FINDING MARIO LIFE WORLD TIME X01 1 - 1 00:36

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ISSUE 01 | 1

To Maestro Osamu Dezaki

November 18. 1943 - April 17. 2011

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About 4 months back we embarked on this journey having just a basic idea about the scope of this project.

Four months later the same project has evolved beyond the scope. I called it ‘Finding Mario’, puzzling everyone who heard about it, but somewhere it rang a bell.

Mario the plumber on a quest to save princess Peach is, for most of us, the stepping stone into the world of Japanese pop-culture which has been arguably the biggest cultural export of Japan over the years.

Contemporary forms of popular culture include anime, manga, video games, food and Japanese art.

We set out to find people in the country influenced by this culture and learning more about them and how they are applying these influences in their daily life - from passion and entertainment to business

Editorial

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ContentsPage 7Play

Page 17BombayShubhank

Page 24BangaloreKhitiz

Page 27Paschim BangaShubhank

Page 31The Otaku GenerationRitesh Aggarwal

Page 35Metal Gear Solid RetrospectiveShubhank

Page 41Indo - Japan Religion ExchangeAvisekhar Roy

Page 44Japanese Video Games, India and YouVijay Sinha

Page 50Zelda RetrospectiveWilliam J. John

Page 58Finding MarioResearch Team

Editor-in ChiefShubhank M

AuthorDebabrata Nath

Vijay SinhaWilliam J. JohnKshitiz Anand

Ritesh Aggarwal

Head ResearchShubhank

Research TeamResearch Head – Bangalore

Kshitiz Anand

Research Assistant – Mumbai Indo-Japan Religion Exchange

Chaitanya Pantar

North East IndiaAvisekhar Roy

Research Assistant – MumbaiRitesh Aggarwal

DesignBandeApart

Cover ArtJosé Alberto Escalera

Research/Published with support of Japan Foundation, New Delhi

Printed byAlphaville Design Media Pvt. Ltd.

Kalkaji New Delhi

All images used are copyright of their respective owners used here for non-commmercial, educational, research purpose only. The research journal is not for sale and is free for use online and offline.

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cover story a visual journey in finding mario travel flight train bus foot to delhi bombay bangalore calcuttadarjeeling gangtok kalimpong via cafe social media interview resarch food anime manga video games design and fun enter

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About 4 months back we embarked on this journey having just a basic idea about the scope of this project. Four months later the same project has evolved beyond the scope. I called it ‘Finding Mario’, puzzling everyone who heard about it, but somewhere it rang a bell. Mario the plumber on a quest to save princess Peach is, for most of us, the stepping stone into the world of Japanese pop-culture which has been arguably the biggest cultural export of Japan over the years. Contemporary forms of popular culture include anime, manga, video games, food and Japanese art. We set out to find people in the country influenced by this culture and learning more about them and how they are applying these influences in their daily life - from passion and entertainment to business.

To start with here’s a little primer on the some of the elements of Japanese visual-culture that we have tried to cover.

Anime - Anime is a Japanese abbreviation of the word animation. Throughout the world animation films originating from Japan are popularly called anime. They exist in different formats like television series, movies, commercials and a lot more. Some video games use anime styled short cut-scenes or movie like non interactive sequences to advance the story.

Visually anime has a very distinct style, different from any other form of animation. That said, there are artists who take a different approach towards their art style. Still anime is generally associated with a definitive art style. For instance, some anime characters have large eyes which is said to be inspired by traditional Disney characters. It’s an exaggeration based on the notion that eyes do let them communicate more than words - the emotions are expressed better through the eyes. Although, not all anime use large eyes. Hayao Miyazaki, an extremely influential manga artist and animator, often used realistically proportioned eyes for his characters. Many animes are actually based on mangas or borrow narrative elements from there.

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Manga - Manga is a Japanese comic book. Mangas have lent their distinct visual style to animes which have made them this popular. They rely a lot of communication through visual art. An interesting thing about manga, which not many people are aware of, is that it’s read from right to left, unlike traditional comic books. During their popularity in the west some of the popular books were re-printed to suit the traditional comic book reader but the fans and some manga authors insisited on maintaining a level of authenticity. .

The popularity of anime and manga all across the world have made them extremely common among kids in particular. It’s, however, not known by many that both anime and manga exist in multiple genres; from humorous, whimsical cartoons to soap operas, from fantastical tales to science fiction stories. The narrative and visual style has often taken

a departure from the generic definition and covered certain mature themes including romantic relationships, emotional dramas even experimental avant-garde themes.

Many anime projects are inspired by popular manga series. A lot of times the creators of manga are involved with the inception of the anime. They borrow the visual style of manga as the most common trait. Among the other traits the narrative techniques used in some anime films are similar to the panel and dialogue style of a comic book or a manga.

Japanese popular culture, in its current form, is an evolved form of their cultural traits. For instance, anime and manga themselves make heavy use of the round ink brush to paint strokes of varying thickness. The same brush has been traditionally used in Japanese calligraphy. The

New Snapshots of the journey ahead from the different corners of India through the world of anime, manga, games, religion and more.

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writing and narrative techniques in Japanese cinema, television, anime and manga have heavily borrowed elements from classic literary sources. They are not just means of entertainment, but also escapism from the generally hectic lifestyles of Japanese people - many stories often cover these issues.

Through Finding Mario we met fanatics, romantics, collectors and the clueless. We traveled to video game parlours, anime clubs, manga shops, restaurants, temples, schools and even tattoo studios to locate them and bring to you the popularity of the Japanese visual culture. What exactly is so special about the quirky Japanese style which is increasingly becoming veru popular among Indians. Let’s find out!

Delhli

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DELHISTORIES

ANIMEMANGADESIGN

FILMSFOOD

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Chapter - 1

We started our journey in Delhi. A political playground, a city with a history spanning over one thousand years housing seven cities within its walls. A cultural powerhouse which has everything for everyone. Delhi has seen a lot happen in the last few years. There has been a lot of progress around a multitude of areas. From sports to IT, it has witnessed boon everywhere. Personally, I love the food. It’s metaphoric to the city. Loud and spicy but thoroughly enticing. During my visit to the city this time around, I visited the famous Palika Bazaar.

New Delhi’s Palika Bazaar is a popular underground market. Located near the popular Connaught Place, Palika Bazaar is home to more than 350 shops selling predominantly electronic goods and clothing. This place has a history - established in the late 1970s Palika Bazaar quickly grew popular among residents of New Delhi. The popularity of malls saw a slight decline of customers for a brief time but it was overcome. The mid 1990s saw a sharp rise in the overall number of electronic shops some of them selling the classic 8-bit era video games.

I spoke to a couple of shopkeepers, who did not want to be named. One of them is running an electronics shop for 15 years now, “Palika used to be a piracy hub before the New Delhi Municipal Council interfered. The regular inspections and raids and curbed it to an extent.” We asked him about the popularity of video game consoles, “The current generation of consoles sell a lot. There is still a section of 5 to 10 year old children from lower and middle class families who still buy 8-bit consoles. They are mostly from the lower middle class families.”

These 8-bit machines are generally clones of the Nintendo Entertainment System and come with popular titles such as Super Mario Bros. and Super Contra. Manufacturing them is cheap and can be done in bulk quantities. For many families, mostly rural, it’s still a revolutionary mode of entertainment, something they have never seen. At one point of time, in the mid 90s they were even advertised on the television. While the cur-rent generation consoles cost anywhere in access of 15 thousand rupees, the cheapest of these classical machines cost just 500 rupees.

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The current generation of consoles, the sev-enth-generation to be precise, started with

the release of Microsoft’s XBox 360 back in 2005. Almost a year later Sony and Nintendo released their consoles - the Playstation 3 and Wii, respectively. Sony

and Nintendo being Japanese brands saw a surge of sales in the region

while Microsoft struggled to penetrate the Japanese market intially and still continues to struggle. With Wii, Nintendo introduced motion sensor controllers. This allowed people to experience video games differently. You could hold the controller and swing it as you would swing a baseball bat, a golf club or even a sword. This made them extremely popu-lar among the casual audience and they did dominate the markets for most of this generation.

Recent times have seen a slump in Nintendo’s sales while S o n y and Microsoft dominate the western mar-

ket. They have also released their own version of movement sensor con-

trollers, compaitable with the ex-isting consoles, to compete with

Nintendo. Sony’s Playstation Move and Microsoft’s Kinect. While many pundits are bank-

ing either of these to release the next generation of console soon the

battle for domination is hotter than ever.

Current generation consoles are popular among older kids and adults. The price difference be-tween them and the 8-bit consoles

is quite significant - a Sony Playsta-tion 3 will cost anywhere from

21 to 23 thousand rupees and an entry level Microsoft XBox 360 will cost 15 thousand rupees with Nintendo’s Wii

costing close to 20 thousand rupees. Most of the shopkeepers

claimed that the Playstation 3 does outsell the XBox 360. “The market here is opposite of the

USA”, one of them said; “if a console is popular there it won’t sell much in India.” He further added, “Sales of Nintendo Wii are rapidly decreasing with the arrival of Playstation Move and Microsoft’s Ki-nect for XBox 360. If this continues it will join Dream-cast which completely stopped selling 5 - 10 years

back.” These figures strictly pertain to sales in Palika Bazaar. I asked the same question to a couple of re-

tail stores outside where XBox is more popular than the Playstation 3.

Among the handhelds, Sony leads the race with their Play-station Portable, popularly known as the PSP against Nin-tendo’s DS (Dual Screen). The kind of games available for a console does impact the sales. “There was a time when Japanese games were not at all available. They had to be imported or pirated”, said a shopkeeper in Palika Bazaar. “The situation is much different now, some popular Japa-nese franchises like the Final Fantasy series are easily ava-iable here. Also, there is a heavy demand of fighting games

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like Street Fighter and Tekken.”

I glanced at a small television kept in one of the shops. It was running a version of the classic Adventure Island game - something I grew up with. I asked a couple of places at Palika Bazaar if they sell arcade machines to which they declined. A friend did volunteer to take me to some places around who still have arcade machines housed. First we went to Srinivas Puri, a predominantly residential area, and entered the market there. He seemed to know the place quite well and mentioned about an arcade shop with coin operated machines. This show was extremely popular back in the late 1990s. We entered the shop and it certainly wasn’t as charming as he had described. It had some empty space and I could see a bunch of kids, not more than 12 year old, furiously tapping some buttons and moving the analog stick.

“Not much has changed since 10 years”, the owner said, “kids played Tekken back then and they still play Tekken. The pricing is still the same, 5 rupees for 6 coins. The only difference is that kids who come here now cannot afford to by the 500 rupee machine from Palika Bazaar”, he said while weighing a packet of rice. I asked him if the other shop

existed 10 - 15 years back when he started working, “yes, but it was secondary, now the video games have become secondary.” I managed to speak with some kids, they loved their games. As the owner of the shop mentioned earlier Tekken is a hot favourite and King is their favourite char-acter. None of them had an idea that their favourite video game was developed by a Japanese company and were genuinely amused upon hearing.

I wanted to check out some more arcade shops and found another one not too far away. This place was slightly bigger than the previous one but the response was similar. “I’m run-ning this place since 1992, since almost 20 years. Back then I earned 2000 rupees a day and now it has come down to just 200 rupees”, said the owner. “These kids enjoy coming here which is the reason why my prices are still the same. 1 rupee for a coin. It’s the same since the time I opened the shop.” For the record, an arcade machine was priced at an average of 20 thousand rupees back in the early 90s. The price has reduced to less than half since then. Tekken again seemed the most popular game. There were some fans of Mario as well while some preferred playing Grand Theft Auto series on an arcade machine which ran a Playstation 2 - something I have really never seen in my life.

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We stood at the doorway of the shop overlooking a road in front of us an towards a typical urban bungalow complex. “The kids there have LCD televisions and expensive consoles. My customers can barely spend 10 - 15 rupees a day play-ing video games” the shopkeeper commented. Even after purchasing a console there is an upkeep cost because of the pricey games. The cheapest ones cost 1500 rupees and if you are fairly regular you can complete a game in less than a couple of weeks on an average. Some years back Japanese games had to be imported because of their lack of avail-ability in India. Over the last few years they have become extremely popular prompting the retailers to stock more Japanese games. Not just games, there has been a surge in popularity of anime and manga in the country. People are making groups and screening films, holding manga reading gatherings and bragging about their collectibles.

Genshiken, named after a popular manga series, is a Face-book group based in Delhi. Folks here share a common love for Japanese visual culture - particularly anime and manga. I had a chance of speaking with Vijay Sinha, a member of Genshiken, an anime affectionado and a professional video game designer, and asked him just what is so special about anime? “It’s weird, it’s unconventional, it does things in a way that’s different enough for someone to sit up and take notice. You either get attached or scoff, but there’s a fair amount of variety in the many, many years of accumlated animation projects that have spawned legendary names (to us, at least) such as Hayao Miyazaki and the late Satoshi Kon.” True to every word. You can either love it or simply not bother. It’s almost paradisaical to some and downright bizzare for others.

Just like every cultural export there are stereotypes associ-ated with anime. Over the past years it has become very popular thanks to some programs which are regularly broadcasted on television. Most of these programs are se-ries for children and has brought in a thought that anime is in fact made for them. “It’s unforunate for me, as I don’t know or watch as much anime as I used. I also find them harder to come across, since there’s just so many series that can be passed up based on their looks alone. Fortunately, being a part of a community has helped somewhat, and I hope fans situated in India can go beyond the more recommendations for series such as Bleach or Naruto. They’re not outright bad per se, but there’s just more to it”, Vijay added.

