Okamiden art

Not sure going to get much of a post done this week so I will post Japanese promo art for Okamiden the Nintendo DS sequel to Okami.  It is an awesome game, and if you have a DS I suggest you check it out   If you have played the original game, then it is a bit repeatitive in terms of story a lot of the time, but Chibiterasu is adorable and makes up for it

Erk

Wanted to get a lot done this week, but illness has gotten in the way

Talk with supervisor went well. I’m cutting one of my case studies out (Stargate SG-1) of my thesis and it makes me very happy.  Wasn’t meshing well with the rest of my thesis, and I wasn’t getting anywhere with it, so now it is gone

Okami + Okamiden going well, but has been stalled by ills.  Hopefully will get stuff done this weekend.  Also have to finish editing a paper for publication and it is due next week.  Will try to get the last lot of changes done on Sunday, if not then, next Thursday   Anyway, back to transcribing dialouge from Okami

Long time no post

I really fail at keeping this kind of thing up, but I’m going to go back to trying to write here, maybe once a week.

Currently working on my Okami chapter.  It is pretty awesome, really enjoying it.  The whole aspect of the chapter has me excited, and I finally got my hands on a couple of the Shinto texts (had the Kojiki, just needed the Nihon Shoki for referencing).  The feel of the chapter is good and is taking a nice shape.  Need to churn out more words, but I have plenty to write (just need to do it :-p).  But yeah, feeling quite good about my thesis for the first time in a while.

Having a discussion with my supervisor tomorrow about some of my thesis things, and if I keep at it, I will post about my discussion at a later point :-p

For now, I should try to get some reading done, and hopefully I will be posting again soon

Small Update

New year going well so far.  Getting work done on my Percy Jackson chapter which is good.  The movie comes out in 2 weeks and I’m a bit scared as to how it will turn out.  The trailers have me pretty worried, but hopefully it will be a good movie *fingers crossed*.  Will probably write a review here and go over some of the issues that arise in my study of the series.

Been trying to start my own compendium on different media that utilises pre-Christian and minority religions in some way, just so I can easily flick through it and find what I’m looking for.  Watching Supernatural has me making notes every couple of episodes.  My biggest problem at the moment is finding a format I want to put it in.  Prefer paper/print to computer screen.  Maybe I can do both.  At the moment it is just a list in the back of a notebook, but it is a project I want to flesh out this year.

Having to brush up on my Celtic knowledge too recently, tutoring a course about their pre-Christian religion (coupled with the Germanic peoples, but I know that stuff pretty well, even if it has been a while).  Read a good novel that incorporates Welsh mythology, The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.  Should get on to the second book in the series next week at work, and will hopefully be able to comment on it here after I have read some more of The Mabinogion.

That’s all for now, and hopefully my next post will be soon.

Scribblenauts

One of the first things I did when I got Scribblenauts was see what deities and mythological beings were in the game.  I was pretty disappointed, basically no deities, and when I summoned a Medusa, I couldn’t then summon Perseus to slay her and it made me a bit sad.  I get that there isn’t going to be everything in the game and so I dealt with the lack of deities.  However the other week I pulled the game out again, and I can’t remember what I was trying to summon, but it came up with the “Do you mean:” screen and one of the options was Ra.  Ra, Egyptian god of the sun and highly important deity in the cult of the Pharaoh.  So I got him out and he looked very much like he should.  Eagle head, basic Egyptian clothing.  I then tried other Egyptian deities, no Osiris, Isis or Horus, but there was Anubis with his jackle head.  Yet he is quite hostile and tried to kill Maxwell.  Don’t really get why he would do that.  I think the main thing I don’t get is why do these two deities appear, but others don’t.  It might be something I need to ask my contact at 5th Cell about, but then he might not know either, but hopefully he will be able to find out.

After searching for a list of Scribblenauts items, I found this thread here that lists mythological beings in the game.  It isn’t complete as I did discover Hades just today (however he looks like the grim reaper for some reason), but does indicate that Ra and Anubis are the only non-Abrahamic deities in the game (there is also Cthuhlu, but he is from fictional mythology rather than historical mythology so not counting him).  There isn’t too much here in the way of religion, but I think the hostility of Anbuis is something to ponder (perhaps Popular Culture has given them this impressiong) and the inclusion of only 2 deities aside from God (who is summoned even when you type in Jesus).   I just hope my contact can shed some light on this.

