Page 03-04
Chapter: Chapter 3: The Shrike
Just finished ‘Solatorobo: Red the Hunter’ last Thursday. It’s a DS RPG, but one that’s quite different from any I’ve played. While it has a typical clichéd plot, it was none-the-less very well told. I felt the battle mechanics were overly simple and repetitive, but the quests and mini-games in the game were quite varied and fun to do (except the racing… I hated the racing). I never got ‘game over’ because it was pretty easy (excepting a couple side-quests) but was still a really good game. The final boss was laughable, but then I had over-prepared to the point that I was practically invincible. Interesting, though, that all the credits and music are in Japanese, but the names and voice-acting are in French. Colour me confused.
Aha! I knew we were going to learn more about Mr. Mage! One does not simply appear on the chapter cover and leave again without so much as a name being given.
And before you say “But he’s not sticking around long, you won’t learn much” (which I hope won’t happen) I consider a name something. Especially that sort of name, and the hesitance with which he gave it. Perhaps his parents named him that out of fear that his magical predisposition would lead him down a dark pathway and him half ashamed of his own name, or if he did choose the dark pathway, renamed himself that (which I doubt, considering him letting Jonathan off the hook with a simple bash to the face and is at least acknowledging Andrea’s presence.)
Or maybe the hesitance was simply “oh no now I have to make conversation or come off like a total jerk”. Hard to tell with his total dialogue comprising of an ellipsis and his name. (And now I’m reminded of the EA strip when you edited a paper or story or something for Reby and was annoyed with all the ellipses.)
Heh, it’s not that he doesn’t like his name/ is reluctant to talk to Andrea so much as he’s a bit awkward in social situations. He often speaks with hesitation or doesn’t speak at all. As for having what is normally in the west a Russian female name- here it is used more as the Japanese would use it, which is androgynous. In Russian it means ‘sun/ throne’, Japanese ‘glitter’, and Gaelic ‘dark’ (if my sources are reliable, that is). The real history behind his name is that it was originally going to be Arik, but then I realised I had a lot of ‘A’ names (Andrea, Arra, Ariht…) so I simply reversed it. Coincidentally, however, it’s three meanings are actually quite apt.