First of all, for those of you who know that I went to Fanime with ~Torenchiko-to, *Fishguts-San, and *obake-shojo, I've decided not to do a con report. This is partly because I just can't find the time/inclination, and partly because Trench and Fishguts have already covered it more than adequately. Sorry if you were looking forward to that, although I doubt anyone was.

The main reason I'm posting this journal, actually, is to discuss the Dante's Inferno video game that was recently announced at E3. (Caution: Textwall ranting ahead! Proceed with caution.) Official site can be found here: [link] Now, my initial reaction when Trench informed me of this over Xfire was ecstatic, I'll admit. I'm one of the few people I know who have actually bothered to slog through the Inferno and, in fact, came to enjoy it immensely. The imagery is beautiful, the ideas are challenging and original, and the characters, such as they are, are believable and frightening. The thought of it being transposed to video game form fired my imagination. I loved the idea of exploring the nine circles of Dante's hell, surrounded by surreal and beautiful environments, dodging demons and tortured souls in a psychological thriller of a game. I quickly sobered up, however, when Trench informed me it looked to be a very standard kill-everything-in-sight kind of game that just happened to be set in an environment loosely based on the Inferno. The official website confirmed this, informing me that Dante would be changed from a frail, middle-aged poet contemplating the state of his own world and sinful nature to an angsty, tortured and very muscular crusader come to rescue his beloved Beatrice (who has apparently been dragged down to Hell for no discernible reason and forced to wear a generic dominatrix costume for the benefit of, um... ) Virgil, as far as I can tell, doesn't even get a mention, although we are assured he is in the game.

Everything I've seen about this game gives me incredibly mixed feelings. It seems to be met with a strange hodgepodge of accuracy and a "screw it, that's kind of cool, let's run with it" attitude by its developers, and the two seem to vary depending on who's talking. (Excuse me, but Minos is not a tentacle monster, and Dante did not invent the seven deadly sins in any way you care to think of. Also, the Inferno has "the makings of an epic story"? The MAKINGS of one? What would you call the Odyssey, a summer romantic comedy?) The fans on the forums seem just as divided as I am, with some claiming this will be a good way to bring the original poem to the uneducated masses, some denouncing it as sure to UTTERLY RUIN THE ORIGINAL WORK OF ART FOR EVERYONE FOREVER (*eyeroll*) and some claiming that the original poem and its fans are just getting in the way of people enjoying what looks to be a fairly solid hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. I am somewhat comforted by the fact that at least one developer is out on the forums arguing over small details of the poem with less-informed fans.

In all fairness, it's still too early to pass judgment on this game based on the relatively small amount of content available. I think I likely will play the game, unless it turns out to be an absolute disaster, but as it stands now I think I'm going to have to come at it from a different angle and try and see it as a stand-alone work, separate from the epic poem I love so much. Hopefully it won't disappoint as much as I fear it will.

If above rant fails to make any sense whatsoever, perhaps I should stop writing journals while I'm coughing out my lungs and my stomach is threatening to explosively eject its own lining. Now there's a vivid image for you to ponder over dinner.