Genshiken is not one of its kind though. There are some more clubs and Facebook groups set up for a common in-terest of appreciating anime and manga one of them be-ing the Delhi Anime Club through which Genshiken actually spawned from. “We started early June, branching off from the Delhi Anime Club (which started in December 2009). Our group wanted to spear-head more tie-ups with other like-minded communities, while attempting to make so-cial gatherings more common and productive. We’re also in good ties with communities such as Comic Addicts and

Otaku Anonymous.” Which brings us to, what is an Otaku? It’s a Japanese term to identify people with obsessive in-terests particularly anime, manga and videogames. It’s somewhat synonomous with the term ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’. Few years back calling someone with the term would have have humiliated them but some people embrace it now, albeit playfully to a certain extent. Once in a while, these Otakus get together and hold meet-ings, film screenings and video game marathon sessions. I asked Vijay about these meetups, “Because we’re only into two months, we’ve only had one official meet-up. Prior to that, under the Delhi Anime Club banner we had met a month before at a Pizza Hut in CP. It took a good six months to get that many people to socialize again, but the focus on our interests always seem to deteriorate whenever we do gatherings in public places.”

It’s a common observation, whenever many people sharing a common interest meet they eventually tend to drift from the main discussion. One way to control it can be having small meet-ups regularly, once a month. “We are trying to do meets on a monthly basis, but acquiring the right space and time is taxing. By comparison, Comic Addicts has a very good handle on their community meets, thanks to their ties with Mocha.” Which are encouraging signs for such congre-gations and will definitely inspire more in time.

One of the most popular anime and manga franchises of all time, Gundam, features giant robots. In fact this is an im-mensely popular genre both in Japan and west. This popu-larity has made these fans buy collectibles in the form of action figures. While action figures are also available for certain other franchises (Pokemon being a common one) there is a rage with the robots. I have seen other tradition-ally non-Japanese action figures in stores (particularly the Transformers series after Michael Bay made them popular with the live action movies), and they sell. But what about Gundam and others. They are popular among the fans and those who can afford have managed to import their favou-rite ones.

I asked Vijay about the availability of collectible action fig-ures in India. “Finding anything game related, is just on pure luck! I bought my Marcus Fenix figure from an online forum, and I stumbled upon a Play Arts edition of Sephiroth in a toy store in Noida. I’ve never tried importing till now.” There are websites who do ship to India, however, getting an ac-tion figure shipped could prove an expensive ordeal. Manga fans have a better luck though, “there is no one distributor that is “legally” selling them in India. However, physical re-tailers do stock them, or you can order them online through FlipKart. But their availability and prices can greatly vary”, he added.

Most of the manga that we do get in the country has to be imported. There are no publishers here who would print some copies. Not many actually know about the demand.

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There are people willing to spend money just to get their hands on the thing as a collectible and there are people who wouldn’t mind saving up for a while and then getting their favourite manga and read it over and over again. Another popular means is to download them off the Internet. Fans outside India scan their copies for others to download - an illicit way of distribution but for some it works.

While speaking to another friend we briefly touched the visual narration of mangas. At times the art style used in a manga lets the author create multiple sequen- t ia l frames, one after the other, without employ-ing any form of dialogues. All communication with the reader happens through expressions - the way they are drawn on the characters. There may or may not be usage of props or other elements such as the background. We talked about this for a while when he suggest-ed a similar approach as a mode of storytelling, particularly to the non-reading rural community in the country. It’s an interesting thought but the interpretation of expressions re-quires them to be drawn with an incred-ible amount of detail. Also, keeping in mind that such technique may be in-teresting in between a meta narrative which includes various techniques, it may not be sufficiently good as a whole. There is still a lot to learn from the popularity of manga, especially in Ja-pan. It’s a great means of storytelling, probably cheaper than watching a film in a multiplex, the dis-tribution is not an issue and it can tell any story. Most of us have read Indian comics which largely include folk tales with talking ani-mals so there is a good amount of awareness of comic books, it could be a good time to take it to a step further.

This concluded my visit to the national capital. Next on my agenda was to visit the city of dreams.

‘Mobile Suit Gundamn created a massive appeal for Anime across the world. One of the early game changes for the Japanese Pop-Culture Industry.’

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CHAPTER 02

BOM

BAY Manga is the Japanese word for

“comics” and consists of comics and print cartoons sometimes also called komikku. In the west, the term “Manga” has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th century. In their mod-ern form, manga date from shortly after World War II, but they have a long, complex pre-history in earlier Japanese art.

Anime Japanese pronunciation: Eng-lish pronunciation: is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of “ani-mation”. The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons.

Ma is a Japanese word which can be roughly translated as “gap”, “space”, “pause” or “the space between two structural parts.” The spatial concept is experienced progressively through intervals of spatial designation. In Japanese, ma, the word for space, suggests interval. It is best described as a consciousness of place, not in the sense of an enclosed three-dimensional entity, but rather the simultaneous awareness of form and non-form deriving from an intensifi-cation of vision.

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Jack Kerouac, in his book On the Road, described LA as, “the lonliest and most brutal city” in America. I share a similar sentiment for Mumbai, having lived there for more than a decade. The sprawling metropolis, with arguably the most beautiful skyline in the country, is a home for more than 20 million people. It’s the financial capital and technically the richest city in the country. Built on an archipelago consisting of 7 islands Mumbai is a difficult cosmopolitan, a very competitive one. A fashion powerhouse,it has seen the beginnings of some of the most popular trends in the country.

I visited the suburb of Bandra, rightly called as the queen of suburbs in Mumbai, and went to a couple of tattoo parlours to check if they could talk a bit about art, particularly Japanese art. Tattoos have become rather popular over the past few years. “When you are covering your body permanently with ink, you have to choose the right design”, said Darren an artist at one of the many tattoo parlours in the city. “Earlier we used to get a lot of clients who wanted to get inked to get noticed but practically had no

idea about what they wanted.” I asked him about the popularity of Japanese designs. “It’s difficult to list down how many people go for such designs but if someone does approach us they either get some phrase in Kanji or an artistic rendition of the Koi-fish design.”

Kanji is a set of symbols, a system of writing in Japanese, it’s been adopted from Chinese characters. It’s a symbolic system which does not have alphabets. Each character means a word which makes it particularly difficult to learn. Certain symbols, such as specific numbers, are considered symbols of good luck. The number 8 for instance (pronounced as ‘hachi’ in Japanese) is a symbol of good fortune. While having a Japanese character as a tattoo may be something different and exotic for some, it’s not easily recognised by others.

Koi on the other hand is a domesticated fish which resembles the gold fish. Koi-fish designs, as they seem to be known, are colourful and somewhat artistic drawings of these fish. These designs have various symbolic interpretations. A single koi with its

mouth pointing upwards is a symbol of good luck while two kois drawn as a circle in a way that their mouths are closer to the other’s tail resemble the duality of life, something like the popular Ying-Yang.

San from San’s Tattoo has been in the business for almost a couple of years. I was curious if preparation for a Kanji design is particularly taxing because of the unfamiliarity. “Generally we ask the person to give us the symbol they want. We do a little research and make it look artistic by supplementing it with additional drawing which relates to the interpretation of the symbol.” He too stressed the popularity of other designs over Kanji. “Coming up with Kanji design takes time. We, however, do a lot of koi-fish tattoos.

They are a rage among people more than 70% of the them who want to get a Japanese tattoo go for the koi.” But what makes the koi-fish so popular, I asked him - “It’s the design, there is just so much philosophy going in it. You can do a lot with the fish alone. It’s just not about making it look good but it should reflect your persona and it does that very well. It’s also a symbol of good luck

ON ROAD BOMBAY MOVING NEXT TO BANGALORE

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too.”

I had a look at some of the designs and they did look very different depending on the context and the gender of the customer. “It’s a male dominated trend but we do get certain women requesting for cherry-blossoms.” But what about other designs - “Dragons were a trend back in the earlier days. They do look great but they are very cliched.” San was expecting a client when we arrived and luckily we could see him in action. “I love doing the koi-fish design. It’s really deep. Here, take a look I myself have a similar tattoo.” He had an old design on his arm.

Not too prominent as it would have been one day but very much discernible and he advised me to get one too. Someday, definitely - I could do well with some good fortune. But my preference would be a Kanji symbol. It may not be widely popular

but the perplexity draws me to it. I left the studio in search of someone who can actually read Kanji and could tell me more about it.

Reading about the origin and history of the Japanese system of writing gives a fairly basic idea about the language. Before the introduction of Kanji, Japanese language had no system of writing. It is said that Chinese immigrants were the first people to write the initial Japanese documents. It became popular and with time the Japanese people added diacritical signs to the Chinese characters and restructured the word order and added verb endings as per their grammar.

Kanji which is used today is very different from the Chinese language characters. There have been new words added to it, the meaning of certain words has changed and Chinese itself has gone under a lot of

transformation over the years. I spent some time at Sensei Academy of Japanese Language learning more about the language and application of it from a teacher Monideepa Srinivas. She was kind enough to ask some students to join us as I was keen on knowing about their experiences while learning the language. Monideepa has been teaching Japanese language here since 2007. The institute itself has been around since 2002 with a branch in the city of Pune as well. I asked her about the core challenges students face while learning Japanese.

“Kanji consists of symbols which are used as words. There are just too many symbols. To communicate effectively and to make it to the topmost level of the course you will need to learn more than 10,000 symbols.” There are 5 levels of classes here, N5 (the lowest level) to N1 (the highest). I questioned her about the clients they

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cater to, “most of them are corporates who send employees for training but there are some people who just do it as a hobby.” And up to which level do the corporates generally train, “till N3. Earlier it was much relaxed just two levels were sufficient but now no one demands less than N3.” It’s not just the language they also have lessons on etiquette and general mannerisms to groom the students completely.

I was rather curious about how does the institute grade students. “Grading usually happens through exams. These are standard organised by the Japan Foundation and they mainly require recognising the symbols not the actual writing. At least for the first few levels.” How many actually go all the way to the topmost, N1 level? “Very few not more than 20-25% among the ones who appear for the exam. If 20 people give the exam, 2 will pass.” But if N3 is good enough for the corporates to get

a job with a Japanese company why do students go for the most coveted prize, passing the N1? They cannot be masochists. “Clearing the N1 gives you access to teach Japanese or English (in Japan). Clearing the lower levels just lets you translate the language but if you want to interpret you have to go all the way.” Judging by the fact that Monideepa herself teaches N2 level students, she must have been a pretty good student herself.

I drove my attention to some of the students who were present there, they called her sensei, teacher in Japanese. There are classes held every Sunday, each being 3 hours in duration with not more than 7 - 8 students. One of them, Aparajita - a student of Bachelor of Science, had recently joined the institute and started with the N5 course - the basic one. Of course I was curious about what made her get excited about Japanese, “my brother and I watched

a lot of anime, the interest just grew from there on.” She had been taking classes for almost a month now, that must have been a good time to learn some Japanese, enough to understand bits of the anime she watched.

“I do recognise some words and certain phrases based on the context but it’s still alien to me.” Another student, Poorva - who is studying engineering, is hoping for better career prospects once she clears a few levels of Japanese learning. “It’s uncommon, it’s interesting and exciting. You get exposed to a different culture and learn a lot from it.” Being an engineering student weighs you down tremendously but Poorva said she managed most of it during her vacations right before the exams.

It’s not just full time students and job hunters who populate the institute. One particular lady, who appeared

Tattoo Artist in Bombay using Kanji and Japanese characteristic as part of his design aesthetics.

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somewhat convivial about the idea of talking with us - obviously a good thing, is learning Japanese as a hobby. Pradnya is a housewife with 6 month old kid whom she’s been teaching the language and who apparently recognises certain Kanji symbols. Now that is an achievement. “I want to teach Japanese to other kids”, she answered when I asked her why is she learning Japanese. “It’s different

from others, a friend did a course in Japanese sometime back and I thought it would be interesting to give it a go.” It was definitely interesting to meet people, other than job seekers, exploring something new. The institute has a collection of mangas, folk tales particularly for the students to practice reading - and they seem to enjoy reading a ‘different’ kind of comic book.

While most of the students were looking for a job in Japan I met a rather interesting man, Raju, who had been working for a Japan based firm since almost 3 years. He had travelled to Japan and some other parts of the world and was raring to speak about his experiences. “We Indians, in fact the whole world, can learn so much from the Japanese.

‘Japanese Katakana swords has been a symbol for samurai for generation’

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Their work ethics are different and these people value time which not many people do.” I had to agree with that, based on experiences that I had with some Japanese folks. Almost everything existential that we have control over is, to a certain extent, expendable, except time. One can lose money and gain it back, lose good heath and recover back but time once gone

cannot be recovered. It’s something which makes you appreciate things such as relationships. “They are extremely professional in everything they do. They value relationships like no other, it may be difficult to get to know them, but once you do the Japanese people will never forget it.” That’s a noble quality in my opinion but there is a downside to their disciplined work ethic. There

have been news reports and cases about karoshi which can be literally translated to ‘death from overwork’. A major cause of death being stress induced illness. I asked Raju about the same he had something to say, “yes, there are such cases, I’ve heard about them from here and there but that’s the extent of my knowledge about it.” Work related deaths in Japan caught major media attention in the late 80s during the Japanese asset price bubble where the real estate and stock prices inflated.

Raju worked for a firm which dealt with import and export of food material and medicines. Japan are big importers of a lot of food, quality food. “They may not be master inventors, but they are excellent at execution and perfecting a product. The motor car was invented somewhere else but the Japanese have manufactured some of the highest selling vehicles in the world.” But as an Indian who did not understand Japanese did he face any challenges? “Initially yes, my visit to Tokyo was fantastic.

Everyone understood English quite well. On the professional front they like Indians and are keen on building healthy relations with us. I did feel, after a while, that they may be pushing themselves a little hard, at times they resemble robots.” He said that with a chuckle, obviously a joke which was further made humorous by the rapid technological growth in Japan. “It’s amazing how much they love their own products. In Japan everything, every person is Japanese - caste doesn’t matter, there are regional biases but nothing like us. It’s phenomenal.”

While they may be known for their overzealous work regimes, Japanese love their food. Raju told me about their love for Indian food, who doesn’t in this age? I left the institute in hunt of some places which serve Japanese food.

The cuisine of Japan is well known around the world. Their sense of design and etiquette has seeped through the presentation and dining. It’s no wonder that the Michelin Guide

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has awarded restaurants in Japanese cities the highest number of Michelin stars than any other country in the world. Michelin Guide is a prestigious travel guide well known for their anonymous inspections of restaurants around the world. In Mumbai, I had a chance to visit a couple of prominent and well known restaurants which serve Japanese cuisine.

