Saturday, June 17, 2017

Annotated Appendix: The First Great Cleanup

This was both the easiest and most difficult video to put together. Go ahead and watch it:



First, from an actually editing perspective, it was kind of a snap. I didn't need extensive clips from previous games since it was mostly just B roll from Symphony itself, which saved me a lot of resizing/ reframing for the side window, which always makes things easier. Since we've pretty much seen the entirety of the castle at this point except for a few hidden rooms with no real visual splendor to them, there wasn't a whole lot to discuss about actual locations, either (which will be true for the entirety of the second castle, actually), which also makes getting through things a little faster. I could just point out what we found, throw in some clips of what makes them interesting, and move on.

Even though this is maybe the longest video, too, it moves along at a faster clip than the others do, too. I think people will like that about this one, especially with the extra "filler" information that I've had in the can since this series started. Without the need for Alucard to stand around and wait for me to finish speaking, it certainly makes for a more interesting video to watch, but that's also where some of the troubles came in. All of the stuff that I point out that isn't exactly native to what we're seeing on-screen had to be nestled in there or totally re-written and re-recorded. I'm not totally above that, but there's a balance between working smarter and working harder. Thankfully, it all kind of fit. So a few sentences are a little awkward in that I keep saying "series producer, Koji Igarashi," and "an interview recently translated by Shmupulations," (whom does work so great that you owe it to yourself to dig through their back catalog and lose an afternoon or two, and then contribute to their Patreon like they deserve), but I think it gets a pass. It's nice to do a video that's essentially an information dump but winds up being a much more active one.

Last thing about that: boy, I sure did a shitty job getting around those Flea Riders in the Keep, huh? That wasn't by design; I actually thought that I had enough magic that I could make the flight in mist form to the other side of the keep. By the time I got swarmed, I knew I was in for it. But it sure was convenient, though, because the dialog running over that whole clown show fit perfectly. Happy accidents, my dudes. Happy. Accidents.

So a note going forward-- I'll probably do two sections of the inverted castle per video, so things should move along a little faster. Other than the new enemies to talk about, there's just isn't that much to discuss. Sad, maybe, but the truth, so be prepared.

Thanks again for watching, and I'll see you in a few weeks.