Colors Chat #5

[rujubee]

again by the lovely Casey.

It's time to sit back, relax, and pour yourself and ice cold glass of... milk. All these games are so great and fun but everyone needs a chance to just unwind and talk. So welcome to Colors Chat!

Here, you will get a topic and you can talk about it all you want. For cards, however, your initial post will need to be six sentences. Just listen to your heart and write what you feel like. For your minimum six sentences, you'll get 5 cards. And you should always go around and talk to people, see if you can make new friends or old friends with new light on them or you know, just talk with everyone! It is a chat after all.

Today's topic:

Most games or animes have a winter level or episode celebrating it. What are some of your favorites and least favorites? Also do you like Ice Cap Zone's music from Act 1?

Please keep all comments civil and polite. You might disagree with someone, but please do not start a flame war. THANK YOU and enjoy your Saturday!

Comments

[beccastareyes]

The only one I remember at the moment was that Digimon Adventure 02 set its final story arc over the last week of December or so, which was my first exposure to actually mentioning Christmas in anime.

Also, any winter level in platforming games reduced me to swearing because of the ice. (I can tolerate the sliding block puzzles in any Zelda game, but anything that involves me not falling off icy platforms into water/pits/etc. was an exercise in frustration.)

[rujubee]

Just a reminder that if you want to use that, you'll need a total of six sentences and you've only got three.

[lanvaldear]

Does the New Year episode of Bleach count? Because that was hilarious. Usually I hate ice levels in games. The ice cave/gym levels in Pokemon games make me irrationally angry. Mostly because I suck at puzzles, whoops. I remember when I first played Gold, I got so frustrated I ended up crying. Oops.

[preternatural]

First: I love the Ice Cap Zone's music! It's one of my favorite Sonic pieces. It's also one of the few ice levels in a video game I can actually speed through, but that's from having played it so much when I was little. Most ice levels make me go "ARGH DAMMIT I NEED TO QUIT FALLING OFF THE DAMN LEVEL."

Second: when I think of Christmas stuff in anime, my mind immediately jumps to this scene from the Sailor Moon S movie. It's pure nostalgia and really amusing and I have no idea why I find it so funny.

[karayan]

Oh my god I knew exactly what scene that was going to be. I LOVE IT.

[karayan]

So, winter levels in games. They can either be really annoying, or really fun. Let's look at Zelda games as an example. I really enjoyed Snowhead Temple in Majora's Mask, because it felt like such an accomplishment to launch yourself off the ramps properly! I also really liked the Snowpeak Ruins in Twilight Princess, since it was a really fresh take on Ye Olde Ice Level -- a snowed-in decrepit old manor? Awesome!

But. I spent like the entirety of the Ice Ruins in A Link Between Worlds with the low-health beeping going on and on in the background from falling off platforms, which kind of damped my enjoyment of that place. A lot. A lot a lot a lot. Sigh.

(That said, I actually enjoy oldschool ice sliding puzzles like the ones still found in Pokémon games.)

[heartbeams]

I absolutely love Snowpeak, I have to agree with you on that. It was a really creative dungeon with a lot of different moods to it. That soup...!

[apprivoiser]

Ah, winter. The season of chicken soup and warm fireplaces. I live in Canada, so winter is as much of a celebration as it is an exasperated sigh. As a result, I don't celebrate winter as much as I think of it as a mandatory journey my country goes through every year. Because of this, I don't usually notice winter scenes in anime! To be honest, seeing snow is as mundane as, say, a sunny day during a Californian summer. Winter always sets a melancholic mood for me-- so when I think of winter scenes, I usually think of muted and melancholic portrayals, such as in Mushishi. I also particularly like the usage of winter as a metaphor for death and rebirth in Kara no Kyoukai! All in all, the episodes that use winter as a metaphor catches my attention far more than episodes where characters celebrate the coming of winter.

