Critique: Lock’s Quest

Testimony (Spoiler-free)

The roll of Lock was assigned to me as soon as I reached the title screen.  I tapped the start button and the game whisked me away.  I brushed my stylus across the screen moving him from person to person; talking thoroughly before moving onto the next.  Uttering a quack, a cat acted as a duck when I attempted to make contact.  After some exploration, I talked to my grandfather Tobias who told me I needed to fix the levees down by the shore, and that I should take my sister, Emi, along with me. Emi questioned my abilities when an injured archineer (a compound of architect and engineer), Isaiah, suddenly stumbled across the beach and rambled of enemies nearby.

He taught me to build walls and a cannon before the Clockwork began their assault on my unsuspecting town.  In order to build, I needed Source which I gathered from enemies after I forced them to crumble into piles of gears and gadgets.  Because Isaiah was injured we couldn’t hold them off and were forced to evacuate the town.  Emi had gone missing as well; everything was falling apart.  After a successful evacuation, Isaiah and I reached the capital city of Antonia and I became an Archineer Guild Member of the Kingdom Force.   I was ordered to the front lines to fend off the Clockwork and protect Source Wells with my walls, cannons, and traps.  Little did I know that the future would hold some relentless reveals and unpredictable twists and turns.  Who was responsible for this merciless attack on my home town? Would I ever be reunited with my sister again? Would I become a master archineer?

Critique: Razia’s Shadow: A Musical by Forgive Durden

Before I begin this critique, I have to write my thoughts about it’s genre.  I honestly don’t know what style this album is.   It’s a concept album, but it’s more than that.  This isn’t a normal concept album in the sense that it’s sung from the outside looking in, rather it’s sung by the characters themselves.   There is a running plot, as well as characters, but each character is sung by a different person from a different band of a different genre.  These guests bring their own feeling to the song they worked on.  For instance, Max Bemis from Say Anything uses lyrics from his album “…Is a Real Boy”; John Baldwin of Portugal. The Man brings a soul-full approach to his act; and Casey from The Dear Hunter soothes us with his gentle voice set to wonderful melodies that have a definite ‘the-dear-hunter’ feel.  Not to mention that there is a narrator as well as dialogue between characters.