[RETRO V.G. ADS] (JP) Star Ocean - Till the End of Time (2003) (PS2)
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🎮 Random Retro Game:
Title: Star Ocean: Blue Sphere
Released: 2001-06-28
Platforms: Game Boy Color, Game Boy
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Star Ocean's Worst-Kept Secret: The Honorary Kenni
Just some silly Star Ocean x Star Trek amusements 😆
[Image: collage of official artwork of members of the Kenni family from the Star Ocean series: Stephen D. Kenni, Ronixis J. Kenni, Claude C. Kenni, Emmerson T. Kenni, and Marielle L. Kenni. Behind them is a portrait of Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek as portrayed by William Shatner. Text around Kirk's head reads: Star Ocean's worst-kept secret. An arrow pointing at Kirk's head says The honorary Kenni :) ](Note: I realize the current official translations use "Kenny", but I grew up with Kenni.)At some point last year, after going through the Star Ocean 20th Anniversary Memorial Book, I started writing this, then I got distracted and forgot about it. I recently found it in my drafts, so I cleaned it up, made a silly collage with images from fan wikis, and here it is!If you're familiar with the Star Ocean JRPG series, you likely already know that it was/is heavily inspired by Star Trek. Like a distinctly anime medieval fantasy space opera take on it, if you will. Just a few of the parallels and references off the top of my head: United Federation of Planets, aka. The Federation → Pangalactic Federation (or Galactic Federation, depending on the translation), aka. The Federation (...) Prime Directive, aka. Starfleet General Order 1, non-interference directive → Underdeveloped Planet Protection Pact, aka. the UP3 Phaser → Phase gun The inspiration is sometimes pointed out in a wink-wink way, like in the Second Evolution (and thus SO2R) English translation where they made Claude's opening lines even more aligned to the classic Star Trek opening lines.But another super obvious one I don't often see people mention is the fact that so many Star Ocean characters have single letter middle name initials. Even when I was a kid, it was very obvious to me that this is inspired by the structure of Captain James T. Kirk's name. I was entertained by how the implementation seemed very "Let's do this 'cause it gives official future space-y vibes!! Yeah!!"... without actually properly applying the Western concept of middle names. The initials in Star Ocean characters' names never seem to actually stand for anything.I say "never seem" because thanks to the Memorial Book, I discovered that the original SO1 design documents note the J. in Ronixis J. Kenni actually stands for Johan. I was like "What?? It actually stands for something??? Mind blown!!!" hahahah. It's literally the only place I've ever seen it written out, and I've never seen any others anywhere. That said, Memorial Book only covers up to SO5... Anyways, if you have seen the full(er) names of any other Kenni family members, please let me know. In the meantime, the debate of what the C. in Claude C. Kenni stands for rages on. Maybe I should make another post about this…The initials thing actually appears on characters from underdeveloped planets too, like Precis F. Neumann, Leon D.S. Geeste, Clother T. Cross and so on. (As a multi-layered joke reference, I once gave Clother the middle name Tiberius in a fanfic.) However, it is truly the mark and honour of the illustrious Kenni family and its generations of dashing, rules-flaunting, overachieving military officers to always have these apparently/mostly meaningless initials in their names. To date, that is: Ronixis (Ronyx) J. Kenni (SO1) Claude C. Kenni (SO2) Stephen D. Kenni (appears in SO4 but technically the oldest of the Kenni lineage we have seen so far) Emmerson T. Kenni (SO5) Marielle L. Kenni (SO6 and our first female Kenni officially appearing in the series!! Also her name has a fun duplicated sound when you say it out loud. Marielle El) There is a very good reason for this! You see, in the same Memorial Book that revealed Ronixis' middle name, there was a Star Ocean staff interview at the very back where Director Gotanda Yoshiharu said: ケニー家のモデルはやっぱりカークですよね。スタートレックのジェームズ・T・カークです。それ以上は言いようがないというか(笑)。My rough translation: "The model for the Kenni family is of course Kirk, right. Star Trek's James T. Kirk. There's not much else I can say (lol)."Not that there was ever any real question question about it, but I was tickled to see it officially validated. In conclusion: James T. Kirk is a spiritual ancestor of the Kenni family, and therefore Captain Kirk is an honorary Kenni. And because my brain is like that, when thinking along this line, a few other thoughts also occurred to me. That means we can consider the Kennis honorary Canadians, right? I'm Canadian so I approve this. /William Shatner reference Shipping Dias and Claude is participating in an esteemed and storied fandom legacy. /Spirk reference That time I had a random encounter with William Shatner. Nothing exceptional, just an amusing memory. Back in university, I was walking down an aisle at a convention centre - not a fan convention, but a manufacturing industry show - when suddenly I heard someone say, "William Shatner's signing autographs at the XYZ [I don't remember what booth it was] booth!!" My classmates and I were like, "…Did we mishear that?" But eventually I got to the XYZ booth and, sure enough, there he was, signing prints of himself. Since this wasn't a fan convention, there wasn't a ridiculous explosion of people or anything. I thought it would be nice to get an autograph for the archives of the program I was representing, so I got in line. It was brief and I don't remember much, but I do recall he was very nice when I told him what it was for, and he kindly signed a print for the program, which I then gave to one of my professors.Later when I was passing by XYZ booth again, Mr. Shatner was surrounded by booth staff, chatting. One of the staff had a goofy grin on his face and was saying, "Remember that episode when…" and Mr. Shatner replied, "Oh yes. I remember. That episode." with exactly the tone and kind of expression you might imagine of William Shatner being asked if he remembers that episode when a million-bajillion times. I remember thinking, "I am very sorry, Mr. Shatner. I cannot save you." And then I boarded a bus back to school. The end.
Kewlio: gideo vames?!
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Director_Kumazaki ／熊崎信也 🎮
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