The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Review

My first impressions of seeing this game was pretty sour. I thought they were just taking an older title like A Link to the Past and trying to use it for profit and to be fair, they kind of did and I'll explain later. Every time I saw previews for the game, my opinion of it went worse and worse as the game's new puzzle mechanic, Graffiti Link, just looked absolutely stupid. However after the reviews finally came out, I was surprised to see it getting near perfect scores. I quickly put away my premature bias and picked it up just to see what was so special about the game. I was definitely not disappointed... This is something a little different as I will be using a number scoring system to elaborate the strengths and weaknesses of the game as this game does not come without it's flaw. This will also be spoiler free.... as best as I can.  Be warned though, minor stuff will be revealed.

 We start off the game in the same Hyrule we let off with in A Link to the Past and come to find out these mysterious graffiti paintings are all over town and as you venture further into the game, you eventually get the ability yourself to become these paintings inside the wall, where it allows you to roam off of cliffs without falling and add pretty much a new level of exploration and puzzling. And this is exactly where this games best feats lie: It's puzzles. You see the entire game is pretty much one giant puzzle for you to roam and collect these hidden out-of-reach objects with your new found power. This idea is absolutely brilliant in design and its something I've never seen before in a game and a lot of times I find myself completely confused on just how to obtain this item just barely out of reach and then "Oh god dammit!", I forgot I could use this new ability and just walk over to it and sometimes it's fun to just go into a wall, walk down the line and see if you can find something just on a whim. It's definitely really fun to experiment with. I'd honestly say this game does it's puzzles better than any game in the entire series. Though that might just be because it's fresh in my mind...

So the biggest thing I always head said negatively about this game was that you Rent your items. Yes that's right, every equipable item you obtain is rented through a merchant and if you die, you must pay for them again. Theoretically this also means you start off with every item as well... but there in lies the 2 problems with the game: The game also assumes you have every item and dungeons are only for story as they do not contain any equipable items anymore, which kind of cheapens the experience of exploring the dungeon. A lot of times you'll run through a dungeon and you'll see an obstacle that requires you to use bombs but oh wait, you didn't rent the bombs from the last time you died... Guess you gotta run out of the dungeon and rent them! Some dungeons are kind of obvious what item it wants you to have, but they will also contain a puzzle that isn't so obvious. But on the bright side you CAN buy the item later on and the game whores you with ruppees. So there's that...

The inventory in the game feels pretty lackluster... You got the very basic 9 items and that's it. Your inventory from Link to the Past is gone; Cane of Bryna, Cane of Somaria, Magic Cape, etc... Missing. There were a bit of puzzles later in the game that felt like the Cane of Somaria would have been welcomed, but I was disappointed to see it wasn't.  I was kind of hoping with the inventory space that's opened, there'd be items that I was missing... but I wasn't.

One more gripe I had, and it's a very minor gripe: The dungeon and overworld is SUPPOSE to share similarities with A Link to the Past, it's a sequel afterall. So why is it that some dungeons look RADICALLY different? Like the Tower of Hera for example no longer has stairways and requires you to bounce your way to the top and looks completely different. Did some architect come in and just drastically redo all the ancient temples and palaces around the world? I mean the game is 500 years later, not 500,000 years. There's just no reason... But I understand why it is... I mean if it looked exactly the same, it would literally just be a rip from the older game and that's pretty boring. But continuity just bothers me.

SPOILERS BELOW

And where it SHOULD be different, in the "Dark World"*, it looks almost exactly like they stole the sprites from the Dark World from a Link to the Past. The Trees, the enemies, the buildings, hell I was honestly assuming the game was going to say that this second world WAS the Sacred Realm just inhabited by people now. But it's not....

END SPOILERS


 But what this game does right, does it in spades. This games 3D looks amazing. Like a lot of the time I had my 3D on without even realizing it because it just looked so natural. It helps the game so much because of a lot of times the game has platforms on different levels and the levels can kind of be hard to see, the 3D makes it jump out. I would honestly say that the 3D is almost a requirement to the game... It adds so much and didn't really give me a headache. A lot of times the enemies and magic will jump out and kind of surprise you. I am honestly amazed to see myself call a gimmick like 3D an actual asset to the game.