Shiro, a restaurant and lounge based in South Mumbai, are known for their Pan Asian cuisine, particular Japanese. Shiro has two literal meanings in Japanese, ‘white’ and ‘castle’. White being a colour having a great influence in the Eastern culture due to its symbolism - white being analogous to purity. Castle because the restaurant is designed like one. It’s located in the corner of a famous complex, not too hard to spot. One may get a wrong idea of it being a small place but it’s different as you enter. This place is literally a castle. We stepped inside through a rather massive door into the main area with a giant statue of Buddha towering above everything in an eternal moment of transcendence. Stepping inside made the nature of the restaurant tad obvious.

We were greeted, quite politely I must add, by the manager there who introduced us to Yogesh, the operations head. “We basically serve Pan Asian cuisine concentrating heavily on Japanese. 60 - 70% of our clients in Mumbai prefer Japanese cuisine.” I asked him if they have to blemish the authenticity of the cuisine in order to suit the local palette. “The Japanese palette is unique in taste and its taste is not forgotten here.” It was good to hear; after tasting our own version of Chinese over the years it was nice to see people taking interest in something authentic. A lot of their clients are expats and there are some Japanese people who are regulars here. It’s regular food for them albeit in a much fancy place.

I was informed that Japanese cuisine is heavily garlic based with added shichimi - a common spice mixture. Is it difficult to find the ingredients in India? “Not really, most of our fish

particularly the Norwegian Salmon fish is imported. The sea-weeds are available through a supplier.” A very important ingredient in Sushi is the sticky rice, something common in Japan. “It is available here, but takes a long time to cook.” The Japanese are predominantly non-vegetarian with their diet, what about some vegetarian folks who might come here? There are food items for them too - a spicy avocado based recipe is particularly famous. The place does not serve any vegetarian sushi but can make a custom order by replacing fish with tofu - if a customer demanded.

Presentation is an important aspect of a dining experience. A lot of cultures all over the world are known for dining etiquette, even Japan. While as the consumer it is your job to be polite, respectful and not choosy; the hosts take great pride in serving or rather presenting the food. I’ve always admired the Japanese design sensibilities, very minimalist not too gaudy. While speaking to some of the staff at the restaurant I asked about the same. Some of them were quick to point out that while Japanese food takes least time to cook, it has to be decorated on the platter with precision. And not just the food, the same applies to the drinks too. Sake, a Japanese rice wine, is taken very often as a side order and is pretty good for

digestion. That is definitely one less thing to worry about after a meal out.

Most of the restaurants in the country which serve Japanese food get the chefs from abroad. I met Shiro’s Filipino chef who showed is some culinary tricks by juggling some cutlery around. It was impressive indeed. And it was time for me to demonstrate a vanishing act myself as the place was slowly getting crowded.

I wanted to take a look at some famous book stores in a hope to find manga in Mumbai. There were graphic novels - a particular series about Buddha - but no manga, not even the translated ones. But, I did hear about a particularly interesting person in Bangalore who once ran a manga cafe - coffee and manga, now that is an alien yet an intriguing concept.

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BANGALOREWatermelon

FINALLY IN THE LAND OF KSHITZ ANAND

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FINALLY IN THE LAND OF KSHITZ ANAND

BANGALOREWatermelon

Bangalore in school textBooks is called ‘the garden city of india’. the actuality is not far off - it is By far the greenest metropolitan city that i have Been to recently. home to some of the most prestigious educational and research institutes, Bangalore has, over time, metamorphosed to an it huB By exporting services in the relevant sector and seeing a lot of people make it Big in the city.

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Thomas Dayal, a resident of Bangalore, worked in Japan for over 10 years. His exposure to the Japanese pop-culture, particularly manga, drove him into opening a cafe where one can read comics. Established in 2004, Com-ics Cafe was the first and only kind of cafe in India with a collection of over 1500 comics, both American and Eng-lish translations of Japanese Manga. It was ideal place where one would find the latest comics.

We had a chance to speak to Mr. Thomas Dayal, who had to close it down recently. Here’s a paraphrased transcript of the interview with him.

Ques. How did you get introduced to the Japanese Culture?Thomas: I was introduced to the Japa-nese Culture a long time back. I was worked in Japan for close to 10 years and hence got to get a really close look at the Japanese Culture.

Ques. How did the idea of coming up with Comics Café come about?Thomas:I was really impressed with the Japanes culture, and wanted to start in touch with the culture even when I moved back to India. That is when the idea of starting Comics cafe Bangalore in happened. It was the first and only kind of cafe in India, and would aim to showcase artifacts that symbolize Japanese culture. In our case we primarily focused on Comics and in particular Manga.

Ques. So when and where did you de-cide to start the café?Thomas: The café was started way back in 2004 and in the Kormangala area, which was near to the Christ Col-lege (Now Christ University). The idea was that we wanted to connect with the students of the college primarily. We propose the idea to out Japanese Director, who agreed to invest in the place.

Ques. Tell us a bit more on the chal-lenges faced by you how you went about getting the stocks?Thomas: See, in India the challenge for us was to have content in the form

that could be consumed easily. That meant that we had to get the comics in English. Those days, it was not too easy to purchase Japanese comics in India (it is not very easy today too). So we relied on importing the com-ics from abroad. We reached out to places in Singapore, USA, Canada and Japan.

Ques.You mention that you shifted location from Kormangala to a multi-plex mall. What was the reason behind this?Thomas: From where we started, we were very successful in getting a dedi-cated audience, but it was still limited to the college crowd. This meant that the place was not functioning well dur-ing the non-college days and holidays. So we decide strategically to move to a place where there would be more foot-fall and it is still not too far from the college crowd. We thus shifted to the Gopalan Arcade Mall on Mysore road, which would get more crowds to come to the store, not being limited to only college crowd. The crowd did comprise of different kind of people. In hindsight, that move could have been a wrong step and responsible to some extent for our closure.

Ques. Could you please elaborate on how that move did not help much?Thomas: The place was close to the colleges like Bangalore University and other colleges. Our café in the mall, did have visitors, but not many were interested in reading. Being a café, a lot of people came to just have a drink. Also we had mannequins dressed up as real life characters from the Man-ga, so it attracted people, but people came more to see the stuff, than read the available comics.

Ques. How did you handle this situa-tion?Thomas:: See, our main intention was that people spend time in the café reading Manga. We tried all sort of things to generate that interest in reading amongst the people. We also introduce American comics (and later Indian too) to have more people spend time.

Ques.You mention about spending time, why do you think that is impor-tant?Thomas: We had close to 1500 Manga at one point of time in our collection, which were collected from different countries as I have mentioned ear-lier. In order to get an understanding of the culture, you needed to spend more time . The café was designed to be like that, where people could come and read up as many Manga as they want. We had entire series’ also, which generally take more time to finish.

Ques. How did you end up modifying the café from its original avatar?Thomas: We modified the café to make it a Gaming + Manga+ Internet Café. We also provided packages like free drink with a certain time usage of internet and playing games. These were strategies to increase their time spent in the café, in the hope that they would end up reading more Manga. Later on we also started to have Indian comics.

Ques. What kind of affect did Manga have on the audience who were read-ing it? Did you see the Manga influ-encing people in the way they dressed or spoke or their habits?Thomas:: Well, we did have a few loyal customers and huge Manga fans, who would be eagerly waiting for us to up-date our collection. They would spend hours in our café exploring the collec-tions, at times from more than half a day.

Ques. Did you see any theme that was popular in Particular amongst the people who visited the café?Thomas: No, not really. In general peo-ple were interested more in the Fanta-sy stuff, but nothing in particular.

Ques. How did you financially sustain the café?Thomas: We were under severe finan-cial stress too. It is important to note that although we did have a lot of people interested in taking the comics out for rental, we did not do that. So we lost out on revenue on that. Selling the comics were also not an option,

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as with the importing charges etc, we would have to price the comics some-where in the range of Rs 400-800 per copy, and that is a lot in the Indian context. Moreover, if we are looking at a series, the price could easily go into thousands.

Ques. What do you think about the role of Internet here?Thomas: These days, a lot of people are reading up Manga by download-

ing from the internet directly. That was another factor in we getting lesser enthusiastic readers to be physically present in the store. So while the in-ternet is good to spread the culture, maybe we need to rethink about how to make best use of it to revive our café.

Ques. What is the present state of the stock of Manga that you had col-lected?

Thomas: We are now looking at re-launching the venture, but in a dif-ferent way. We are thinking of hav-ing more like a movable exhibit, that we would take to different locations within Bangalore and other parts of the country. We are in talks with the Bangalore Anime Club in this regard, and also looking for other patrons to support us.

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PASCHIM BANGA

Vol. - 1. 1937

One Paisa

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Paschim Banga 2011The city of Kolkata served as the capi-tal of India up until 1911. Once it was the center for art, culture, education and science but has seen a lot of stag-nation since India’s independence in 1947. Somewhere in the crowded city I managed to locate Moumita Paul, an independent video game developer who runs her own studio and devel-ops Japanese Role Playing Games.

A little background information. Tra-ditional Role Playing Games were played on tabletops. Each participant assumed the ‘role’ of a character with-in a narrative. These characters have specific attributes and traits which define their approach to issues or ob-stacles present in the narrative. Most of these narratives often take place in fantastical worlds,, like the Lord of the Rings, but that has seen a lot of change lately.

During the 1980s, western Role Play-ing Games (popularly known as RPGs) gained a lot of attention in Japan. This soon led some Japanese minds to develop their own narratives and characters eventually giving birth to Japanese RPGs, commonly known as JRPGs. Over the years JRPGs have de-veloped their own identity and a fan following all over the world. RPGs and JRPGs have made a presence on com-puters and video game consoles giv-ing them a completely different feel. They now boast of visually detailed 3D fantasy worlds where the player can move his character around.

The success of JRPGs have lead Jap-anese designers use a different ap-proach than western RPGs. Cultur-ally, in this day there are some rather fundamental differences between Japanese and Western Role Playing Games.

While western RPGs have common traits such as dark themed storylines, older characters, non-linear open worlds to explore; most JRPGs use bright well-lit worlds, anime styled younger characters and linear storylines. One of the most prominent differ-ences is the battle system in both styles. Tradition-ally western RPGs made

use of turn based combat (like Chess) but these days most of them seem to shift towards realtime combat. JRPGs, however, have deep turn based sys-tem which are popular to this day.

I had a chance to interview Moumita over email, my least preferred meth-od, where she talks about her inspi-rations, preferences for JRPGs and briefly touches the state of an Indian independent developer.

How did Overcloud 9 start? It was founded by me in late 2009 as an expansion to my game walkthrough writing endeavours. Last July we got it registered as a sole proprietorship.

How did you get interested in game design/development? Which games were your inspirations?

Some of the RPGs I used to play had deep story lines and really nice bal-ance of puzzles and combat system. But doing my own game wasn’t still

never my priority nor desire at that time. I was doing an ordinary job and had only enough time to write free walkthroughs for the RPGs I liked. Af-ter working with Gamezebo, I saw the potential in selling games along with the free walkthroughs. After starting to sell other developers games and talking with them, I realized that hav-ing one’s own product is more viable in this business. RpgmakerVX was a simple engine to start with and not a difficult one to learn. Since by that time, I had already developed my own base of loyal customers, I thought of giving development a try. I researched a lot on marketing, and designed the game entirely based on what my cus-tomers want. Which is why it gained quick success .

What is it about JRPGs that appeals to you most?

I hate real time battles, turn based battles give me more freedom and time to choose my moves. JRPGs hap-

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pened to be a part of all the games I used to play, it wasn’t a conscious choice. I like the anime style of charac-ters in JRPGs, it has left a permanent mark on my choice of art style when creating characters for my past and future games.

What responsibilities in the develop-ment cycle do you handle for Over-Cloud9? e.g Design, Programming, Art etc.

I usually design games and some ba-sic artwork. For my first game, I had to do some basic programming also. But now we have tied up with Phantasm Games studio and using their engine and programming expertise to de-velop better games for PC and Xbox platform.

Does OverCloud9 also market and sell games by other developers?

Yes, that is how it began. But the site is quite niche selling only RPG games.

What do you think the state of and Indian indie developer is at this time? How has it changed since you first started making games?

Honestly speaking, the state of in-die developers in India is sad as most struggle to make ends meet and find it difficult to balance between building a network in the industry and developing games. In fact, there aren’t many indie developers in India and those who are there seldom market their games in India as there is not much awareness in the Indian gaming scene.

What sort of games do you enjoy play-ing personally?

I usually play casual games of all genres personally. I like trying newer varieties, especially if the game play is new and unique.

Do you think we need an eco-system among indie developers in the coun-try to share ideas,designs, tools etc.?

Yes and it is slowly developing. We have already created a group on Fa-cebook to keep in touch and share ideas, etc and the results have been positive.

Have you ever collaborated with other developers, both in India and abroad?

Yes, I am in touch with many develop-ers mainly outside India and currently developing games in collaboration with an Indian developer already.

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SILIGURIGANGTOK KURSEONGKALIMPONGDARJEELINGTEESTA Gangtok is the capital and largest town of

the Indian state of Sikkim. Gangtok is located in the Shivalik Hills of the eastern Himalayan range, at an altitude of 1,437 metres (4,715 ft). Gangtok is at the centre of Sikkim’s tourism industry.Darjeeling is a Himalayan town in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is inter-nationally renowned as a tourist destination, along with for its tea industry and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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The rise of Japanese popular culture has been one of the undeniable global phenomena of the twenty first century. Japanese anime (animation), manga (comic books) and Japanese visual culture have become youth favorites in-ternationally; Japanese video games and television series claim devoted followings from India to Europe; Godzilla, Pokémon, Mario, etc are internationally recognized cultural icons; sushi is readily available from coast to coast; Japa-nese fashion defines chic in Asia as well as Europe.

