The Annotated Third Strike

So, after a long break, welcome to Series 2: The Annotated Third Strike. If you're coming in from watching The Annotated Symphony of the Night, then welcome! This is the first of the Appendices posts, and I'll do something like this for each episode of the series as I did for the last one.

Having said that, please read this entry because there's a lot of ground to cover up front.

THE REASONING

Symphony of the Night was something on my mind for years, and making the first video series was just stuck in my craw until I finally decided to make it myself after foolishly hoping somebody else would do it. The thing is, I never really saw past that. I actually made the Annotated SOTN as something of a portfolio piece so I could teach myself how to edit video, so the idea of doing a second or third series didn't even occur to me until the last few episodes when people started asking about what was next.

I looked at a few options before deciding on 3S, but I think I knew in my gut that this was always where we were headed. I started doing this whole thing because I both love and am knowledgeable about SOTN. The only other game I'm that would be comparable is 3S. I have played it at least once a week for years and years either online or with friends, and depending on the time of day you ask me, I would tell you that 3S is maybe the only video game that matters.

As a genre, fighting game videos are rampant on the internet, but they either go over deep lore of a character or tournament/ combo videos for the hardcore. I thought it would be worthwhile to bridge the gap, as well as challenge myself with jumping genres after the last series. If I only did Action/ RPGs (or even just Castlevania games), you would be bored, I promise. If I did an actual, honest to God RPG like a Chrono Trigger or (oh my God) The Witcher 3 as people have suggested, I might never be able to finish it. I suppose those things aren't off the table, but for where I am with my life and knowing my capabilities and resources, in no way would something like these be feasible, or even fun to watch.

But there are a lot of challenges with doing this video series, especially with how I'm planning to do them, so let's get this out of the way now: THIS SERIES WILL BE DIFFERENT THAN THE LAST ONE. Please internalize that statement.

THE METHODOLOGY

If we're comparing, SOTN is a game that can (for the most part) be broken up into discrete levels where research can be done specifically for each location. There was a lot of research to be done for each location, too. But it was all fairly accessible info, and Symphony was a game built on folklore, which, as long as you know what you're looking at, can be easily identifiable and researched. Other than maybe any given Soul Calibur, fighting games aren't like this. RPGs have a longstanding tradition of aping recurring fantasy or sci-fi tropes and references, and most other genre of game tends to build them on their own. That's what attracted me to doing 3S, too, this opportunity to really go for something different, but it also means that we have to look at the game through a different lens.

In doing the research for this series, it became very obvious that a lot of what happens in fighting games, Street Fighter games in particular, are pop culture mishmashes, which, if there was a thesis to this series, it would be that Street Fighter is a nerd culture goulash. This meant looking at a lot of different key references that have popped up lately (do yourself a favor and look up the movie The Hard Times if you're bored) as well as digging into things like names, locations of stages, and so on.

SOTN, though, is a relatively easy game. Fighting games are only easy if you're punching a dummy opponent. This means that the first part of each character video will go over the wackier, research-able stuff that I just mentioned along with any relevant art, translation differences, and other stuff. The second half has to get into the actual gameplay. However, with SOTN, I wanted to show as much of the game as a person could possibly see. With 3S, this will not be possible. I can't possibly get into every combo for each character playing against the rest of the roster because of how quirky the game is on a character-vs.-character basis. On top of that, these aren't meant to be combo videos. Plenty of that stuff lives on YouTube already. So the plan is to show all of the normals, specials, EX specials and SAs of each character and touch upon some of their more notable uses, and then get into some depth about how their competitive play works. You will see combos that may be specific to certain SAs (because that's how competitive 3S works), but please don't expect hours of nutty Necro corner juggles.

GOING FORWARD

Base on what I just said, then, I'd like to ask that you be patient with the rollout of this series. The plan is run at least 1-2 episodes per month, but these are, even compared to the Annotated SOTN, incredibly hard videos to make. I'm more of a writer and researcher, and not really a great video editor, and these are a lot of work to plan, write, and then piece together. I'm maybe an above average 3S player (even after all of these years), but I'm lucky enough to know a few pro-level guys that can help me with the combo videos. But then again, someone's actually going to have to suck it up and get good enough with Necro so we can do those nutty corner juggles. These things take time and practice. It also takes coordination with other people's availability. This isn't my full time job, so please understand that I want this (and all Annotated series) to be quality first, so if I slip a bit, at list this is going to be the biggest reason.

YES, THERE WILL BE A PATREON

Getting back to the research for a second, there are a few primary sources that will continuously come up in the series. Finding more has proven a fun, but tremendous challenge. It's also gotten a bit on the expensive side. 20 year-old strategy guides and comics that are long out of print aren't easy to come by on the cheap. I'm perfectly happy to dump my own funds into doing these things, but going forward, I need to start thinking of ways to supplement the cost of doing business, here. If, say, my rickety old laptop takes a dive, something that was always a threat with the SOTN videos, then I'm in some real trouble, and it will slow everything way down. I need a cushion for this eventuality to some degree.

Understand that I don't plan on living off of this. That would be too much to hope for. But also understand that every dollar that you donate to the Patreon will be used to make this and future series better. I really need some translation help from some of the older materials, for example, and I believe that people deserve a fair wage for that kind of service. The Patreon will be for this purpose alone. 

When will this go live? Not sure right now, but hopefully before the next video hits, so I have a lot of work to do. Having never done something like this before I don't think I can offer decent physical rewards for tiers in good faith right now, but things like early access to videos, scripts, and polls for upcoming series aren't unreasonable. Please consider donating if you can. If you can't, that's perfectly fine, too. Just help me spread the word.

Thanks again for watching. I love doing these things, and the response so far has been positive. Don't forget that there will be the occasional discussion questions in the comments and further Annotated Appendices for each character.

See you in a few weeks!