The Gameplay is also the best you'll ever see in a top-down Zelda game. The gameplay is very fluid and rewarding. I kind of expected to see gameplay like this and it's kind of refreshing to come back to this type of Zelda after the 3D adventures of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword... so it's exciting to see it actually do very well. However, what cheapens the gameplay is the removal of ammo. All bombs and arrows share the same magic bar.... I'm not quite sure why they did this but I'm not sure if it's bad or good.

There are a lot more good things about this game and a few more bad.... None of them really come to mind at the moment, and it feels like I kind of did nothing but bash the game. But what the game does right does it SO well that it definitely makes up for its flaws. For a moment I was considering it better than A Link to the Past** but now that I've complete it, I wont.... but it's definitely a contender. With a little bit of polish, it could have done just that.

Gameplay: 9/10
Puzzles: 10/10
Story: 6/10
Music: 10/10
3D: 10/10
Design: 6/10
Overall: 8.5




* Let's be fair, it might as well be the Dark World

** A Link to the Past is my favorite in the series.

Final Fantasy XIV: The Empty Experience

 

Welcome to the land of Eorzea.

 In the world of Hydaelyn.

Okay. I think the problems with this game start with the settings: Eorzea and Hydaelyn sounds like one of those names you come up with when trying to make up some pretend story, like some satire for something you're making up as a joke. I actually had to google where or not I was spelling it right because it's just... Yeah, I'm digressing from this.

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is an MMORPG after the original Final Fantasy 14 failed. And by failed, I mean it BOMBED. Zero playtesting went into the game, the developers probably rushed the game in development, producers probably told them to move even faster and when it came to ideas, they were told to reuse whatever they can. In the end, it sold horribly and had to publicly apologize for it's awfulness and went back to the drawing board. And in the end we got A Realm Reborn.

I'm pretty experienced when it comes to: Final Fantasy, RPGs, MMORPGs and Final Fantasy XI. I've actually played Final Fantasy XI for a good while*, got myself 2 level 75's back when they were relevant and enjoyed what I found; Final Fantasy XI was vast, it took time to get what you needed, it required teamwork, it forced trolls to not be trolls, and everything about FFXI made you feel rewarded. You EARNED your items, your gil, your quests. It did NOT hold your hand and it definitely made you think on your toes. The last thing FFXI was, was player friendly. And I suppose in a society where games are nothing BUT player friendly, holding your hand and catering as much as possible... FFXI can get tedious and looked down on. I can see why.

So what did they do? The exact opposite: FFXIV is definition of player friendly. It does nothing but reward the player for doing menial tasks. Players don't have to help anyone anymore, the class system balance is non-existant since they aren't even required 90% of the time, but let me elaborate on everything:

Starting with the races; they're literally just reskinned FFXI races. Tarutaru are now Lalafell, Humes are Hyur, Elvaan are Elezen... etc. To me this just seems lazy, it kind of reminds of me those games you see like Ninja Blade where it's just a blatant carbon copy. In this case, it's the same people who made the original... Why not just keep the same names? I mean Moogles are always Moogles, Chocobos are always Chocobos, the world is ( almost ) always Gaia, why not just use your tradition and reuse the same names? Or better yet, why even have a different setting? Why not keep Vana'diel in the same setting? You're using almost all the same NM names and enemy models... But I can get over all this, this is all very minor and from the changes, it's all very good! All the NPC models are very different and have much more emotion to them. But for a game in 2013, this isn't really a pro but an expectation.

 You have all your basics from an MMORPG: Quest Grinding, Crafting, Auction Houses, Open Worlds, and Dungeons. And what's kinda sad is that FFXIV gets almost all of this wrong, in one way or another.

Quest Grinding is pointless and it took me a while to learn this. Yes, it kind of keeps you busy, but in the long run, you can run something called FATEs which are Global Quests for MUCH more experience and faster than you can do Quests. Yes, you get more gear and money from Quests, but gear is very cheap so...  So what the game ends up being is you finding Fates from beginning to end and MAYBE in the off-time doing some quests. And trust me when I say... this gets boring and tedious VERY quick. And you'll see that 30-70 people will be with you as you get to higher levels, as it takes longer to level. I'm sure this was a complete oversight from the developers but this has been around since beta... and it still hasnt been fixed.