Over most of the past century, the impact of Japanese cul-ture has been figured in terms of elite art forms. In the late nineteenth century, ukiyo-e woodblock prints famously inspired the French Impressionists; in the early twentieth century, Japanese aesthetics fascinated architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright; after World War II, big city art houses screened the cerebral works of directors Akira Kurosawa and Ozu Yasujiro. Many scholars have attempted to under-stand postwar Japanese popular culture from a historical perspective, tracing the origins of forms like manga back to the Japanese graphic traditions of illustrated literary manuscripts and woodblock prints. Many artists argue for the origin point for the phenomenal rise in the Japa-nese popular culture to the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The influential artist Murakami Takashi has argued that the post war legacies has fallen to the unre-solved tensions of the post war period. Thus, in popular cinema, manga, anime, video games and Avant garde art,

we see a compulsive reiteration of apocalypse, nuclear mu-tation, grotesque metamorphosis, technological escapism, masculine insecurity, social vulnerability, and other themes and imageries. The political scientist Joseph Nye has ar-gued that phenomena like the global embrace of Japanese pop can give nations ‘soft power’ in international affairs as opposed to the coercive ‘hard power’ of military and eco-nomic capabilities.

This Project “Finding Mario” is a visual research project which aims to define the various elements of the Japanese visual culture and their influence of the current and future generation of Indians. Another important feature, that the project will cover, will be to determine the status of this influence in modern times and scheme how this influence can be implemented in order to boost the cultural relations between Japan and India. Many Indians were introduced to Japanese visual culture during adolescence through video games, particularly Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers, hence the title of the project. A part of the project will include meeting independent as well as established developers, gaming enthusiasts – including journalists, general gamers, publishers, distributors & sellers – artists, animators and filmmakers. This will help us find out how they have been influenced in their respective hobbies and professions. The many surveys, which will be part of the final outcome, will also map the consumerist aspect of the Japanese visual culture.

the otaku generation

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The “Finding Mario” project was researched over the follow-ing locations in the East; namely Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gangtok. Here, lays a general overview of these places:

Walking down the street, one might encounter girls with Hello Kitty backpacks and boys with Pokémon cards. Then they will see teenagers with their Sony Minidisc players and adults with their Toyota cars. Everywhere around these small townships of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Gangtok the Japanese are making their presence known. The number of Japanese imports is growing steadily each year and the demand for Japanese goods is increasing with it. From cars and electronics to food, toys, design and animation, the Japanese influence just keeps growing. In all of its forms, Japanese cultural export has slowly begun to find its way here to India, and in the process, has managed to change the way some of us live our mediated lives, whether we are aware of it or not. Over the past two to three years, not only has this media become more accessible, but also it has become increasingly more important to our cultural

development as a society.Live entertainment, Japanese style

Karaoke is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music (and/or a music video) using a microphone and pub-lic address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol or changing color and/or music video images, to guide the singer. Dar-jeeling, Kalimpong and Gangtok boasts of a number of new bars with Karaoke, which is the latest talk of the town. This is another form of Japanese entertainment which is slowly creeping its way into Indian culture at this time. The num-ber one most popular hobby in Japan had found its way to Indian nightlife, and people can’t get enough.

VideogamesA part of the research comprised of a survey conducted on videogames and more specifically the famous character of

The J-Pop Generation.

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Mario and memories of the game with different sections of the population from various age groups ranging from children to adults.

Mario is arguably the single largest character which the videogames has produced. The Mario tune still rings a bell amongst children and adults alike. An astounding 24 of the 25 people interviewed in the area had fond memories of the game and have still have their game cartridge pre-served. Many agreed of how the game introduced them to the world of gaming.

Japanese videogame companies had dominated the mar-ket for the better part of last two decades and nothing had changed. Electronics giant Sony had entered the market in 1995 with the introduction of the venerable Play station home console system, and Nintendo and Sega had re-mained profitable with the releases of the N64 and Saturn, respectively. Videogames had become synonymous with Japan, and the eastern-influence, in the consciousness of most Indians by the mid-90s. A video game “culture” had rapidly emerged domestically, with the surge of Japanese game makers leading the charge. An array of videogame parlors offering enthusiast gamers a chance to play their favorite games opened. Games like Pro Evolution Soccer, Tekken, etc found religious following among the youth.

In a series of surveys conducted, I got rather interesting takes on Videogames. As one of the participants, Sonam Dorjey said every time he got pocket money, the first thing he did was buy a new videogame cassette (cartridge). An-other participant, Vivek Thami , a professional DJ in Gang-tok had remixed the Mario jingle. Omar Rashid, a Kashmiri migrant staying in Darjeeling had collected over 1000 vid-eogame titles and wanted his collection to grow bigger and better. I remember how every gamer in these towns owed greatly to Mario for introducing them to this new world of videogames.

AnimeOver the past few decades the Japanese anime has reached out to the young generations of these towns and has claimed devoted followings. Any schoolyard you go to in these towns, the kids know the names of Goku, Gohan and Vegita - fictional anime characters with supernatural martial art abilities made up by Japanese writers and pop-ularized around the globe. The influence of anime and Man-ga (for the uninitiated, anime meaning animation, Manga referring to a Japanese graphic novel somewhat different from a typical comic) exists and its influence is immense in the Eastern part of the country. In a survey conducted, many acclaimed that video games were instrumental in in-troducing them to the world of anime and manga. Anime products like Dragonballz key chains to Doremon soft toys are hugely popular among the masses. The folks in the town consider the Japanese anime and

manga as part of something cutting edge, something noveau in terms of our appreciation and fascination with Japanese pop culture in regards to anime and manga. However, most people still think “Pokemon= Anime” and “Manga= Japanese Language American Comic Books“. Not only does the general public still have no clue as to the scope and variety of anime, and how manga is nothing like American comics, the entire concept of Japanese popular culture, with it’s fashion, food, music, and entertainment, is still aways off from being commonplace.

Fashion The Japanese fashion revolution began in the 80s with de-signers like Issey Miyake, Kohji Kamamoto and Comme de Garcons. And it has completely extended now with brands like Uniqlo, Kenz and Muji. Known for their accomplished mixed and matched outfits, their strong emphasis on col-or and their advance in their tastes in comparison to the Western world, Japanese have allowed designers to bring to the Westernized fashion world a new, creative, unique and colorful look that wasn’t present before: A new look that comes challenging the old monotone shades and similarity that was predominating. There are some young emerging designers that are ambitions and hoping to fol-low the footsteps of previous Japanese designers such as Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo that have excelled in the Fashion domain and continue to impress and influence the western world with new, innovative and unique trends.

Japanese fashion trends have become popular in the hills recently, it all began with hairstyling and followed by the pirated Korean and Japanese labels which became popu-lar in these towns. In fact, be it symptomatic of an identity crisis or more simply the desire to adopt fashion made by and for people whose looks the youth of the North East can easily identify with.

MoviesThe cinema of Japan has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film in-dustries in the world – currently the fourth largest by num-ber of feature films produced. Japanese movies have a long and decorated history, stretching back to before the 1930s when silent films were most common. Multiple genres have developed from the early film productions in Japan, which were largely based on traditional period and stage plays. The advent of anime, horror, monster films, and jidaigeki period films has all made profound impacts of the cinema in both Japan and the rest of the world.

Movies are an essential force with which the people of an area can identify with the culture of a country. The Japa-nese movies cult is small but a very strong one. Films like Grudge, Cairo, Shutter, Crows are some of the Japanese films which have become popular in the video libraries in the recent days.

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Boss

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Tactical Espionage Action

Metal GeaR Solid

RETROSPECTIVE

In 1987 Konami released the first Metal Gear game, designed by Hideo Kojima. Little did he know that it would go on to become one of the most successful exports of Ja-pan in the gaming world and a couple of decades later Kojima himself would become, arguably, the most popular Japanese video game designer.

The game was different, it was a departure from the usual. It laid heavy impetus on stealth and avoidance, as a player you had to avoid enemies rather than kill them. Metal Gear, was, what one can consider, a very successful title for the developers. In the coming years this success spawned 2 sequels, Snake’s Revenge and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake with Kojima resuming the design responsibilities for the latter. It wasn’t until 1998 fans saw the first glimpse of the next game, Metal Gear Solid, a game which would define the series we know today.

Hideo Kojima has been called many things; ‘a pacifist’ clearly being the most common due to the theme of Metal Gear series - the title referring to a fictional bipedal robot carrying nuclear weaponry. Some have even compared Kojima’s vision to a paranoid view of biotechnology. The tone of all games in the series refers to the Japanese me-dia of the later part of the 20th century - Japan being the only recipient of a nuclear attack during the second World War. The elements of stealth in the gameplay and themes of moral implications of genetic engineering, corruption and domination of private military organisations and of course impact of a nuclear proliferation clearly point towards a view which can be described as a critique of modernisation and rapid industrial growth in Japan.

The popularity of the series also stems from heavy use of cinematic cut-scenes as a storytelling device. Kojima’s influence have ranged from James Bond to western themed films. In one of the articles he wrote for the official Playstation magazine Koji-ma mentioned, “The 007 series is what influenced me the most regarding the birth of MGS. The nucleus of the idea of MGS - a secret mission on which hangs the fate of the world, spy-versus-spy, and espionage action - is all there in 007. Were it not for 007 films, modern action films would not be as they are. And without 007, there would have been no MGS.” This article is one of many which, towards the end, briefly touched on his vision for the game and his desire and a request to continue the legacy for a very long time.

Metal Gear Solid carried the title of Tactical Espionage Action. For a game branded as an action-adventure title, it revolutionised the genre with the stealth mechanic. Gamers

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who had been fed with the mantra of killing every enemy in a game were made to patiently analyse their surroundings and cleverly maneuver the character, Solid Snake, around and past it. Snake, a battlefield veteran, is equipped with codec, an ear implant which lets him communicate with majority of the characters. As the story progresses the game cleverly reveals certain twists and some memorable boss fights; many of which are still rated as the best in the history of gaming.

Since the release of Metal Gear Solid in 1998, the series has come a long way. Kojima and his team have constantly pushed the hardware these games are designed for, not just the graphics but the content as well. He credits himself as ‘game director’ and rightfully so, he is no short of an auteur. The plot of each game unfurls through masterfully directed and famously lengthy cinematic cutscenes. Storylines are riddled with complex themes such as genetic engineering, existentialism, artificial intelligence, technological singular-ity and subjective reality. Kojima has often broken the fouth

wall in an attempt to include humor in the series which has often been a point of discussion and debate among fans.

Metal Gear Solid was a very successful game and inspired a sequel Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty* which was re-leased for the Playstation 2 on November, 2001 and found its way to the XBox platform about a year later. A new and powerful hardware allowed Kojima’s team to broaden their scope and make things bigger, and better. The game looked better, the enemy AI was further improved and stealth to expanded to a level where the entire game, in-cluding the boss fights, could be cleared without causing a single death. *popularly referred as MGS 2

The game’s development suffered minor setbacks and changes following the September 11 attacks and tension in the Middle East. The story, which initially dealt with nu-clear weapon storage in Iraq and Iran had to be changed. Eventually MGS 2 released to universal critical acclaim and unprecedented commercial success and was referred to as

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the first postmodern video game. It was, however, not without controversies.

The change in protagonist, from the masculine Snake to a somewhat androgynous Raiden was a key point of debate among many fans. From the developers, the decision was a deliberate one. Yoji Shinkawa, the art director of the series, said in an interview, “from the very beginning of the planning process, Raiden was to be a “unisexual” character. This was to all both male and fe-male gamers to relate to this character without the ap-pearance being an obstacle. Making players relate to a character from an appear-ance standpoint might have its pros and cons, but that is what we decided to do.”

It did not end there. Many gamers complained about the length of cutscenes and codec dialogue sections. The story was criticised to be overly complicated and disjointed at several areas. Something which still re-mains a point of contention among the fans and critics.

Nonetheless, the accolades have earned MGS 2 a place in the Smithsonian American Museum’s “The Art of Video Games” exhibition which will take place in 2012.

Kojima carefully addressed the concerns with MGS 2 and released Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in November 2004, exclusively for the Playstation 2. This game, set in the Cold War era Soviet Russia, acted as a prequel to the series. Among the chief concerns addressed, the prequel had a new protagonist, Naked Snake. His resemblance with Solid Snake was a departure from Raiden which pleased the critics. The script was also altered to be much ground-ed, avoiding the complicated philosophical babble which was one of the issues with MGS 2.

Snake Eater retained the fundamental mechanics of the series. Despite the availability of a multitude of weaponry, stealth remained the primary focus of gameplay. The game setting, a rain forest, brought survivalism tactics as part of

the design. New features were included such as a stamina gauze - which needs to be replenished by eating and the injury treatment system - which kept track of injuries and made the player treat them to avoid further complications. This brought in a new set of challenges for the players to encounter.

Snake Eater was initially chosen to be developed for the Playstation 3. Delays in the production of the hardware made Konami shift the platform to Playstaion 2. Whith that, the team faced several challenges. The earlier Metal Gear games took place indoors, a rain-forest setting was a departure from these and took a of toll on the Playstation 2 hardware. In an interview Kojima briefly touched on these issues, “Since you’re in the jungle there are no flat surfaces, so the whole collision thing, walking above these rocks and mounds is really tough. We could not use the collision en-gine from the previous game. Another problem with that is the motion capture, setting it up so people could walk over these mounds.”

Metal Gear Solid 3 released to, once again, critical acclaim. Commercially, it wasn’t as successful as MGS 2 but Konami tasted plently of success with the game and pointed their attention to the handheld device, the Playstation Portable also known as the PSP.

Konami had developed two titles for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Acid and Metal Gear Solid: Acid 2. They are consid-ered spin-off to the original franchise and feature com-pletely new gameplay mechanics; collectible trading cards based gameplay as opposed to the action adventure stealth based.The next PSP game, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops had elements of the traditional Metal Gear gameplay me-chanics. Kojima was not involved in any of these, he was doing something bigger, working on the first Metal Gear game for the next generation console - the Playstation 3.

