in one sentence: "I like old tactical combat RPG's with no back story, which is why I don't like Torment." End of story. To be clear, I like games like TOEE and Icewind Dale as well, but Torment never even attempts to be that sort of game. Actually it attempts to be exactly opposite. The guy has a serious case of misplaced expectations. @Maria: lol, you beat me to it.

My money is on Pop.

I know I'm just lazy to fiddle around with it now. Besides, I don't like white/red Damn, the quiz site is down.

I sure hope that was a joke even though its in extremely bad taste. The casualties of the 90's Balkan wars were roughly a total of 70.000 people on all sides over almost a decade of instability. Jasenovac WWII concentration camp all by itself had around 300.000 but perhaprs as many as 700.000 victims in the 4 years of its operation. So not only is what you said borderline insulting its also completely incorrect.

I believe the final sales figures were 400000. Add half as many pirates and thats about 600000. Its not The Sims, but its not bad.

Dunno. It was a bit too experimental to hinge hopes on it. Then again Final Fantasy saved Squaresoft, so anything is possible.

Red decks that combine older unbalanced cards were the worst. I lost in the second turn to one. Hardly surprising since the guy had a garage full of Tragic.

It mirrors my popularity. I got rid of it because Gorth asked me to shorten my sig. In Tragic the Bothering I never played white or blue, and rarely green.

The cheapest of the cheap. Particularily satisfying to see after going through the trouble to field an 8/8 creature.