Delsin Rowe is a Product of Players Says Second Son Director

So, inFamous:  Second Son is something that I've gone on record as being excited for and I would say it's deservedly so, if only for the pedigree of the franchise and the developers behind it.  Of course, it helps that the actual game looks quite intriguing and quite nice on its own merits, certainly.  Yet, that's sort of the rub is that it -looks- interesting, since there's still not a whole lot of information about it floating around there just yet, or at least there's not a lot of information that I've found about it even if I haven't been exactly looking.  Media blackouts and all that, only half-followed, etc.  To be sure, I haven't decided quite yet if I want to follow the development of the game feverishly, to soak up all the info on a new inFamous game until I can actually get my hands on it, or if I would prefer to go into the experience uneducated so that it springs open to me as only the best type of present does.

However, through all of it, there has been one fairly obvious area of contention:  the main character.  Delsin Rowe caught a lot of flak for a lot of things - well, most things really, including his name - but really, I think the thing that people don't like about him is that he's not our beloved Cole MacGrath.  It's innocuous enough, new game, new platform, new character, right?  Makes sense, is nice and easy, and doesn't have to be more complicated than that.  Yet, Nate Fox, the director of inFamous:  Second Son had a little to say about specifically -why- we have Delsin Rowe and not Cole MacGrath.  And the reasoning, to me is a bit....suspect, to say the least.  I only caught wind of this because Chance posted about it and I made a little comment about my thoughts on it. 

Thing is, the post, by its very nature of explaining what it does, contains major inFamous 2 spoilers and, as you all know, I try my best to keep away from spoilers or at least make it as impossible as possible for you to 'accidentally' stumble across them.  Which is why I'm going to do a post break, something I rarely do, and go a little more in-depth about the whole situation.  So, of course, after the break, there are, again, major inFamous 2 spoilers so....you know.  You've been warned, and such.

Describing 999's Best Ending - Part 1

999:  Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors was a weird one for me, all told.  I played it.  I enjoyed it.  I got the True Ending and suddenly I didn't really care for it, despite liking it while I played it.  This has happened before and it's a weird feeling, a feeling that I do not understand the source, nor the reason for it.  If anything, I imagine I was left wanting a little more, perhaps, or I felt a little jilted with what's there.  Also the True Ending has....a bit to it that kind of wrecks the mood.  However, soured a little by that, I proceeded to talk to Haplo about it in a non-spoilery way for a while and then he told me, "Look, I'm probably not going to play the game, so go ahead and spoil it".  And I said, "Well, to understand the True Ending, you have to get another ending first."  It's a weird concept to be sure, but it's there for reasons I will not divulge right yet.  A strange thing happened when I started telling Haplo of this first ending.

I really got into it.  An excitement for the game I didn't know existed started welling up in me, burned at me as I explained subtle nuances of the game, things it made sure you knew at this point and that.  I fell in love with the game for the first time because I found an intense verve with which I began telling the story of this ending.  Rather, this playthrough the leads to the ending since the ending doesn't make sense, or an impact on its own merits.  The story took a good few hours at least to tell, which is rather astounding (even with a bit of audience participation, as it were) and before I knew it, it was a wee hour in the morning and I hadn't written a blog post here.  (Of course, the previous lack was because I was entranced with the game, steeped in finding the final ending)  So I was thinking about it today, a way to make it up, and I realized "Well, I really enjoyed telling that....so I'll tell it again!" except I'll tell it here and tell it better since I admittedly did a poor job at times with Haplo.  To save myself some trouble, I'm going to be doing it in a few parts.

I believe it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway.  Beyond the Page Break (which is right after this blurb) are MASSIVE 999 Spoilers!  If only for this ending, I recommend that you play the game yourself rather than take my account as your exposure.  Because it is rather fantastic.  I will, however be explaining it rather thoroughly (hopefully) so if you must read this rather than play the game yourself, I do hope you'll be able to appreciate it.  Still, a spoiler warning is a spoiler warning and thus you have been warned.

Persona 3 Portable - I Beat It

Studious readers of not only the blog, but the sidebar twitter might realize that I actually beat Persona 3 Portable a few days ago, but those same people will understand that I was trying to wait until I could talk to my buddy Haplo who is whom I turn to for Persona matters.  Unfortunately, I assume he's been busy with school or something and hasn't been on, and in the meanwhile, this has been eating at me and I just can't write anything until I write this one out.  As with my Thoughts So Far post a little while back (not a link in this portion because spoilers), I am going to be, well, spoiling things, so I don't want to catch people unawares.  Considering I've beaten the story (and taken a peek at the story for The Answer since I'm not hunting my copy of FES down to play it), I have a pretty good stock of what happened.  So, without much further ado, let's get this goin', yeah?

As warned, thar be spoilers after the break.

My Thougts on Persona 3 Portable Thus Far

So, as you all know, I've been playing Persona 3 Portable lately, quite a lot I should say, and I do believe I've officially hit end-game (and I don't think I'm being premature in saying that), so I kind of wanted to talk about how I think about the game to this point as well as offer my idea on how it's going to unfold.  Either so when I beat it and I'm right, I can point at this post and say "I called it!" or, if I'm wrong, I can point to this post and say "Boy, I sure was off, huh?".  Either way, it's fun to be had by all as I'm no stranger to saying things and then being completely wrong in predicting them, as we all know.  It's kind of a running gag and all for this blog, so I know you're all familiar with it or will be.  Regardless, since this will have quite a few Persona 3 Spoilers, I'm taking it upon myself to state that fact as well as using a page break as I have become accustomed to doing in situations like this.

So, below this point, thar be spoilers.