The year 2005 saw birth of Kojima Productions, a subsidiary of Konami. The purpose of this offshoot was to let Kojima make games and relieve him of managerial responsibilities that he held at Konami. Every Metal Gear game developed after April 2005 bears the Kojima Productions seal, a logo which is a badge from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

Meral Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (MGS4) was first announced in 2005 as a Playstation exclusive title. This ex-clusivity was questioned during the development and even after the game was actually released. It was released in June 2008 to, you guessed it, widespread critical acclaim. The plot, once again, involved Solid Snake, the protagonist from the first Metal Gear Solid. The game takes place 9 years after the events of the same game. The introduction of a new platform, a new console brought new changes to the game. The overhead view was now replaced by a 3D camera control, something which was long desired by the fans. The protagonist, Solid Snake, got access to some new

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gadgets. But the biggest change was the amount of content in the game - something the fans will either relish or even abhor after playing it.

Commercially, MGS4 was a very successful title, both for Konami and for Sony. It, singlehandedly, managed to push a lot of Playstation 3 consoles and was considered by many as a killer app for the console. Graphically the game managed to look better than most games in the era and is still considered one of the best looking titles for the console. There were minor brickbats related to length of cutscenes, a sense of ennui following some chapters and the ending - which was considered sad and depressing by some., and the fact that the game alone was incapable of attracting new fans.

MGS4 included a starter pack for Metal Gear Online, the first game in the series to feature any multiplayer component. Metal Gear Online made use of the pipularity of some exisiting mechanics while It utilized several mechanics from the series to a hybrid which would be fun in an online multiplayer environment. Konami released 3 expansion packs after the release of the starter kit of the game.

The next major title in the franchise is expected to release next year. Metal Gear Rising will once again feature Raiden - one of the main protagonists from Metal Gear Solid 2. Based on the early reports and news this it appears different from a typical Metal Gear game. Towards the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden was transformed into a cyborg ninja - MGS: Rising continues from the events beyond that time till MGS 4. The former punch line of the series, ‘Tactical Espionage Action’ has been replaced to ‘Lightning Bolt Action.’ The gameplay style has changed from evasive stealth to hunting stealth. However, for fans of the series, there will be ways to complete individual levels and the game itself without killing a single person.

Hideo Kojima’s influence, which drive his designs and stories, are well known. Having spent over 2 decades in the industry he is nothing short of an influence himself. There have been criticisms against his style of a narrative - he has accepted them and risen above by maintaining a consistency with that style. That certainly makes him synonymous with an auteur - maybe a video game auteur.

“Gameplay is always fundamental. Halo, BioShock - I see their approach and I think they are brilliant in some ways, but I still feel they still lack a kind of a deeper storyline or the expression of the feelings of the characters. I do have plans of how I should approach this and get around it. In MGS4, yes, I put everything in the cut sequences, which I kind of regret to some extent, because maybe there is a new approach which I should think about. I’m always thinking about it - making it interactive but at the same time telling the story part and the drama even more emotionally. I would like to take that approach, which I am still working on. “

- Hideo Kojima. Sourced from Video Games Daily’s exclusive Hideo Kojima interview published in 2008.

Travelling next to looking at Indo-Japan Religion Exchange

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INDO -JAPAN RELIGION EXCHANGE

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The Silk Road introduced Buddhism to the far-east. First from India to China around the 1st Century and from China to Japan in the middle of the 2nd Century, CE. By the turn of the next

century, Buddhism had firmly established itself in Japan with almost the entire populace adhering to bukkyō - from butsu (Buddha) and kyō (Teachings).

The Beginnings of Buddhism Buddhism originated in India in the 6th century BC. Its origins lie in the story of Prince Siddhārtha Gautama born to King Śuddhodana, leader of the Shakya clan and Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī). Soon after the Queen became pregnant, she traveled to her fathers kingdom, but Siddhārtha was born on the way in Lumbini, now in modern day Nepal.

Upon Siddhārtha’s birth, a prophecy was made by the ascetic Asita, who predicted that Siddhartha would renounce the throne to become a spiritual leader were he to contemplate human suffering. King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, decided to keep him from human suffering and shielded him from religious teachings.

As Siddhārtha grew older, he took active involvement in day to day activities of the state and one day decided to go and meet his subjects.Despite his father’s efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhārtha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome ageing, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic. Aboard his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. Thus began Siddhārtha’s journey to Enlightenment.

Sitting below the Bodhi tree and having taken a vow never to arise until he had found the cause of human suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it, Siddhārtha, at age 39, finally achieved Enlightenment. After 49 days of meditation, he became “Gautama Buddha” or the “Awakened One”.

The Buddha, having achieved enlightenment, decided to teach his Dharma to others and traveled to Vārānasī where he delivered his first sermon to his five companions. Thus the first Sangha was formed. The Buddha for the remaining 45 years of his life, traveled the Gangetic Plains, which is now comprised of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Southern Nepal, and spread his Dharma. His teachings were accepted by many and the the number of followers grew into the thousands.

The Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandoned his earthly body at age 80.

The Spread of Buddhism in IndiaBuddhism spread across India in the 5th and 6th century, BCE. As commerce and cash became increasingly important in a system of barter and trading, the new generation of merchants and traders found buddhist ethics and moral teachings attractive compared to the prevailing brahmin priesthood influenced Hinduism that prevailed in India at that time.As these Merchants and traders traveled, they spread their faith.

The real popularity and the golden period of Buddhism in India is said to have been during the rule of King Asoka of the Mauryan dynasty. King Asoka converted himself into Buddhism after the battle of Kalinga in which he himself had led his forces. Asoka had won the battle and while rejoicing his victory he saw the battlefield and was moved by the the number of bodies strewn there and the helpless wails of the kith and kin of the dead. Asoka was the ruler of the Maurya empire and his adopted religion spread across the entire Indian subcontinent from modern day Afghanistan to the eastern Indian state of Assam. Thus during Asoka’s rule, Buddhism became the mainstream religion of the Indian subcontinent.

Introduction of Buddhism to Oriental AsiaOut of the two main divisions of Buddhism, Mahayana (Vast Vehicle, stresses working to become a fully enlightened Buddha) and Hinayana (Modest Vehicle, emphasizes personal liberation), Mahayana Buddhism spread out of India to Oriental Asia. It spread mainly along the silk road with the aforementioned traders to China in the 2nd Century, CE, in the 6th Century CE, to Korea and to Japan.

Spread of Buddhism in JapanWhile Buddhism was welcomed by the ruling nobles as Japan’s new state religion, it did not initially spread among the common people due to its complex theories.There were also a few initial conflicts with Shinto, Japan’s native religion. The two religions were soon able to co-exist and even complement each other.

During the Nara Period, the great Buddhist monasteries in the capital Nara, such as Todaiji, gained strong political influence and were one of the reasons for the government to move the capital to Nagaoka in 784 and then to Kyoto

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in 794. Nevertheless, the problem of politically ambitious and militant monasteries remained a main issue for the governments over many centuries of Japanese history.

During the early Heian Period, two new Buddhist sects were introduced from China: the Tendai sect in 805 by Saicho and the Shingon sect in 806 by Kukai. More sects later branched off the Tendai sect. Among these, the most important ones are mentioned below:

In 1175, the Jodo sect (Pure Land sect) was founded by Honen. It found followers among all different social classes since its theories were simple and based on the principle that everybody can achieve salvation by strongly believing in the Buddha Amida. In 1224, the Jodo-Shinshu (True Pure Land sect) was founded by Honen’s successor Shinran. The Jodo sects continue to have millions of followers today.

In 1191, the Zen sect was introduced from China. Its complicated theories were popular particularly among the members of the military class. According to Zen teachings, one can achieve self enlightenment through meditation and discipline. At present, Zen seems to enjoy a greater popularity overseas than within Japan.

The Lotus Hokke or Nichiren sect, was founded by Nichiren in 1253. The sect was exceptional due to its intolerant stance towards other Buddhist sects. Nichiren Buddhism still has many millions of followers today, and several “new religions” are based on Nichiren’s teachings.

Buddhism in Modern JapanDuring the last 50 years, the evolution of Buddhism has been closely linked to Japan’s history. The grip of the government during the Second World War over Buddhist institutions was rigid, and any writings in which Buddhism was placed above the authority of the state or the emperor were suppressed. The only opposition to this came from the Soka-gakkai, founded in 1930 as a non-religious society of teachers, and they were severely persecuted. Since the end of the war, Buddhism in Japan has once again revived, and there has been the foundation of many new sects, along with an ongoing reinvigoration as a result from sustained contacts with other peoples and cultures. Japanese Zen has also been successfully exported to many Western countries, in particular North America.

Nowadays, about 90 million people consider themselves Buddhists in Japan. However, the religion does not directly affect the everyday life of the average Japanese very strongly. Funerals are usually carried out in a Buddhist way, and many households keep a small house altar in order to pay respect to their ancestors.

Buddhism ties India and Japan closely together unlike any other cultural element between the two nations, and it may just be the biggest cultural export of India to Japan.

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JAPANESE Video Games, India and You

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Being so young in the gaming industry, I owe a great per-sonal deal to the many Japanese minds who helped shaped the industry as we know it today. From the look, sound, feel and overall ingenuity that goes into designing them, Japa-nese game design provided the foundation of how we view and play today’s greatest entertainment-fueled software. Some of the biggest known, breathing legends can be pin-pointed a few decades back based on their earlier work; Shigeru Miyamoto with the Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda series; Hideo Kojima with Metal Gear; Hironobu Saka-guchi with Final Fantasy...

Whereas in today’s competitive market, the creative back-ing of Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil, Devil May Cry), Goichi Suda aka “Suda 51” (Killer 7, No More Heroes), and Akira Yamaoka (long-time composer of Konami’s Silent Hill) team up with Massimo Guarini (Rainbow Six) to deliver a title utilizing the Unreal Engine 3, a popular game engine technology developed by American-company Epic Games. That title was Shadows of the Damned, which was pub-lished by Electronic Arts and released in June of 2011 for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3. And while unfortunately it didn’t meet any real commercial success, it offered an interesting, out-of-this-world experience that is not as often seen on today’s gaming. And it was accom-plished through the visions of people who came from vari-ous backgrounds; a sort of “cross-cultural” experiment with some of the best talent the industry has to offer.

So consider this, that acquiring Japanese animated shows and movies have become ridiculously easy over the past decade. However, these means usually entail various le-gal implications that for the most part, don’t affect Indian fans in the sum of things. For those who simply want to purchase Anime DVDs legally, you’ll need to bank on web-sites shipping from outside of India (assuming you don’t get pressed with extra charges from customs). That, or just record what you like from Animax (assuming your cable provider supplies it) or follow online streams through le-gitimate distributors (assuming your connection doesn’t suck). It wasn’t until a few months ago, that I found out a company based in Mumbai by the name of Alliance Media & Entertainment was distributing a handful of films pro-duced by Studio Ghibli on DVDs. And apparently, they’ve been doing this since late 2008. Nearly three years till now, despite knowing so many fans of the medium, walking into a Music Planet on a random day proved more virtuous for my greedy needs.

By comparison, purchasing Japanese oriented games le-gally have been much easier and more prevalent in the past few years. Thanks to local distributors such as Milestone Interactive and e-Xpress Interactive, we are seeing a high number of these making a decent mark for store space and online retailers. But not all Indians may be aware of these trends. For example, games produced and developed by Square Enix for all major consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2)

JAPANESE Video Games, India and You

EXPLORING THE REALM OF JAPANESE GAMING IN INDIA

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as well as the Playstation Portable are readily available through physical and online retail. These games include the likes of Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and more recently, The 3rd Birthday. For those looking for extra incentive, you’ll be given the “special edition” packaging for PSP specific-games. These special editions may come with goodies such as an art booklet, downloable codes, lithographs, or a music CD.

Depending on the publisher and distributor, demand for such titles can vary. Sometimes, it’s more difficult to ac-quire Japanese games that have been out in the Indian market for much longer. Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles, a stun-

ning shooter mixed with turn-based strategy and role-playing elements, and Vanquish, another action packed titled heralded by Shinji Mikami, are two such games. There are cases, however, where distributors can reprint olders gem and have them locally manufactured and packaged for our convenience, at a much cheaper cost. A bevy of such games are primarily found on the Playstation 2, and will even include one-on-one fighting games based on seri-alized anime series such as Naruto and Dragon Ball Z.

You may have noticed that Nintendo properties have been somewhat ignored here. While their products are avail-able in both legal chains and gray market areas, Nintendo themselves have no official presence in India. And perhaps

‘Naruto brought new freshness to the Japanese Anime Industry and created a massive following across the world’

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because of this, those handling the imports of Nintendo products to India price their wares at an exuberant rate. The recently released Nintendo 3DS handheld, the successor to the popular Nintendo DS and home to many wonderful and quirky Japanese games such as Rhythm Heaven, Dragon Quest IX, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (and that’s not including Nintendo’s own stable), sells here for nearly double the US MRP.

Even if you could afford to spend so much money on them, consistent local software releases and after-service support is still very exceptional. It’s a shame, as I feel the consumer is losing out on some great experiences and hopefully within a year or two’s time, we’ll see a gradual improvement much

like we did with Sony’s and Microsoft’s gaming products.

Publishers such as Atlus (responsible for the famous Per-sona series) and XSEED (a publisher founded by former members of Square Enix USA), despite providing several noteworthy Japanese game releases over the years, sadly have yet to grace local Indian markets. This could be be-cause of how much harder it is to seek viable revenue when operating from their own homes. Last year I spoke with Ken Berry, Director of Publishing at XSEED Games, on this. He says, “I wish I could say all our games have exceeded ex-pectations, but that is rarely the case as we’re always fight-ing just to get our product on retailer shelves (this is why pre-orders are critical to a small publisher like us, otherwise they won’t stock our games).”

As it is, it’s still entirely possible to sample whatever is worked upon by these companies and their efforts to ex-pose more of Japan’s games to an international audience. Thanks to services such as the Playstation Network and Xbox Live, any one can simply create an online account

and purchase a selection of these games with a credit card. There are also official redeemable voucher cards which can add funds to your digital wallet, but are not easily attainable (for PSN cards) or fetch for a slightly higher price here (for XBL Point Cards). You can purchase such cards from online retailers such as www.Nextworld.in and www,Intencity.in, both of which offer many pay options. Even so, it doesn’t cost anything but your bandwidth to download a playable demo of Catherine, a titillating puzzle-action game from the aforementioned Persona team.

