September 5 at 10:00 p.m. (PST)
As reported, it was announced by Koji Hoshino, President of Studio Ghibli, at Venice Film Festival on September 1 that The Wind Rises is 72-year-old anime master Hayao Miyazaki’s last feature film. Hoshino didn’t accept any questions at the conference, but many fans expect Miyazaki will keep making anime short films as supporting features for other directors’ Studio Ghibli films, or for Ghibli Museum. Miyazaki made an anime short Mai and the Kittenbus, a sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, for the museum in 2003. Some think he will be the director of Ghibli Museum. His son Goro Miyazaki served as its director from 2001 to 2005 before he directed Tales from Earthsea in 2006.
And there has been a speculation that Hideaki Anno, who voiced the protagonist of The Wind RisesJiro Horikoshi, will finally direct the sequel or reboot of Miyazaki’s 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. That’s the reason why Anno, who has little experience as a voice actor, accepted the offer.
Does Miyazaki choose Anno as his successor instead of his son?
Nico Nico Live will stream Miyazaki’s retirement press conference live on Friday, September 6 at 2:00 p.m.
(JST), September 5 at 10:00 p.m. (PST). Let’s hope Miyazaki will answer to all of the questions.
First, there is Star Wars: The Old Republic. This game was a highly anticipated mass multiplayer RPG that was released in December 2011. The game was announced free-to-play in November 2012, but with many restrictions. A player can choose to play as either Republic or Empire, and one of four classes in each faction as well as a multitude of species. And to top it all off, you can even choose your alignment (light-side or dark-side) Although there are eight classes in all, each class has an “evil twin”, so to speak. The Republic classes Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler, and Trooper, match with the Empire classes Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Imperial Officer, and Bounty Hunter, respectively. The abilities and roles in the game are all similar except in name and action display. The stories for each of the eight classes, however, are different. Each story has three chapters as well as unique companion stories. Of all the stories, I think the most interesting are the Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, and Jedi Knight. If you want to know why, play for yourself and find out.
The next RPG is not really considered role-playing, but it is very close and has an amazing story. Almost every action you do in this game affects the ending and you never know which action that is until it is too late. This thought-provoking and emotional game is called Heavy Rain. Released in February 2010, this game was made by the French developer Quantic Dream. The player follows four main characters who are all investigating the town for a serial killer called the Origami Killer. Each character has their own reasons for chasing this murderer, but their main goal is to save the next victim of the Killer, a young boy. Of all the individual stories, the most heart-warming is that of Ethan Mars, whom we begin playing as and the father of the victim. As mentioned before, most of the actions done in this game affect the ending. If a certain section of the story is failed or the player does not complete a certain task, the game continues on.
One of the oldest RPG games I remember playing (that was actually good) was Fable, played on the first generation Xbox. I was surprised to see that Fable was frequently voted one of the worst games of the decade, seeing as it was voted one of the best the year it was released (2004). The player starts the game as a simple farm boy. Your first quest of the game is to get a box of chocolates for your sister’s birthday. But your life changes when your village is attacked and burned down by bandits. You are transported to safety at an academy called the Heroes’ Guild and from there, the farm boy learns to become a hero. Because this game was one of the first big RPGs of the decade, the actions you decide in the game do not influence what happens at the end. But you do have to work for your new abilities, armor, and strength. There were two sequels made for this game, but neither of them seemed as good as the first Fable.
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