Then again, metaphors pique my interest no matter what the context, and I tend to find metaphors in everything! My opinion should definitely be taken with a grain of salt-- or a can of chicken stock |D;;

[rujubee]

Don't worry, I'm Canadian too. I feel you, my Soul Sister.

[inarticulate]

This is going to have to be video games, because I don't think I've watched a winter episode in some time. I… can't think of any least favorites off the top of my head! Ice-based puzzles in general don't tend to be my least favorite things or my most favorite things. That said, I believe that Okami's race takes place in the snow, and I hated that so much. I was terrible at it and made Mazoku beat it for me to get the Stray Bead, oops. But that's pretty incidental to the winter aspect.

Favorites would probably be the ice dungeon in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World-- cute gimmick that wasn't absolutely ridiculous!-- and the glacier dungeon in Tales of Graces-- absolutely gorgeous atmosphere, very intuitive ice blocks not-really-puzzle. That said, any well-done snowy environment with sound effects that really make it crunch is awesome in my book, and I love walking around in those.

[karayan]

It does indeed take place in snow.

Man. That race. That race.

[needles]

I generally think winter episodes in anime are annoying, so none stand not in my head. They're in with "beach episodes" and "onsen episodes" in that all they do is serve to break the real mood of the series. I guess the one that I can think of is Toradora!'s skii trip. While it was more like a winter arc then just a random episode stuck in there, and it served to develop the plot well.

I don't play enough games to really be irritated by ice levels, either... I'm digging this music, though!

[rujubee]

I think a Winter episode in an anime to be good for me, it either needs to flow with the plot line (like Azumanga Daioh did, girls in high school, they'll run into winter eventually), or it needs to be an OVA (like what Pokemon did)

Colors Chat #5

[fall]

As far as winter themed things go, I don't really have any favorites. Unless the series is based around winter or the episode has some kind of significance, it barely even registers. A lot of them are just kind of there. I did like Kanon, though. It's a winter-based series. It's quite good, really.

I do enjoy Ice Cap Zone's music as well. I've never had much problem with snow or ice-based levels, myself, though I can see why they'd be frustrating.

Re: Colors Chat #5

[rujubee]

Ugh, yeah. They can get really on your nerves if the physics aren't just right.

[poland]

I really don't watch a lot of anime or play a lot of video games so it's hard to answer this question (again). I remember Toradora! has some wintery episodes? And then the Christmas episode and that would have to be my favourite. Kind of by default, though.

And to answer the other question, I really don't like most video game music! I am really just a regular hipster grinch when it comes to this game...

[rujubee]

It's okay, because you're my favorite hipster grinch.

[zhopa]

I really love winter settings. It comes with really loving isolationist settings that I can't think of any anime really taking advantage of! Mushishi really emphasized the calmness of winter and explored the visual qualities of it a lot but other than that, nothing really comes to mind.

Inherently, I really dislike when animes take "break episodes" like winter or beach episodes so I tend to avoid series that do them. The only time I like them is when the series itself is pretty one-shot-y so... I vaguely remember liking Sket dance's winter-y related thing? I read it six years ago so I'm not even sure there is one. But Sket dance is great so if it's there, I'm sure it was good. That and the Santa arc of Gintama are good.

[rujubee]

An anime that is just centered around winter would be the bomb dot com.

[estamir]

lmao god ice levels in platformers drive me nuts NO STOP SLIPPING. I always think of when my friend and I were playing through Donkey Kong Country for the first time, and we misfired in that one ice level with all the barrel cannons...and accidentally found the shortcut that lets you skip half the level. So then we were like HOLY--GOTTA FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT AGAIN!! and it took us like a hundred lives of just leaping merrily into the pits trying to find that barrel again. So frustrating.

Come to think of it, ice areas are my least favorite in a lot of video games. I didn't like climbing that stupid cliff in Final Fantasy VII, and Narshe in FFVI is - fine from a story standpoint, but from a playing through it standpoint one of my least favorite parts of that game, too.

