Monster Hunting with a Little Farming
Sickness has struck the household once again which has been difficult. However, I have been reading a new book and playing some new games which have been great distractions in between spurts of coughing. After two weeks of everyone being sick I started feeling quite a bit better today which has been great.
Luckily, I had a new book on hand before quarantining ourselves off. I've been reading The Witcher Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski. I have always wanted to play The Witcher, as it's a video game series, but haven't had the chance. I also haven't seen the TV series or read other books. I picked up the book because I love high fantasy and that's what the book jacket promised. I'll have the book finished pretty quickly tomorrow and just learned that this is actually the sixth book of eight in a series. I had assumed when a random character popped up and seemed important that they were probably someone a fan of the videogames would recognize. I now realize that though that might be true, the character might simply be in one of the past books. I'll now take that into consideration as I give my impressions of the book so far.
The action scenes have felt good. The movement feels natural and even when some of the scenes are longer it hasn't felt drawn out. The story itself felt like an interesting side quest to a main story. I thought that was great because I jumped into the sixth book of the series and didn't realize it because not much past information was needed. The stakes hadn't felt particularly high until the last few chapters I read. At the same time, there is an ominous undertone to the story that acts as a promise of sinister things happening in the background for another story.
Some of the dialogue felt oddly similar between a few characters at the beginning of the story. This could have been because I was still familiarizing myself with the world. Now that I'm at the concluding chapters of the book, it is easier for me to tell when Geralt, the main character, is speaking versus another character. My only other qualm about the book was the female representation. There were strong female characters but they often took the role of seductress or were simply villainous. To be fair, most of the characters in the book were rather villainous. It may be that I don't have much experience with dark fantasies and have an overly optimistic hope that most individuals are good or at least good intentioned.
Overall, the ending of the book has been my favorite. I've reflected now on how difficult it must be to make a book based on a franchise that so many people love. It would be hard to take a playable character from a videogame, one who fans probably have characterized with their own imaginations, and make them stand out. When I play a game, I enjoy playing a character that I make my own, even if they are scripted to be a certain way. I felt the same way while reading Magic the Gathering War of the Spark. It would be fun writing about characters you love but also a daunting task.
This is a long article so I'll be quick. I'm currently playing Rune Factory 5 and Kingdom Hearts Final Mix simultaneously. They're both pretty new franchises for me. I love how Rune Factory 5 lets you feel close to the villagers through gradual dialogue and quests. It truly makes the game feel real and it's incredibly enjoyable. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix was definitely made by or influenced by the people who made Final Fantasy X, which I recently played. That's super great in some ways, though I have to say I'm not a huge fan of required mini games in rpgs. I don't think I've played a game where I've cried out in frustration so much. I also have accidentally smashed so many barrels into Goofy's face I'm surprised he continues walking so close behind me.
Keep dreaming and day dreaming of all the wonderful worlds in your head.