But you wanna know the BIGGEST insult this game throws at you? It took me a while to really notice this... The game is criminally small. You have:

The Three Main areas, the North, Sound, East and West fields around each of the area; Mor Dhona, and Coerthas. You also got some Dungeons you queue into which I think was an awful idea since instead of being focused on exploration, it's now a rush down instance instead.

There is so much more I can say about this game and it's flaws. There might be so much more that I will find, so much more that will grow on me but so far this has been a huge step down. This is the year 2013, almost 2014 and these things are not oversights, somethings should be standard in their game. World of Warcraft came out 10 years earlier and it featured two GIANT continents, all with huge ranges of monsters, areas, and questing sites... 

With future update, yeah... things will be fixed. More areas open up, grinding will be fixed and maybe classes will become a little more diverse... but as of right now; I have a very hard time saying I'm enjoying the game. I'm sure future updates will fix it and I'm happy to see other people enjoying it but I just figured I'd jot down my thoughts. I don't really feel like getting TOO into it since I have far more complaints with it but these two just seem to big the biggest glaring flaws.

* until the level 99 patch came out and pretty much ruined it

Super Mario Brothers and why I hate this game.

Super Mario Brothers has always been so respected in the gaming community. People praise it for: It's memorable music, resurrecting the video game market after the '83 crash, and creating the platformer genre. People will tell you that SMB was the template for what people used to create their own games like Loony Tunes, Gimmick, and Kid Kool... I hate hearing things like this. I am not a fan of giving credit to someone for mediocrity. And I suppose this might as well be: A Nintendo hate rant, a Mario ( series ) hate rant, and a rant focused on the game itself.

Super Mario Brothers was a launch game by Nintendo on their premiere console, the NES. However this was not the first game they ever made as they had their own Pong Consoles, Donkey Kong 1-3, and a few others. But I want to focus on Mario... Mario was the main character of the Donkey Kong game, trying to rescue his damsel from the giant ape. Here we see him jumping over barrels, smashing barrels with a hammer, smacking birds with whips, and a few other things. All because ever really reaching the SMB game. Now with all this previous knowledge of Mario, I find it extremely amusing that the best method of taking out your enemies is by stepping on them. In fact, the best option to take out the enemy... is by completely avoiding them. And here is pretty much where my first gripes begin with this game: It's lazy on just about every way you can imagine.

SMB1 has bricks for the ground, clouds and bushes using the game sprite, music that lasts like 39 notes long before it starts repeating, the characters are literally guys in overalls, the enemies are everyday vegetables and animals just anthromorphed, and the way to beat the boss of the game is to grab an ax which somehow destroys a bridge... oh and when you Do grab it, it repeats the same message 7 times. The story isn't even great. I think the ONLY thing that truly makes the game stand out is the Fire flower.

I always hear the same retorts: Well, it's their first game for the NES, well they could only do so much, well games werent fleshed out yet! Okay, let's be fair here. There exists adventure games before the NES, like Jungle Hunt for the Arcades.. in fact the Arcades held a lot of great inspiration for games that the NES could have blown us away with... You see, Nintendo MADE the NES... AND had 3 years to make the game. You see the NES began development in 81, released in 83 and Mario came out in 85. Now considering they designed the console, you'd think Nintendo would have the advantage over everyone else on having a great looking game, in actuality though, we got the opposite. We got probably the ugliest and cheapest looking thing possible.

But why? Why does EVERYONE put Mario 1 on a pedestal? Well, I'd probably say the obvious nostalgia. I mean, the world 1-1 music is recognized by everyone. Just about everyone played it, including their grandma. We had 27 years of exposure of Mario and its evolution, we hear it every day online, we hear remixes of the music on Smash Brothers and other games, we have remixes of Stages like Mario Forever, Rom hacks, rereleases... we're BOMBARDED by Mario. And each time we're reminded of our childhood, we're reminded of that day when we first turned on that NES and played Mario with our friend and died on World 2-2... or found that Warp Pipe.

So the big question I ask you? Is Nostalgia really a reason? I recently saw a video online of the Top 5 Mario games ever. And I KNEW that Mario 1 would be no. 1 or close to it and my mind was blown when I saw that Mario 1 was put above 3 BECAUSE of its impact on the world. Not because it's a better game, but because of good timing. I just can't imagine sitting down, playing an objectively better game and saying to myself, "Well it's not as good as the less fun and poorer quality predecessor."