Even doujin (or “fan-created”) works and fan-translations for games never released for a non-Japanese speaking audience have crept occasionally and have brought out

many talented minds. Cave Story was one such example, a free 2D action-adventure game released in 2004 for PC. It was developed, designed, and programmed over five years by one man - Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya. It drew praise from around the world. So much so, that an independent game company Nicalis worked with Daisuke to port Cave Story to Nintendo’s WiiWare service. Now, game publisher Nippon Ichi Software (known for their work on turn-based strategy RPG hybrid – Disgaea) has teamed-up with Daisuke to cre-ate a complete Cave Story remake, that will be tailor made to utilize the Nintendo 3DS hardware. Expected release is November 4th, 2011 in Europe.

How can a fan of Japanese gaming come to know about these things? There are a few blogs and communities which go a long way in providing such information, such as Andriasang.com, Siliconera, Hardcore Gaming 101 and the NeoGAF forums. Local communities such as Indian-VideoGamer have existed for some time, and you are likely to find a few enthusiasts there. Better still, some folks even sell their used copies on the Trading Post section. That’s

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how I was able to net my copy of Game Republic’s Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom and Silicon Studio’s 3D Game Dot Heroes, two titles which are not officially available through local distributors. If you’re looking to import outside of India, sites such as Play-Asia (www.play-asia.com) and GAME.co.uk will certainly be of help, so long you have a Credit Card or PayPal account handy. You also must be perfectly aware of what region your console is from (generally, most games and consoles sold in India are PAL – but some devices such as the DS and PSP have no region restrictions). Even then, you’ll want to wary of the custom duties that may be imposed on certain titles. It’s a double-edged sword to be sure, but in combina-tion with a weekly special or deal going on for that one particular game you’re looking to buy, the amount of ex-tra costs may not be so bad. Thanks to Play-Asia and a friend, I was able to get Square Enix’s Sigma Harmonics for the Nintendo DS. Although, it’s in Japanese script and I can’t understand a lick of it! Delivery times should also be kept in mine, as shipping products to India can take anywhere from a week to almost a month, or even more.

Even if you’re not too keen on the idea of purchasing a current generation home console, the “last-gen” Playsta-tion 2 can deliver great bang for your buck at Rs. 5999 (usually bundled with a free game). While it’s true the graphical capabilities have longed been out-stripped, games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy XII, and Devil May Cry 3 have carried an enduring art-design over the long years and are still quite enjoyable to play.

More of a PC player? Head over to TIGSource or Indie-Games blog for coverage on Japanese doujin titles, some of which are free to download and play at no additional charge. Recently, Carpe Fulgur, a company comprised of two key individuals - Andrew Dice and Robin Light-Wil-liams, began localizing Windows-based Japanese doujin titles developed by EasyGameStation. While fan transla-tions have been common for such games, this is probably the first time a company based outside of Japan is keen on bringing over hidden gems to a much larger inter-national audience. Their first localized title for EGS was Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale, the first independently-made Japanese game to be distributed through Steam.

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It received generally positive reviews and Carpe Fulgur’s next localized project, called Chantelise, is already out in the digital market. If you have a Steam account, you can have a friend purchase it with a Credit Card and gift it to you directly.

Even mobile devices such as the iPhone and Android have been making the rounds, with Square Enix publish-ing Media Vision’s Chaos Rings and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for the former platform. Going back to local start-ups again, OverCloud9 is an online hub for Japanese-style RPGs meant for casual and hardcore PC gamers. By-the-by, digital distribution has helped bridge gaps for gamers such as myself who can find it trouble-

some at times to wait a few weeks at a time for outside titles to arrive in the grey market, or spend a huge amount for additional charges such as shipping and custom du-ties.

That’s not to say playing Japanese games isn’t an expen-sive hobby. Heck, gaming in general can be considered an expensive hobby. But so long domains for online pur-chasing continue to exist and evolve, while community networks go on expanding – maybe you’ll stumble across an odd, yet fun title that you’ve never heard of like Ka-tarmari Damacy. And you’ll probably want to show your friends too.

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ZELDA RETR OSPECTIVE

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ZELDA RETR OSPECTIVE

The art of the story

Storytelling is the ancient art of our an-cestors and the foundation of our history. It is the unbreakable thread that ties the myriad peoples and civilizations together to form the intricate and varied web we know as the human race. It is a magi-cal art that has the incomparable power to transport listeners instantaneously through time and space to another era, another planet, or another universe alto-gether.

It is with storytelling wherein the tenor of video games lies. Before high-definition and three-dimensional pictures, at the advent of the industry as it is known to-day, the crux of video game success was their ability to simply tell a story. Games like Super Mario Bros., Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy are regarded as some of the greatest titles in video game his-tory because their stories are unrivaled masterpieces, compelling and entrancing far beyond their time.

Perhaps the greatest of these stories is The Legend of Zelda. The series repre-sents the zenith of storytelling in video games as it encapsulates the timeless nature of the epic with the unforgettable quality of character. Not only did the se-ries perfect the formula, but it continues today to compound and evolve with the modern world, leaving behind it an en-during, untouchable legacy.

The legacy of ZeldaThe Legend of Zelda is the brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Miyamoto and Tezuka designed and

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wrote the game together, pulling upon the mystical elements of fantasies like J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings as well as Miyamoto’s explorations as a young boy.

The land of Hyrule was long ago fash-ioned by the three goddesses: Farore, Nayru, and Din. Their work completed, the goddesses departed and in their stead left behind a powerful artifact known as the Triforce. The Triforce, a larger triangle made up of three smaller triangles also referred to as the Triforces Wisdom, Courage, and Power, was placed within the Sacred Realm so that only the purest of he-roes might one day claim it.

Whosoever should retrieve the Triforce would have their wishes fulfilled. How-ever, should the person be impure of spirit, the Triforce would break apart, leaving behind only the fragment that best represented their heart, while the other pieces dispersed throughout Hyrule. Only with the Triforce whole could the wishes be granted.

Such was the case with Ganondorf, a cunning and manipulative warlock and the central antagonist of the series. Sometime during the events of Oca-rina of Time, Ganondorf had entered the Sacred Realm and discovered the Triforce. Upon stirring it, the Triforce shattered and the land of Hyrule was thrown into chaos.

Ganondorf was left with the Triforce of Power, which granted him endless strength. The other pieces of the Tri-force scattered, seeking out individu-als worthy of carrying their virtue. The Triforce of Wisdom was bestowed upon Princess Zelda, daughter to the royal family of Hyrule, granting her mystical abilities and unmatched wis-dom. The Triforce of Courage was im-parted to Link, the series’ iconic pro-tagonist, and would protect him from Ganondorf’s dark magics.

Link recovered the Master Sword, an ancient weapon forged by the divine powers of the Seven Sages, chosen protectors of Hyrule, and the only

known power strong enough to cut down Ganondorf. The Sages kept Link safely hidden away for seven years un-til he would be old enough to confront the dark magician. During this time, Ganondorf unleashed a maelstrom of corruption upon Hyrule, overtak-ing the Sages’ temples and confining them and their powers. After freeing the Sages and defeating Ganondorf in battle, Link was thrown back through time to relive his childhood.

Over the next couple of years, dur-ing Twilight Princess, Link became a ranch worker. It was around this time that Link came into contact with the Twilight Realm -- a parallel world ex-isting in the shadows of Hyrule. There he met the Twili imp Midna, who ex-plains to him that the Twilight Realm had been thrown into disarray since Zant, self-proclaimed King of Twilight, usurped the Twili throne.

It was Ganondorf who, having been exiled to the Twilight Realm, bestowed upon Zant the power enough to over-throw the king. Ganondorf had ap-peared to Zant in a vision, assuming the countenance of a god, and granted him a sliver of the Triforce of Power’s capacity. Link once again confronted Ganondorf. Defeating him again, Link broke the curse of the twilight, and Ganondorf succumbed to his death.

The Zelda series is notorious for its convoluted timeline. Ocarina of Time is one of the most important in that it helps to establish the main characters of the series. However, the events of Ocarina of Time effectively tear the timeline in twain.

The first timeline, detailed earlier, progresses as though Ganondorf had never accessed the Sacred Realm af-ter Link picked up the Master Sword, and includes both the aforemen-tioned Twilight Princess and Majora’s Mask, which follows Link’s childhood through the realm of Termina in an effort to stop the prankster Skull Kid from destroying the world with the power of Majora’s Mask.

The second timeline runs parallel to these events and occurs as a result of Ganondorf shattering the Triforce and invading Hyrule. In this timeline, the next game chronologically is The Wind Waker, which takes place hun-dreds of years following the dealings of Ocarina of Time.

In the events leading up to The Wind Waker, after his defeat in Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf had managed to escape his imprisonment and once again sought dominion over Hyrule. Having been defeated once before by the power of the Master Sword, Ganondorf knew that the only way he could claim victory was to eliminate the Sages altogether.

No hero rose up to confront Ganondorf, and his reign of terror went on unabat-ed. The people of Hyrule prayed to the gods for help. Knowing that without the Master Sword no hero could hope to defend against Ganondorf’s power, the goddesses called down a great flood and buried the lands underwa-ter, there sealing him with the Master Sword as his shackle. Those the gods deemed worthy and pure they com-manded to the mountaintops where they would be safe from the waters.

As fate would have it, Link, now just a young boy from one of the islands, re-trieved the Master Sword and unknow-ingly broke Ganondorf’s seal. As such, Link must seek out the Sages’ descen-dents and reassemble the Triforce of Courage that had shattered when the previous Hero of Time had ventured out from Hyrule. Link confronted Ganondorf once more and was again victorious. Ganondorf’s body was bur-ied away under the ocean, along with the rest of the land, and Link and Prin-cess Zelda were transported safely above water, where they began their search for a new world.

Several games in the series are diffi-cult to place on the timeline. Although games like Phantom Hourglass and Spirit tracks continue the story after The Wind Waker, the main story arc

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containing Ganondorf seems to end with his deaths in each of the time-lines. In the Oracle series, Ganondorf’s minions attempted to resurrect him, but the ritual was interrupted by Link.

The Oracle series (including Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons) takes place sometime after Ganondorf’s death -- though, which one is difficult to determine. Link has come to the land of Labrynna, an area not seen be-fore or thereafter in the series again.

In Oracle of Ages, Link must travel back and forth between two time periods in order to stop Veran, Sor-ceress of Shadows. In Oracle of Sea-sons, Link travels to the village of Ho-lodrum, where the General Onox has kidnapped the Oracle of Seasons and has sent the seasons of the land into a frenzy.

Using a password system, the games can be linked together to unlock the true story that connects the two. Once each of the storylines have been com-pleted, Link finds the wizard Twinrova, who is trying to resurrect Ganondorf by using Princess Zelda as a sacrifice. When Link disrupts her plans, Twin-rova sacrifices herself instead. How-ever, that was not how the ritual was intended and the Ganondorf sum-moned in this manner is a mindless, rampaging monster.

The Four Swords trilogy follows Link against Vaati who, using a magical cap fashioned by his master, transformed himself into a powerful sorcerer. Vaati crossed over into the human realm in search of the Light Force, a powerful magical artifact said to contain unlim-ited power. However, Link defeated him and sealed him away in the Four Sword, a weapon with the power to split its wielder into four identical counterparts. Sometime later, Ganon-dorf (one not congruent with any oth-er appearances in the series) tricked Link into freeing Vaati. Link finished Vaati off for good, and with the help of Princess Zelda sealed Ganondorf away within the Four Sword.

A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link all take place sometime after the Four Swords series, though again their placement in the grand timeline is still difficult to decipher. A Link to the Past seems to reference Ocarina of Time and Ganondorf accessing the Triforce in the Sacred Realm, though it is unclear whether or not that is in fact the same event or if Ganondorf had entered the Sacred Realm at another time.

After entering the Sacred Realm, Ganondorf used his power to trans-form it into a realm of darkness. Mon-sters poured forth from the portal un-til finally the wizard Agahnim sealed it. However, Agahnim soon betrayed the king and imprisoned the maidens and the princess.

Princess Zelda called out to Link in his sleep, and he fought his way into Hy-rule’s dungeons to free her. He defeat-ed Agahanim, but with his last ounce of strength Agahnim threw Link into the Dark World after Princess Zelda, who was now being held captive by Ganondorf.

Following Ganondorf’s defeat in the Dark World, Princess Zelda was once again captured and, for fear of Ganon-dorf retrieving the Triforce of Wisdom, shattered it. The Legend of Zelda marks the first game of the series and follows Link on his quest to collect the pieces of the Triforce of Wisdom, de-feat Ganondorf, and save the Princess Zelda.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the direct sequel in continuity to The Leg-end of Zelda. Princess Zelda had been hexed by a powerful sorcerer when she refused to tell him where the Tri-force of Courage lay. In order to awak-en her, Link must collect his piece of the Triforce and unite the three. Only then would the spell be broken.

The virtue of characterLink is a hard-working, courageous, and soft-spoken young hero. In fact,

Link is so much soft-spoken that he never actually speaks (save for the few lines of text in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, though there is no accompa-nying voice). Link’s social interactions depend largely upon player input. When asked a question, the player will be given a list of options to select in response. Unlike many of the RPGs coming out today, there are no threat-ening, long-term consequences hang-ing over the player’s head when mak-ing a decision on what to say. What this does, though, is it helps create a sense of intimacy between the player and the rest of the game, effectively removing the “playable character” barrier and replacing it with the actual player.

Link’s very name implies a bond be-tween two things. Link is not just an-other character in the story, nor is he just the protagonist, but rather he is the connecting element between the player and the world beyond the tele-vision screen. Link is therefore not the hero himself, but rather an exemplifi-cation of the true hero: the player. The player and Link are one and the same, and rather than playing a game where-in the story is compelled by some dar-ing to-be hero (think Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid), the player instead becomes the hero.

The story of the game from a global perspective is about Link. However, the game’s design allows the player to embody a Link stripped of all idio-syncratic qualities otherwise unchar-acteristic of a hero and left with just those essential for one to wield the mighty Master Sword and safeguard the Triforce of Courage: virtue, com-passion, empathy, courage. These qualities therefore are representative of the player’s qualities, as it is up to the player to tap into these in order to earn the hero‘s title. As well, Link’s facial expressions and mannerisms are not his own but rather indicative of the player’s: the player is genuinely saddened when the Great Deku Tree perishes or panicked when the moon is about to crash into the planet.