Quick note

Will hopefully have a post about Scribblenauts next week, once my Christian Computer Games paper is finished (wtb it over now plskthx).

More Aion

Well I have reached 30 in Aion, and I’m quiet enjoying it, although the endeavour with Fort PvP was a bit disastrous (bits of lag then one shot),  but the random open world PvP has been fun.  So there are numerous NPCs with names from Germanic mythology, but aside from Munin and the Norns they do not seem to resemble those they are named after.  I recently encountered Loki standing around in one of the quest hubs, with a grey quest icon above his head, so I am wondering what his quests will entail, but I assume it will be rather mundane.   I guess I will find out if there is more religious content as I level to 50.  I’m also quite interested to level to 10 as Elyos and find out who gives their Ascension quest and what it entails.  However until then I am still writing about Christian computer games and gamers.  Hopefully that will be finished soon and I can return to proper thesis work.

Munin and the Norns

So my character has ascended in Aion and the quest leading up to it involves talking to the NPC Munin and he then has you get fate cards from Urd, Verdandi and Skuld.  I had seen the three Norns in the world already (you do quests involving Urd and Verdandi early on), but having them be involved in reading your fate is pretty cool.  It would seem there isn’t an Odin in the game though, as you can’t name your character after an NPC and I have seen a player Odin running around.  So I guess that is why you have Munin instead.  So having reached level 10 and gained my wings through Ascension I’m now able to venture to a higher level zone, and collect resources that spawn in the sky.  Finding the game to be quite enjoyable and graphically different to WoW, even if the UI looks relatively similar.

On another note, be sure to check out Andrew’s post over at Religital about Tibetan Buddhism in Cursed Mountain.

Another small bit on Aion

I should also mention that while both Asmodeans and Elyos look different (Asmodeans have been transformed to a “monstrous” humanoid to survive the dark world they live in) they are both human, and that upon reaching level 10 they ascend to become daevas, and grow a pair of wings.  I think this element is another interesting aspect of the game, both for game play and also religious imagery and concepts.

Concept art of Elyos Daeva

An Asmodean Daeva in flight

The Dark Norse versus the Light of Greece

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is set to release for western gamers next week, and it has only really just come to my attention.  I began looking at this MMO just as their open beta was closing, and it is a fantastic looking game.  It launched in its home country of South Korea almost a year ago, so with this experience and time to stablise the servers and things, it might be a decent competitor for WoW.  With WoW’s community size I generally don’t consider other MMOs to really compete with it, but with WoW’s new content looking quiet boring, and nothing seeming to be as engaging and awesome as Black Temple, Aion might have what it takes to do some damage.  Or maybe not.  Will have to wait and see.

World of Atriea after cataclysm

Now I didn’t get a chance to play the open beta, as there isn’t much space left on this month’s download limit, and only really began looking at it with a day and half of OB to go, so didn’t seem worth it.  Instead began looking through the information on my guild forum about it, watched videos and read other blog information about this game.  Then went and pre-ordered a copy.  Now the premise of this game is that there was the world of Atriea, and Aion is the name of the god who created and looked after this world.  A cataclysm occurred and fractured the world and the tower that held the two halves of the world together.  Now there is one side of the world that is in darkness, Asmodea, and the other is bathed in sunlight, Elysea.  If you click the image above it should take you to a page that has the indepth information on the lore of Aion.

After looking through a detailed map of the capital city of Asmodea, I noticed a number of names from Norse mythology being used for NPCs.  Heimdall guards the gate into the city, Freyr is a priest trainer.  While I couldn’t find a map like that for the capital of Elysea, a Wowhead like site listed the NPCs found there, and it is full of Greek and Roman deities and notable people from Greek and Roman mythology.  I find this quite interesting and I think I will have a decent time running around in Asmodea screenshoting the different deities and seeing how they are show in the game, and what they are linked to.  I will eventually roll an Elyos and do the same for them.  And I will no doubt write more about this game once I’ve had a chance to play.