It makes me wonder if they purposely put as little effort into the game as possible since Nintendo is known for not doing anything with their games but doing the same thing: Mario and Zelda. Just start with the bare basics and very slowly make it better until you plateau on your ingredients of cookies and then just keep redecorating that same cookie with old ideas until it just dies.

Also, about the whole impact SMB had on the industry. This is another argument people make that I can't stand. To claim that BECAUSE one thing happened, the future is now made... Especially considering there exists platformers before SMB and there exists sidescrollers before SMB.  I mean come on, even then, it's a character who runs right and dodges obstacles... Yes, it's very innovative!

Persona 2: The Forgotten Persona Game.

 That's right people. There is a game that came before Persona 3. The series didn't start on the Playstation 2, with the 3rd in the series like some Star Wars like series, and eventually have some PSP title prequel that was very forgotten and looked over. Surprisingly, the Persona series existed. Actually, there was two of them:
                                                                              

 
Persona 2: Innocent Sin

and

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.

They were both rereleased for the PSP
The first one the only one to reach America, the second one, not so much.
I never played the first game. However I played the second one pretty thoroughly. And in writing this, I actually consider playing the first now that I remember it's on PSP since it's pretty much Eternal Punishment in Engine. But I digress...


I just got done playing Persona 3. I played the game for about 8 hours and they were probably the most confusing, boring, and mundane 8 hours I've ever played in my life. And the only reason I was so intersted in playing this game was because the reception of the series is so high ( the series being 3 and 4. ). And it was very surprising to find out how just devolved the game was, the RPG aspect of the game was pushed off to the side, was very underdeveloped, and limiting... Where the rest of the game focuses so much on Social Aspects; a giant dating game. Why is this so popular? I just don't get it. The music wasn't even that great... Though I will admit, I did not play Persona 4... and I suppose it might be a detriment to this part of the review, however this isn't a Persona 4 review, it's an awareness of the second game.



Persona 2 by far was a superior game. In like... every aspect I could think about. It's about a "virus" of some sort called the JOKER, it's the antagonist who if you call him to kill someone, he will do it. The Joker is the antagonist of the previous game who broke out of the Sanitarium. You are a reporter whose job it is to track down these Joker killings and pretty much figure them out. You meet people along the way who can help you out, and apparently you figure out that other people can become the Joker through rumors of calling the Joker to kill someone; where if you call him, you become one yourself. * Bare in mind, I haven't played the game in like 6 years... I'm just loosely remembering what it was able, but it wasn't really the story that got to me... Even though it was still told VERY well since it didn't treat you like a child, like most JRPGs would.

I loved the gameplay. The gameplay to 2 is just so intuitive and involved. Each monster you find you can either: Kill it or Talk to it. When you talk to it, you can get them to like you and they will reward you with a Tarot card ( Heirophant, Lovers, The Hanged Man ), and with enough Tarot cards, you can purchase new Persona. Which I suppose can be compared to Final Fantasy 8's draw system but it's no where near as taxing.  I liked how the game flowed; the game moved with a pace like it was in a hurry. When you do the Trio-Persona Ultimate Attack**, it instantly happens and the battle is over... You press the attack button, the game asks you  "Press A to use" and if you press B.. you do your normal attacks. The game flowed so nicely. The gameplay felt so smooth and everything felt so right. The setting of modern Japan, driving around the cities from destination to destination... going from city to city.

I feel that I just can't convey with words how superior the game felt. It wasn't bogged down with some silly dating game system, the gameplay doesn't limit you to 10 battles that feel like it was designed by a child, and the entire game setting wasn't the same drool over and over; talk to this guy and get 1 point in this Tarot, go here and raise your Stamina, go to bed....

"Do you wanna actually play the game?"
"Ehhh.... I think I need to sleep and gain some Academic points. Maybe later...."

I think if I had to rate to Persona 2... I'd give it a 9/10.***



* I don't think this is accurate, but it's pretty close. It's been a long time. I'm saying 'Virus' loosely since it kinda acts like one.... Sort of.

** I don't remember what the hell it's called...

*** Persona 3 would get a 3/10. I almost feel like this was more of a Persona 3 hate rant then a Persona 2 recommendation.

Chrono Trigger is Overrated.