I live in the mountains, though, so I think my feelings on winter are very heavily influenced by that. Namely: if I don't have anywhere to be and I can sit inside with a cup of hot cocoa, snow is great, but as soon as I have to go anywhere I scream inside because man do I hate driving in it.

[rujubee]

LMFAO don't play Super Luigi U then it is just slipping. There is nothing but slipping. All slipping all the time.

[harukami]

I think the time the ice level frustrated me the most was actually in FFX. Not because it was extremely hard or anything (It wasn't) but because everyone was so damn impractically dressed. I'm from Canada! You don't show your nipples in the winter in Canada! (I had the same problem in FFXII.)

As for favorite... man, it's hard to narrow it down. I think the early parts of the Sailor Moon S movie really did it well. Everyone enjoying the cold weather, eating hot yams, drinking hot tea etc. (The rest of that movie was kind of a clusterfuck, but still).

[rujubee]

What are you talking about, I show my nipples all the time during winter! BEST VACATION EVER WOO!

[beezebeora]

I love Ice Cap Zone! It has really nice music ahahah. Speaking of, I realy like the Christmas Level for NiGHTS into Dreams. Its really pretty, and a nice change from the original level. as for Anime, Umm.. I can't really say I remember too many Holiday episodes (except summer festivals.) Sometimes there is a Newyears message on TV during certain shows, but thats all I really can remember. (really, the only 'snow' for me is Silent Hill 1, and thats just Ash~)

[rujubee]

NiGHTS into Dreams is just such a beautiful game, I need to find it so I can play it. TY for reminding me.

[heartbeams]

Forget Ice Cap Zone, get Cool, Cool Mountain.

You can't go wrong with Super Mario 64's snow levels. I have such fond memories of racing the penguin at a friend's house and everyone freaking out over it. There's also "Wall Kicks Will Work" which was a real trial when I was a kid and it was one of the last stars I got, but I was the first in my class to get all 120 so it was totally worth it.

Going back to Zelda, though, the music for Snowpeak is so chilling and beautiful. That was one of the few times I played a game where snow was scary and difficult (kind of like in FFVII), and getting around was a bit hard...but it was so worth it since I had the most chilling music to listen to.

[rujubee]

Oh man Cool Cool Mountain was so great. Also Wall Kicks Will Work is one I still can't beat to this day. SIGH.

[hoshii]

Honestly the Christmas episode I loved the most was the one in Toradora. I could relate to Taiga very much because I don't really have good Christmas, but it was good and cute in the end for her. Another Christmas episode I liked was the one from Digimon 02, but I think everyone has good memories of that episode. Either that, or the Love Hina Christmas specials.

God, that song brings me so much memories. Still, I think Starlight Zone from the first Sonic game has a more Christmas-y theme to it.

[rujubee]

... It really does, gosh. It really puts me in that Holiday mood!

[headset]

Oh gosh Ice Cap Zone... Talk about blast from the past hahah, but on topic yes! I love game osts and classics will always be classics.

I personally love winter and Christmas (they usually go hand-in-hand), so I'm definitely fond of most of them. As long as it's natural and not shoe-horned just for the sake of, then it's cool with me. Off the top of my head, Kyoukai no Kanata has a couple winter-y scenes and ugh can I just say that I love their snow animation? The lighting makes it a pain to icon sometimes, but it's just so pretty ahhhhh

[rujubee]

Yeah, a nice natural winter is great with me. Don't just throw snow on it and call it a day. No sir!

[scaleless]

Ice levels 8)............ My immediate thoughts were Catherine's ice stuff (which is awful) and some of the Mega Man winter stages (which range from neat to masochistic). But my one true hatred of ice stuff in games is that I can't for the life of me do slide puzzles. There was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in elementary school over the Pokemon games, and recently Virtue's Last Reward pulled the same trick and it was The Actual Worst Thing.