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Link’s name also signifies the bond shared amongst multiple incarnations of the Hero. Though his character at-tributes remain untouched, certain story elements make it impossible for Link to be the same character from ev-ery game. Link’s age, whether or not he is in possession of a piece of the Triforce relic, whether the game refer-ences conflicts from previous games, and the state of Ganondorf are all indicative of a timeline that is in con-stant flux. In the same way that Link is an avatar of the player as hero, Link is a representation of heroism through time.

Link therefore not only connects the player to the game, but is also the immortal thread that binds the story together. Regardless of who the boy destined to be hero was before, he will always become a Link lacing the past and the future together, creating the unbreakable chain that is the legend of Zelda.

Princess Zelda is also frequently fea-tured as a reincarnation of her blood-line throughout the series. Like Link, she has also been gifted with a piece of the Triforce -- the Triforce of Wis-dom. Depending upon the period in which a particular title takes place, Zelda is either daughter to the king and heiress to the throne of Hyrule, or assumed ruler of the kingdom, though she always retains her title.

Zelda is bold and wise, and though she may appear a fragile girl, she is a for-midable fighter. Though she does not possess the power of Link, and cer-tainly is not match for Ganondorf, she helps Link throughout his journeys. Because she possesses a piece of the Triforce, she is targeted by Ganondorf and his minions.

Ganondorf is the main antagonist of the series and the absolute antithesis to Link. He is brazen, arrogant, merci-

less, and a physical goliath compared to Link‘s smaller stature. Ganondorf typically has one thing on his mind: obtaining the three pieces of the Tri-force in order to gain dominion over the land of Hyrule.

Ganondorf himself possesses the Triforce of Power, which among other things gives him insurmount-able strength. Throughout the se-ries, Ganondorf is witnessed firing off powerful magical spells, bending and warping space to teleport and even to create his own Dark World, and shapeshifting into a monstrous boar-like creature. The only answer to Ganondorf’s brute strength is the Master Sword, a holy artifact protect-ed by ancient divinities. And like King Arthur and the legendary Excalibur, the purity of Link’s character makes him the only one capable of wielding such a device.

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Unlike Link and Princess Zelda, Ganon-dorf does not appear throughout the series as an ancestor or descendent of his bloodline. Ganondorf’s time-lessness is garnered through the Tri-force of Power that he wields, which also grants him immortality. Though Ganondorf may be defeated and im-prisoned, he always finds a way back, whether by escaping from his mysti-cal bonds or through a ritual of resur-rection. As such, it is up to the hero of each time period to halt Ganondorf and lock him away once more.

As inauspicious is it might seem that Ganondorf will never be totally tri-umphed, hope lies within the chosen Link of the era to rise up as hero and defeat the brigand magician. Despite the gloomy undertones threaded throughout the series of Ganondorf’s persistence on destroying the world, the story is a promising one: regard-less of whenever wickedness rears its

ugly head, a hero will be waiting -- the player will be there to take up the sword again.

The evolution of gamesThe Legend of Zelda, the first title in the series, featured an open, non-linear world in which players could explore to find secret grottos or magi-cal treasures. Though the game itself would not meet the present standards of the genre, The Legend of Zelda is considered by many to be one of the forerunners of role-playing games as they are known today. The series’ iconic high fantasy setting and stylized action-adventure gameplay all helped to lay the groundwork for RPGs that would come later. It was also the first game to facilitate save games -- in the industry, not just uniquely to the series -- thus allowing players to pause their adventure and come back to it at a later date.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, to the dismay of some fans, tried to do things differently. The game utilized areas of side-scrolling, rather than the top-down view which would become traditional for the series later on. Zelda II also introduced more elements of role-playing that would not be seen again, such as the use of experience points. While the game was success-ful and generally well-received, Zelda II stands out the most within the series as these differences did not give the game that ‘Zelda’ feel.

Nintendo went back to basics with A Link to the Past. Between this game and The Legend of Zelda, not much fundamentally had been altered. A Link to the Past harkens back to the beginning of the series, returning to the top-down view (using a3/4 view) and doing away with the experience points. In addition, A Link to the Past is the first game in the series to fea-

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ture the Master Sword, Link’s most valuable weapon against the demon Ganondorf.

The first Zelda game to see the Game Boy was Link’s Awakening, and it was to be the last game in the series with-out the use of 3D graphics. Like its pre-decessors, it retained the top-down view and utilized an overworld, shops, and dungeons -- though it would be the only game to not call them “dun-geons” or “temples.”

It would be several years before the release of the next Zelda game, but when Ocarina of Time finally came

out it took the entire world by storm. Considered one of the best of the se-ries, and consistently rated in the top ten video games of all-time, Ocarina of Time was the first Zelda game to use 3D graphics and the new lock-on combat mechanics, a revolution for the industry at the time. The game received soaring praises for its game-play, character development, graphi-cal and audio qualities, and most no-tably its story.

Majora’s Mask was somewhat of a de-parture from Ocarina of Time, despite it retaining many of the aspects estab-lished in the first 3D Zelda game. The

element of time was a new feature, the game revolving around a three-day time limit that Link could fast for-ward or rewind. As such, day and night cycles were also featured. Overall, the game was a bit darker than previous Zelda titles, with a strong thematic focus on death. Though it was a bit heavy for the series at the time, Twi-light Princess later would capitalize on these darker tones to give fans a much more mature experience after the re-lease of The Wind Waker.

The Wind Waker was the first game for the Nintendo GameCube. Though it used 3D graphics, the game was

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cel-shaded and much more cartoon-ish than previous installments. Despite fans’ initial hesitations with The Wind Waker, it was well received and is con-sidered to be one of the best of the series. However, some began to worry whether the series would continue to target a younger crowd with its car-toonish, childlike graphics, despite most of its fan base having grown up with the series.

During the time between The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, Nintendo released two Zelda titles known as the Four Swords series: Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap. (Four Swords was released prior to The Wind Waker.) Four Swords Ad-ventures was the only one of the three released for the GameCube, the oth-ers came to the GameBoy Advance; however in order to utilize the full functionality of the multiplayer play-ers are required to use a GameBoy Advance and connect it to the Game-Cube -- a kind of marketing tactic that never quite sat well for the Nintendo audience.

Four Swords was the first Zelda title to feature multiplayer -- and it was also the first Zelda title to be multiplayer-only. It was a short game alongside the re-release of A Link to the Past. In order to play it, fans had to find any-where between one to three other friends, each with their own version of the game.

Four Swords and Four Swords Adven-tures deviate from the overworld ex-ploration, utilizing stage mechanics in the manner of Super Mario Bros. The overworld of Hyrule was used as a hub for selecting different levels to play through. Though Four Swords Adven-tures was intended to be played with multiple players, it did have the option of playing alone while allowing the player to control multiple Link charac-ters at once.

The Minish Cap differed from its two predecessors in that it did away with the multiplayer and returned to the dungeon system and exploration the

series had already established as cus-tomary.

The first title for the Nintendo Wii, Twilight Princess was Nintendo’s re-sponse to fans wanting a more ma-ture Zelda experience. The graphical qualities of the game far outshine those of earlier titles, and include re-models for the three main characters of the series: Link, Princess Zelda, and Ganondorf. The game also features Link transforming into a wolf whenev-er entering the Twilight Realm, adding a refreshing new layer of mechanics. Twilight Princess focuses more heavily on horseback transportation as well as mounted combat.

Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were released for the Nintendo DS in the years following Twilight Princess, and are the last major Zelda titles that have been released leading up to Skyward Sword (which at the time of this article will be released in the com-ing months). Both games utilized the cel-shaded graphical elements of The Wind Waker giving the games again a more childlike feel to them. However, after the success of The Wind Waker, the graphics were essentially a non-issue.

While Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks are fundamentally similar to one another -- they both use an in-game travel system such as the boat or the train, both made use of the Nin-tendo DS hardware they had access to (i.e., stylus for special moves and overworld transportation) , as well as both having similar thematic qualities -- perhaps the greatest difference be-tween the two was the online battle mode featured in Phantom Hourglass. This would mark the last game in the series to have any sort of multiplayer feature.

Though it had mastered the art of the story and had created an unforget-table, ageless cast of characters, per-haps most emblematic of the franchise as a whole is the dungeoneering. The dungeons -- or as they are sometimes referred to in the series, the Temples

-- are painstakingly designed and ev-ery bit as compelling as they are tortu-ous.

At the end of each dungeon, a mon-strous boss would be waiting. These fights also play an important role in the legacy of the Zelda franchise as they are fast-paced, strategic, and ex-citing and helped to shape the series’ niche over time.

Each new boss required a different strategy, perhaps using a new item picked up from the dungeon or a combination of techniques that could make the foe vulnerable. A lot of cred-it should go to the encounter design-ers, as the games feature some of the most innovative and memorable (and frustrating) fights in the industry -- Morpheel, Dark Link, Bongo Bongo, Molgera, Twinrova, and just about any fight featuring Ganondorf, to name a few.

A Link to the futureThe Legend of Zelda has been around for a quarter of a century, and that’s nothing to scoff at. The game will be entering a third generation of gam-ers -- those that witnessed the advent of the franchise, those that grew up and likely came into the series play-ing Link’s Awakening or Ocarina of Time, and now those that will get to witness an all new era of Zelda. With the new year and the celebration of Zelda’s 25th anniversary, a new game approaches on the horizon. It’s been five years since Link last saw himself on one of the major platforms (with the exclusion of the handheld Ninten-do DS and 3DS systems), and Skyward Sword promises to bring with it an all-new epic adventure.

After all this time, fans still await with bated breath for the next release. The series is an exemplary classic of the industry and nothing short of a living piece of art. The games will live on for another twenty-five years, surely, and gamers today should count them-selves fortunate to bear witness to the legacy that is The Legend of Zelda.

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Finding MarioSummary of responsesSocial MediaInterviewsInternet ‘Finding Mario’ was a research project to understand the influence that one of the best selling games of all times had on the Indian audience, many of us who have grown up playing it. Through this short questionnaire we had aimed to understand these memories, which often bring about interesting stories and often a smile on the face. This goal of this project is to reflect on those moments and to bring about a sense of nostalgia to a larger audience. The re-sponses are mainly subjective and should be seen as stories of aspiration rather than any attempt to quantify it.

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We filtered out the responses we got and here we represent those responses against the questions we got. It is hoped that you would love it as much as we have done so in compiling them.

Respondents DemographicsAround 1530 participants answered the questionnaire and they were spread across with respondents from varied cities. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Patna, Dehradun, Guwahati, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Kolkata. A few respondents were also based abroad in USA and London.

The respondents were a mix of male and female.

The age group of the respondents was from 5 years to 40 years with the age group of 19-29 being most popular. We got maximum responses from these age groups and it is clearly evident that this is the age group that was influenced most by the Mario game, and could connect with it.

Question 1 (Q1): What are your fondest memories of the playing Mario or Super Mario Brothers?

Response Summary (RS): People in India often got introduced to the game at a very young age. Often 8-10 years when they played it with their siblings and friends for the first time. Winning amongst the siblings and friends was something that was cherished and often looked upto.

Some also played the game with their uncles and parents and were always devising strategies and models to beat each other!

“Playing it with dad, good old days” says a respondent. “I remember playing it with my brother and we had to wait for our chance to come.”

“My fondest memories now when I look back is that my younger sister teaching me how to cross the levels in Mario. And also having discussion (which seems like an urban legend) on how to cross Mario levels with people from walks of life in my mohallah.”

Fin

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“Beating Bowser in Super Mario World in-front of a group of friends, as if I won the Super Bowl or something” says another respondent who really loved the challenge in the game and often loved to compete.

A lot of people loved the characters and paraphernalia in the game and could connect with it to an extent that they remember it to this day. “Playing Super Mario RPG and proving you can have a fun story with interesting characters in the stories (Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi further improved on this).” Another respondent adds, “Princess Peach (since she had that awesome, floating ability which helped so much in a really tough platformer)”

Another respondent remembers things that they saw for the first time, which was a different representation of the world that they knew of. “First time I saw a 1 UP mushroom come out of an invisible block in Super Mario Brothers”

Another person adds, “I remember the awesome colorful landscape. The turtles that used to crawl on the floor and the cute ducks as well.”

For some it is hard to forget anything from the game! “Mario, the power mushrooms, coins, breaking bricks, turtles, secret passages”

People often remembered the instances in the game that they could identify in other games and also in movies as one respondent remembers “Finding the flute in “”Super Mario Brothers 3”” (after watching the movie “The Wizard”” which led us to the flute’s secret location) and flying using the Raccoon suit.”

Another person adds, “Oh the Main Dragon! Who would have thought, you had to jump on it thrice! And the warp zone and the cloud where the dragon stayed and threw hard-nutshell packed monsters.”

“The infinite lives of Mario and the goli powers were awesome!”

“The music of Mario is something that no one can forget. It is something you could hear from a distance and immediately connect with.”

“The Music was catchy and the simplicity of the game made it an instant hit!”

Though the simplicity of the game was its biggest USP, a participant remembers how he could never complete one stage, “ I never completed the 4 the stage :D. I always skipped it and jumped to next stage.”

“Never able to finish it. Only game that I haven’t and have loved at same time.” Adds another respondent.

Another person remembers the game for the fact that it helped his friends and siblings stay together and brought about a feeling of bonding, fighting spirit and sense of competition, “ It is one of the first games that I learned to play as a TV video game. I remember we, the bunch of kid brothers sitting together, waiting for the respective turn. It used to keep us excited, build the healthy competition and definitely fighting spirit. The best of all, it kept us together.”

A respondent remembers the frustrating aspect of waiting for their turn, “Having to play 2 player turn by turn and getting tired of waiting since my brother wouldn’t lose his turn before level 8-1.”