I've always been conflicted about Chrono Trigger. I've always felt like I was the only person who just thought Chrono Trigger was just an alright game and that there are much better out there. People always raved to me that Chrono Trigger was the best RPG ever made and that nothing else compares to it. I always asked why? Seriously, why?

Chrono Trigger is Overrated. You will not hear me say that phrase often; that something is overrated. But I think if one game would take the cake, it would be this. I've beaten the game about 6 times now, so yeah... I can kind of see the fun in the game. I think the gameplay is ahead of its time* and that the theme it has is very unique for what it is. But to me it just misses on just about everything. And I want to go on step-by-step for everything about this game that bothers me. Starting with the very beginning.

I think the reason I took so long to ever try this game ( it was about after playing Final Fantasy 9 ) was two things: It was on SNES and it was kind of inaccessable and the title of it just looks stupid. And by that I mean the "Trigger" in Chrono Trigger. I don't understand why they chose to stretch the "Trigger" part out like that. It honestly looks like it was made by some amateur programmer for a fanfiction or a amateur game he was working on. The "Chrono" part of it already illustrates the Time aspect of the game, the other part.... you got me. It's just a very ugly title.



The game starts off with Crono waking up for the Millennial Fair, it's the year 1,000 and a fair starts off. You wake up from bed and you're welcome to Earth, or a caricature of Earth. You rush over to the fair as you had plans to meet your friend there and test her Invention. Yes, we all know the intro to our favorite game... While at the fair, we bump into this blonde girl who we later find out is Princess Nadia of Guardia. The Kingdom you happen to reside in. She introduces herself as Marle and you do this whole little sidequest where you gotta entertain her... You come up to Lucca's machine and she ends up causing a Time Rift throwing you back to the year 600. Where you find out that she's the Princess. So you end up rescuing the real princess, which causes her to reappear. You go  back to your own time and they assume you kidnapped her, a trial happens where the sidequest you did earlier comes into play, though it's kind of pointless in the long-run. And you escape into the future from the castle. Now where am I going with all this?

This is the last portion of the game where Marle has any significance.

After this, she has absolutely no purpose to the game whatsoever other than being a so-so party member. And taking into considersation she's an escaped Princess of a Kingdom you'd think she'd be somewhat important. You'd think maybe some questions would be asked, maybe SOMETHING but no, she's pretty much a blank slate for the entire game. And what gets me is.... she's the love interest. How you make a Silent Protagonist and a cardboard cutout to be love interests in a game is beyond me.  The only interaction I can remember between these two are a brief dream sequence of Marle waking up Crono from bed in a reenactment of the opening of the game, which wasn't even real.

But what am I saying, hardly anyone in this game is fleshed out. I imagine when they made this game all they did was give small one sentence explanations for each character and never go beyond this:

Crono: Swordsman boy...

Marle: Tomboy Princess who wants adventure

Lucca: Tomboy science geek.

Though to be fair, I think Lucca has probably the most personality in the game and the most backstory ever explained. Probably explains why she's my favorite character in the game....

Ayla: Cave-girl. Leader of Tribe. And apparently the Ancestor of Marle...  **

Frog: A chivalrous anthropomorphic swordsman who seeks revenge for his fallen comrade by the hands of Magus. He also has a good amount of backstory explained but I think he's a rather boring character. Though the English NA Translators have a HUGE hand in this by pretty much changing every honorable quote he had into something silly... For example:

"Ah it's you. Sir Slush!"
"That's Slash you nitwit!"

In original Translation it was:

Frog: It's been a while.    
   Dark Arts Swordsman Soysaw......!    
    
Soysaw: I never even thought that you    
   would come this far, Glenn.    
    
   If Cyrus hadn't been there back then, you    
   would have had the same fate as well.    
    
    
Soysaw: Same as the corpses earlier!    
    
    
Soysaw: Pretty good.    
   Guess I'll get serious for the first time in a while.    
    
    
Soysaw: But without Cyrus, will you......    
    
    
Soysaw: Be able to take me!?    
    
Soysaw: Well done......!    
   But being beaten fighting for Magus-sama......

So he wasn't always a cookie-cutter white knight.

Magus: The only original character in the game. Except he joins 5 minutes before you beat it and he STILL has piss-poor backstory. So pretty much he's just a brooding little boy who hates everyone and only likes his cat and Schala. Queen Zeal accidentally sends him to 580 AD after she summons Lavos and he spends the entire game secretly trying to get revenge on Lavos.