That said, aesthetically I really like winter! Execution seems to vary though. It's not so bad in anime (as said already, Mushishi did a really beautiful job with it and the episodes with the horns stands out), but in a game you have to kind of set yourself apart somehow, because after a while most winter waste/wonderlands start to look the same. For instance, I really can't differentiate any of the snow-y regions in the Final Fantasy games apart, and most of those in turn look a lot like any other JRPG's winter-y regions as well.

Shout-out to Shiver Star in Kirby and the Crystal Shards though!

[radria]

I'm pretty sure I spent half of EXE1/Battle Network 1 dying over in Iceman.EXE and Elecman.EXE's stages, so I'm with you there. I'm not super happy with ice-type levels (and oh god that Gym over in X/Y wanted to make me use Flamethrower over the whole place) but they can be done well in places too. (The Ice-type areas in the first Paper Mario were pretty fun.)

[mllelaurel]

I'm a little sad I don't have a Playstation Vita, cause the winter content for Persona 4 Golden looks fun. The new content in general looks interesting, but the winter stuff among it. Sadly, I can't really justify purchasing a Vita just to play one game, which I've already played on PS2.

As for winter-based episodes I have seen... The ice-skating episode of Card Captor Sakura is adorable! And boy, does that take me back! I'm trying to remember if I'm watching or playing anything more current with wintery episodes... Oooh, right, the current arc of Sinbad no Bouken is taking place where the Immuchak live. It's a colder climate than we've seen before in Magi-verse. I don't know if it counts as winter-episode, per-se, but Sinbad does look cute in that hat he's wearing!

[rujubee]

I can't wait to play the winter content in that game. It looks so cute and fun!

[tempestuously]

I loved Kamui in Okami since I loved the way the snow looked when Ammy ran through it and how she could create ice crystals and whatnot. It was so gorgeous. I also love any and all Digimon winter episodes, especially Adventure when Gabumon gave Yamato his fur coat because Yamato was cold and then Gabumon looked odd. Then, 02 had that awesome Christmas episode where Ken invited everyone to a Christmas party and all the warm snuggles. But really, I love all winter levels in video games because you can leave footprints in the snow~. Oh, and I think Daisuke and Satoshi from DNAngel once had a shirtless fight in the snow. That was pretty cool.

[radria]

There was the whole section towards the end of DNAngel with the painting that was pretty snowy iirc too, good times. And yeah, Digimon's always been pretty good about having fun Christmas/holiday type episodes as well.

[surskit]

The one that pops up in my mind is this episode of the kirby anime, LMFAO. Everything about the episode is so silly, especially the Pengi costumes. I have a lot of feelings about the kirby anime don't mind me...

As for games, ice levels are usually the bane of my existance u_u slipping off stages into a conveniently-placed ditch is not fun! On the other hand though, Snowbelle City is my favourite location in Pokemon XY (the music is soooo good) and I'm having lots of fun running around my snow-covered town in ACNL! So I guess it depends on the circumstances of the snow, ahaha :P

[rujubee]

I really love what Nintendo's been doing with most of it's Winter levels. Especially for Pokemon. The two most recent ones have been a dream to play through. Sigh~

[gammacrank]

I'm feeling less than enthusiastic about real snow thanks to the snowstorm we had last night, haha, but I love snow levels in video games. I'm pretty good with sliding puzzles and levels where the terrain is slippery, and it adds an extra level of challenge. In general, though, I really enjoy the atmosphere of winter levels and towns, whether or not there are puzzles involved.

A few of my favourite winter themes: Snowpoint City (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl), Quiet Winter (Harvest Moon: AWL), Winter (Harvest Moon: BTN), Imil (Golden Sun), Winter (Rune Factory 2), Click Clock Wood (Winter) (Banjo Kazooie), and Ice Cavern (Legend of Zelda: OoT).

As for anime, I love the snow scenes from Millennium Actress (have a few screencaps). I love how the movie uses snow to portray both physical and emotional distance (particularly in the scene shown in the latter two caps, which is devastating but really pretty).