And with the number of hours that people put into the game, you have to get responses where people claimed to play all night long! “Way back in middle school. (Class V / VI). We used to get Mario video game on hire every Saturday night for 40 bucks. And to make the most of the rent, my and my sister would play all night long. Me being the younger one always became Luigi as my Sister with elderly pride was always first remote - Mario. Waking up late on Sunday with sore thumb is what I remember the most!”

Another person adds, “Trying really hard with my cousin to finish the final stage and reach the princess. I still feel my finger ache playing this game.”

Often people would take up interesting challenges to complete the levels. Like this one respondent says, “Arguing with my elder brother over who could finish the first level faster, eyes closed.”

A respondent recalls, “I guess I used to get a high at that age. Did not play too much though”

Q 2. Please write in a few words on why you loved playing these games.

RS: Most of the participants loved to play the game, because it was easy and they remember it for its awesome game-play and direction. That is the first rule of any Game Design and it is heartening to note that the participants felt the same. “It was easy to get into and very receptive to the gamer, as if it cared.”

“The great game-play mechanics, the easy-to-grasp control scheme, the concept of the level design, and the art and sound direction.”

The world that was created in Mario was something that many were introduced for the first time. One of our respondents who went on to play more games later in life mentions, “This was the first game, and series of games, in which the world was more than what it seemed. The secret

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locations and blocks led you to areas that didn’t seem previously accessible and it cried out to the player that in this world... “Anything’s Possible”.

“The key running/jumping mechanic, gave the player the sense that he had enough freedom to go just about anywhere, without giving him so much freedom that he would do it actually manage to do this without any effort on the player’s part. The perfect Risk/Reward balance at every step”, says Hrishi, who writes in from Mumbai believs that almost everything about the game was perfect for its time.

Abhinav from Pune pitches in, “Mario was easy to pick up and play. That is one of the reasons people who love Mario fondly remember enjoying the games during their childhood. Collect the coins, stomp the goombas, get the power up, defeat the dragon (Bowser) and look for the princess in another castle”. “Mario was the perfect side-scroller, the graphics were nice and it had simple characters. The game was perfectly balanced, neither too easy and nor too hard. The level design was brilliant, there were special tricks and surprises hidden... in other words it had all the elements of a game you’d want to play as a kid” says Deepak from Patna. This highlights two things. One that Mario gained popularity all across India, and also that it captured the imagination of people across cultures and geographies.

Many adults too remember the game for all the hype that it created and lived upto it. “As kids, we liked them because they were charming. As adults, we adore them because they bring certain hysteria. Capturing us young was the best thing Mario did.”

People often got nostalgic when we asked these questions. “It just had some vigorously simple fun associated with it. In fact, once i am done with this, i am gonna download the windows 7 version” says Mayank all the way from Udaipur in Rajasthan, who also says the game helped him relax and burst his pressure away.

The ease of the game was perhaps the biggest reason for people to get on board to playing the game, and this fact was confirmed by many of our respondents. “Jumping and running with ducks, working for a quest which is easily completed, every new stage when discovered had some new architecture, was good” says Vikas from Delhi.

Adwait, who has moved on to the USA for further studies recalls, “I love the soundtrack and have it etched in my memory forever. In general the sound effects were incredible for hardware of that age. The basic tactic of timing the jump was used at a variety of the places without it getting boring.”

From the responses it is clear that the key words and phrases that would define the success of the game would be simple, enjoyable, Catchy sound effects, fun, hilarious, challenge, entertainment, mission accomplishment.

With each one of us finding some shortcuts, the turn used to take almost a day to come . At the end, we started putting some strategic caveats as to what will decide the end of game for one. ahhh... the best was beating the time to complete the entire 8-4 levels.. that was superb.

“Sound/ animation/ simplicity or was it childhood. I am not sure. I think it was the combination of all. The possibility of saving a princess in distress while we always knew she has been taken to another castle. Haha ! I guess it was this love for this game that made me buy the Wii and play Mario even when I am aged 29 now. I just love it even now” recalls Varshita from Mumbai who still plays Mario even to this day!

For some people the joy was in saving up that coin to actually get a game of Mario “It started because my parents wouldn’t allow me to go to game parlor in those days. I secretly used to borrow a coin or save when parents sent me to buy stuff. And later I would go and play Mario or Mustafa cause rest of the games were not that interesting“, remembers Ankur from New Delhi. This is something we can connect to a lot, as many of us have done so. For many of the participants in our sessions, Mario was the first game that they played, especially on the consoles. It provided a good challenge and delivered entertainment at the same time and was an instant hit.

“The soundtrack was such that it attained a cult status of sorts. It was so simple. Good storyline and a strong user interaction cannot be replaced by better graphics, better performances by game consoles” recalls Gaurav, based out of London and takes a dig at the games of today.

Mario had all the elements Good gameplay and level design. There was anticipation, excitement, winning, challenging and engaging. These points have been well supported by the answers we got for the questions above.

3. Where would you go to play the game Mario or Super Mario?

Most of the people played the game on their TVs at home, and then followed by at their friends place. This is true to the times, where the Television was often the only means of entertainment. Other places where the people visited and enjoyed Mario, were Game Parlors, Personal Computer

4. What are the visual elements of the Super Mario game that you remember distinctly?

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There are many things that one recalls when one things about the visual elements. Mainly it was the color scheme. Then there were 2dimensional patterns which were very creatively done and that it resonates till date. Everything was influential at this time and ended up defining a lot for the games to come.

The color green and its prominence had a great influence on people. One of the respondent Vijay from New Delhi recalls, “Super Mario also gave me a new found appreciation for the color green. Luigi is green. Yoshi is green. So are the pipes. So are the Koopa families. Green everywhere I go!”

The main characters Mario and other elements were also a key element of the game in itself. Hrishi recalls, “The whimsical enemies, whether they were walking toadstools, anthropomorphic turtles with boomerangs or ghosts who only appeared when you did not look at them directly. The platform levels with strangest background elements ever seen in a game at that time, which still fit right into place with everything else.”

All the levels in the game were fun and addictive. It was colorful and a treat to look at in its 8 bit glory and its basic just 4-5 colors. The characters, ducks, tortoise, mushrooms, coins, clouds, crabs, pipes, bricks (gold and earthen), the power ups, the coins, the backgrounds, octopus etc everything was pleasure to look at.

Some people loved the characters so much that even after a lot of years, they are able to recall the characters and in what form and stage they appeared. A respondent adds, “The ‘assembled’ dragon was awesome!. The not so desirable princess, the fire flower, the tunnels and the gory underground round (round 3). I clearly remember all of them!”

5. Who did you play with / compete with when you played the game?

Though this was a very popular game; it was very unlikely that people played it with strangers. Most of the times the people played the games with their Friends and with family members.

6. What did you like about the main characters of the game? (Mention character names if you remember)

Though Mario and Luigi were both important Mario was the main character and the hero! Respondents also mention how in a 2 player game, they would fight with their siblings to become Mario. He was the first player controlled character and he saved the princess and was cool!

The powers made Mario really special. He had all the cool powers like star power and flower power and was nice to see him use them.

A respondent adds, “Mario and Luigi in their RPG roles are entertaining to watch. Their facial expressions and muttering dialogue are amusing, and old stand-by voice actor Charles Martinet has done a fantastic job of giving the voice of the plumbers since Super Mario 64.”

Mario, Princess Peach, Luigi, Goomba, Bowser, Toad, Koopa.. all of them were cool.

Every action of Mario was designed in a way to amuse. “I loved the way Mario and the way he grows up after eating the cauliflower and shrinks at times. :P”

To sum it up a participant puts it very nicely, “The plumber, an ordinary person, was fighting the evil for another ordinary person. I grew up and realised, he is a true hero.”

7. Over time did you end up knowing all the hidden tricks of the game too? (Is yes, please mention a few. Else say No)

Though the game gained a lot of popularity, not everyone was able to get all the hidden tricks of the game.

One respondent writes, “Level 1 - third pipe ... you could go underground and earn coins and skip the level and I often used it. Similarly in the Level 2 -(underground... where you earn fire spit from the flower) instead of entering the normal pipe route... break the ceiling bricks and continue running on the ceiling till u reach a space offering entry straight to higher levels”

Not all but yes a few like the secret tunnels that made you skip a lot of worlds in between.. then the 1up mushroomsSome users also found out tricks during the game play with the different smaller characters. Like one respondent says, “I used to continually jump on a duck. It’s a trick to get one up. So it happens like this, corner a duck (not in all places there were a few I found) and jump on it (while in small mode), it will struck the wall and then come back by the time you would have finished a jump and you will again jump on impact sorta hard to explain, I hope you get what I say. Also there were few places to jump an entire world, in these places you would get 3 option to teleport to some other part of game.”

A lot of the respondents relied on friends to tell them about the cheat codes and tricks of the game. A respondent writes, “ not all, I suppose, but yeah, the hidden one ups and the beanstalks. One of my friends told me that he could get a 30 up somewhere. You could also get a one up if you killed enough people with the same duck shell.”

8. Did you pick up gaming, and/or other aspects of Japanese pop culture, seriously after playing Mario? (Please mention if any)

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The game had influence of on people in terms of their interest in gaming and the gaming culture, but not so any thing to do with Japanese culture. Some of the responses to this question are highlighted here.

“Yes, it instilled me the interest and love for gaming and Japan.”

“Gaming, sure. Everything just sorta fell into place for me after Mario and Sonic, but it was also because of the 8-bit game output back in Japan, which was simply stellar. “

“Yes. Big fan of Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki’s animation movies. Also, gaming is just in my culture now, after all, I work in the industry because of this. “

“No, but Japanese anime and video games are cool.”

Yes, I did gain some interest in gaming after playing Mario. In fact, it is undoubtedly the first game I really loved. Period.

It was very difficult for people to find any resemblance of the Japanese culture in the Mario games, and hence there was no relation between the people’s interest in these two distinct areas. A respondent also writes. “No. I was too young to spot anything “Japanese” in there. Even if I look at it now. I wonder if there is visually anything distinct Japanese. Mario for sure does not look Japanese to me.”

9. Did playing Mario have any impact on your life in any way?

Most of the people recall Mario for the fun times they had playing it. Hence it was difficult to point any drastic impact or influence that the game had on the life of the person. It was a mixed bag when this question was asked. The influence Mario had on people ranged from career choices to means of entertainment to eating habits!

A respondent writes, ‘Yes, personally every aspect of my business, cultural theory etc is related to what I grew up playing and one of them is Mario.”

A game designer working in the industry mentions, “ I don’t think I would be in the games industry if Mario or Sonic didn’t happen! I started to look at creativity in a completely different way.”

For another person, “When I was a kid I enjoyed playing Mario so much that I’d get dreams of playing through different levels of Mario. Other than that, nothing else. But I still love Mario today.”

“Can’t say, never tried jumping on ducks :P , but guess I started liking mushrooms after that. “

“I think yes. I spent so many hours playing it. It got me

interested in games and that eventually into computer science :)”

“Always looked at life like a game... looked for shortcuts to reach the goal safer and faster”

“taught me perseverance. There is always someone waiting at the end of the hard work, which is worth playing”

Yes. Got into gaming through Mario. Lots of wasted hours!!

10. What made you stop playing the game? Maybe you grew up, or moved out of locality, or other things took preference, or you still play the game.

There were a mix of people who still played the game and the ones who have move out. Most of the people who stopped playing Mario, was because they found the game to be for a younger crowd and hence grew out of it.

“I never stopped playing the game. I have hardly meet people who have stopped playing Mario. It’s always in there in them. So Mario is still rules any day, anytime anywhere casual gaming” recalls Nitesh, who runs a films and media company in New Delhi.

“I still play them, but as I stated before, getting the newer games here is pretty pricey and some times difficult if you don’t know where to look. I wanna get Super Mario 3DS for example, but 22K for a region-restrictive console? Something should be one about it”, recalls Vijay.

“I still play the game, especially Super Mario World. Because of emulators for the older consoles, I try to put these games in each and every gadget that I buy, be it a phone or an iPod or a PSP or a tablet computer or a laptop. Since I have it in so many devices, I can play it anywhere and everywhere, whenever I want.“

“I still play the games today. I also loved how perfect Mario transition from side scrolling to 3D free roaming happened. Along with SMB1 and SMB3, Super Mario 64 is also one of my favorite Mario games ever. I enjoy playing Super Mario Sunshine, New Super Mario Bros, Mario Galaxy, Mario Party and Mario Kart too. Mario forever!

“Better visually intense games, combat games, car race games, Prince of Persia, halo, NFS all these took over Mario they had much better experience and wow effect. “

“I “graduated” to other action games like contra and racing games. Mario was getting too cute a game and I wanted some action :) Then there was the lack of time, and dominance of better things like computer and playstation”

It is no doubt that Mario has left an indelible impression on the minds of the people who played it. Some go to the

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extent of playing it even now! “I used to enjoy playing Super Mario Brothers on my 8 bit video game system ever since I was a kid. I still enjoy playing it now. It’s that awesome!”

“First I quit it because my video game was almost obsolete! I was exposed to the PC version much late. Then I picked reading as a hobby. Now I sometimes play it on my laptop, but frankly without that juvenile charm.“

“It got outdated and newer games made their way but I still want to own Mario in any way, means I want to own every Ninty console out there and play Mario. Actually, right now, I’m not having any Ninty console. ;-) ” says Avishant from Delhi, who still enjoys the game and would want to continue playing it.

Conclusion

We have had a great time in just reading these conversations again and again. It has allowed us to have people get nostalgic, people getting excited when they speak and see a glimmer of satisfaction too in their eyes when they recall

their times with Mario.

What this short research enabled us, is to get people remember the good old days of their childhood and the countless hours they spent in playing something that was interesting, fun, and at the same time revolutionary for its time. The moment of Mario has been a landmark moment in the history of gaming and it laid the foundation of many more games to come. What was most intriguing aspect of Mario was its ability to capture the imagination of audience across India (and also world).

From the by-lanes of a small town to a major city in India, you had a Mario fan everywhere. The sound of Mario has reverberated in almost every gaming lounge of the 90s and continues to do so even to this day.

With more innovations in the age of the mobile and touch screen devices, it would indeed be interesting and exciting to help Find Mario and our love for him and his family all over again!

64 | ISSUE 01

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