Now it should be noted that, once again, English Translation has another part in this. In the original story, it was noted that Magus started the war with Guardia so he could gain more power to use against Lavos. In NA story... he's just a huge douche waffle.

I hardly consider Magus to be a real "party member" considering he joins so late making his inclusion very useless by now as all my members are equipped, have skills, and have grown on me.



In the end though, the characters are just... boring. Once you get past their arc, they don't say another word. For example, one thing that would have REALLY made the game a lot more interesting was just little comments about the time periods. For instance when Ayla joins you and you head back to 1000 AD, it's FAR FAR FAAAAAR more advanced than anything she knows about. Hell, Crono's Mom says to her "Honey, girls shouldnt dress like that" and Ayla pretty much laughs it off. There is NEVER a single line of dialogue about noting period differences***.


In my opinion, I think one of the biggest downfalls to the game is Crono. For two reasons: He's a silent protagonist and on top of this, he's given absolutely zero story. So therefore the enjoyment of the story is kind of toned down since you can't really grow on him. There's just nothing to attach yourself to...



As you go in in the story, you start to learn that there's a magical background to the game where once the Ice Age began, people ascended into the skies and began fiddling with Magic in a kingdom called Zeal. You meet Schala and Janus whom are the children of the Queen, Schala is a very soft-hearted woman that only means the best and Janus is a cold-hearted little boy whose only friend is his chat. Also, among these magical people are the Three Sages: Gaspar, Balthasar, and Melchoir. And I'd like to say that once you hit this timeline of 12,000 BC, you're about 85% done with the game, and this probably the first time you ever meet any form of conflict and plot in this game aside from Lavos in general and each timelines specific troubles ( Azala, Magus ). Anyways you begin to learn that these people you've met in these different timelines all came from this era and were sages along with Janus who is actually Magus. So we finally get some form of plot, except ONCE you learn all this, the game just stops giving a shit.

Gaspar doesn't ever explain to you how he managed to set everything up. In fact, if I reember correctly, the most he ever says is just "Yeah, I'm Gaspar.". I don't think Melchoir ever says anything different aside from "Wow, Black Omen!" and Balthasar is dead.

Now Janus is where it really bugs me.... as I said he's the Magus we know. It shows us a cutscene of him being attacked by Ozzie and.... that's it. He went from good kid with a kitty, loving his sister to dominating countries with an evil army without even delving into any reason of: How, why***, or anything.  And I honestly wanted to know the details on all of this, like why Janus had changed so much and how exactly he did that. It's like the writers just didn't care and wanted to get through the game as quickly as they could:

What happened to Schala?

Why was the Black Omen not present previous to when Crono got there; before Crono and Magus intruded, whatever happened there, happened. This might actually be something that I missed but before Crono intruded on this, the Queen's plans were successful. And last I recall, her plan was the Black Omen. Or better yet, what exactly DID happen previous to Crono? Like... if I hadn't interrupted, what would have been the result?

The same argument could also be said with 600 BC. Guardia was losing that fight against Magus, they'd destroyed Zenan Bridge and taken over the lower continent. The only reason in current Guardia the statue of him doesn't exist is because you beat him as he was trying to summon Lavos. Or better yet, when you interrupted him summoning Lavos, what happened when you didn't interrupt? Did it just not work? So what happened to his army? Did they just give up? I mean, Ozzie's ancestor is the Mayor of the country over there so clearly they lived on. Did Frog end up beating them? What happened to Frog?

Honestly, in those cases, unless I competely missed something, which please... go ahead and tell me what I missed... These seem like plotholes rather than just details that weren't explained

The one thing that I was genuinely curious about was how exactly Zeal was formed... How was magic found? How was Zeal created? Like, you'd imagine after the entire extinction of the dinosaurs from Lavos, something you were clearly there for... Especially in a timeline where they were SUPPOSE to be primitive... Why exactly were people in the sky, making: machines, airships, and other robots. It's NEVER addressed!


I could go on and find even more to complain about but the point will pretty much remain the same: Chrono Trigger is the most glossed over game I've EVER played. It just doesn't care about itself past "Lavos bad, you beat."

*Get it. Ahead of its time? 
** Shes the ANCESTOR of Marle? With a 65 million year difference, is this really worth noting?