[radria]

Oh gosh Imil. How I have missed you so. If only Nintendo would continue the story past Golden Sun: Dark Dawn...

[kyaaa]

THE ICE CAP ZONE MUSIC IS AWESOME

But hmmm... I have really fond memories of Lutie from Ragnarok Online. For those not in the know it's basically a whole Christmas Town, and it has some kind of Toy Factory dungeon in it. Yeeeears ago I had a Rogue and I was goddamn obsessed with the items that you opened and got a ~RANDOM ITEM INSIDE~ that could be worth ~A WHOLE LOT!~ and even if it wasn't it was still a ~SURPRISE~ so my rogue had max stats into robbing enemies blind just so I could sneak up on the giant presents and try to nab the rare present drops. After a point I was really overleveled for them but I couldn't stop. I had an addiction and I was hunting these Christmas presents every day of the year. I only once got anything actually worth a decent amount of money, and it was a pair of big sunglasses I just put on my Rogue for her to wear around like a douchebag

Also if you need some more winter music, Shiver Star from Kirby 64 is amazing yo (which I see someone above me said already)

[worthwhile]

Lutie was great! I did the same thing...I spent way too much time in there with my rogue. I think I only ever got about 3 OBBs the entire time. And they all gave me like. Mucus.

The town was really pretty, though! The first time I went there I took like a billion screenshots, because I loved the snow and the decorations!

[ets]

Er.... I really like the ice sliding puzzles in Pokemon! That's the first one that came to mind. The Ice Cavern in IX felt really melancholy, and the Shiverpeak Mountains in the Guild Wars series are pretty wintery. OH YEAH there was a Snowman dungeon in Guild Wars 1! It was super random, with a bunch of weak enemy snowmen popping up every so often, trying to kick my fire elementalist's ass. Better luck next reincarnation, guys. I think that the end chest's rewards were pretty useful for some sort of achievement, so lots of people farmed in there to relieve stress and to gun for that title. Also, fireballs > snowballs any day.

[rujubee]

Those ice sliding puzzles were quite fun once I knew what I was doing. Until then, I was like WHY.

[radria]

Actually, we're coming up with a few of those now about, aren't we? I actually work with a subbing group so we've got a couple of upcoming Christmas-themed episodes around. The thing about the holiday episodes (for what we work on) is that they're going to be partially silly but they're really mostly episodes in which all of the stuff you think wouldn't happen actually is going to. So, you expect some fun little episodes full of holiday cheer…but we're probably actually going to get shows full of battles, plot dumps and whathaveyou instead. But…it's still a rather fun tradition as well, so I'm looking forward to it. Because, who doesn't want to see your favorite characters dressed up for the holidays and yet, ready to kick butt at a moment's notice?

(Also, Build Fighters, please have a holiday episode. I know we're having plot right now, but it would be AMAZING to have Reiji discover Christmas)

[rujubee]

Oh awesome! I can't wait to see all the Christmas episodes going on!



maybe i'll watch anime again someday...

[kues]

...the only winter level I can recall going through is the obligatory snow courses in Mario Kart and one of the later stages of Super Princess Peach :|a Unless you want to count the vast icy tundra of Skyrim. It's been so long since I've played those, wow (the Mario games). I have this distinct memory of a giant snowball knocking me off the snow course time after time, though. Fucking obstacles.

(and yeah that music is pretty catchy |D)

Gonna have to second that ridiculous scene from the Sailor Moon movie, because oh my god Tuxedo Mask why. I laugh so, so hard when that comes up on replays of the movie. I can recall Toradora's Christmas episode, too, but that was a whiiiiiiiile ago so I might have to rewatch it to form an actual opinion on it ldskhg.

[rujubee]

Those Mario Kart courses are so awful if they have giant snow balls. Diddy Kong Racing was the worse for those.