Final Fantasy X, Now With 20% More HD

2012-01-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

I have been put in a weird position with the upcoming release of Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 3 and VITA. Around this time last year, I finished casting for Final Fantasy X Decennial, a complete remix of the game using a brand new soundtrack (although I did plan to keep a lot of the iconic songs for nostalgia), immersive sound effects, and brand new vocals from a fantastic cast of amateur voice actors and actresses. It was my intention to give the game an audio facelift for a new generation of gamers who might be hesitant given its slightly-dated graphics and to satisfy an urge to tackle a project that would really test my sound design skills. Of course, the events outlined in the previous post [Happy New Year] caused a massive delay in the release of the project.

Recently, Sony announced that they will be releasing Final Fantasy X again. This time, it will be using the Crystal Tools engine for the Playstation 3, so the graphics will be vastly improved. This has presented a unique problem for me. I have a pilot episode already recorded, the vocals are all ready to go, and it just needs to be mixed again. I would be more than happy to release this current episode as it stands. However, with the news of a remake on the horizon, it offers me the chance to feature the fantastic voice actors and actresses with the new footage, which will absolutely get more views than the old game would.

And that's where you come in!

I have put up a poll to the left with several options for how to proceed with Final Fantasy X Decennial. They're pretty self-explanatory, but I'll go through them just in case something isn't as clear as it seems in my head.

1. The fandub will use the original game's footage for this and all future episodes. Waiting for the remake would waste time and ruin the nostalgia.

2. The fandub will use the original game's footage for this and all future episodes up until the U.S. release of the remake and then switch over to that. It will ensure that the production doesn't lose any more momentum, but it also offers the chance to "upgrade" to the better graphics later.

3. This is a rehash of the second option except that once the remake comes out, any released episodes would be redone using the new footage to replace the old ones upon completion. This option would keep up momentum without sacrificing quality in the long run, however it may require re-recording and re-scripting of "old" scenes depending on whether or not Square-Enix changes cutscenes drastically.

4. The fandub will use the original footage for this episode and then take a hiatus until the remake is released in the U.S. Then it will resume with the new graphics.

5. This is the same as the fourth option except that the pilot episode will be redone once the remake comes out.

6. Just wait until the remake comes out and see how much can be salvaged from the first episode. This may require a full re-recording for the cast depending on if cutscenes are actually changed or not.

Please look over the options above and cast your vote for how you would like Final Fantasy X Decennial to continue. I can't guarantee that I will go with the most popular option, but it will certainly weigh heavily in my decision.

Thank you!

Happy New Year

2012-01-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Bad Karma Productions blog!

Lately, I had been throwing around the idea of starting a blog in order to keep myself and my fans up to date on the progress of my productions. Until recently, I just didn't have enough time to even think about starting up a blog, let alone finishing all of the sound work that I have on my plate. However, I feel like this medium might be the best option for dispersing information about upcoming auditions, video releases, and delays.

Speaking of delays... I'm sure many of you have noticed my extended absence, and for that I apologize. This last spring was the start of a whirlwind of change for me. Back in April 2011, I packed up everything and moved eight hours away from my previous home in Montana all the way to Federal Way, WA, a suburb of Seattle. There were several reasons for the move, although I really won't get into those because they're both personal and not related to the content of this blog. Suffice it to say, the rest of April and May were spent unpacking, settling into my new home, and finding a job. Thankfully, all three of those objectives were completed surprisingly quickly.

My new job is a secure one, so I have very little to no chance of being laid off or fired for any reason, which was one of my main objectives given the still-weak economic state of the country. However, the trade-off for this stability is an overwhelming schedule. I generally now work five-day weeks, generally putting in around fifty hours within those five days. This has left very little time to get my scripting and mixing done compared to what I was used to achieving. Inevitably, this led to a major slowdown in my releases, although I still managed to finish no less than twenty clips totaling nearly two hours worth of footage in the first three months.

And that's when disaster struck.

At the end of August, my computer's motherboard started to die. I woke up one day, tried to wake it up from sleep mode, and was greeted with a black screen with a blinking cursor. Desperate to salvage what I could, I called in a specialist to see if I could get it working again or at least copy over my files and reset it back to factory default. Sadly, I was unable to save anything due to a glitch in the motherboard, so all of that work was lost for all of my projects. The computer was reset back to the its initial state and seemed to be working fine again. I gathered all my sound design materials, raw footage, music, and was ready to get back into the swing of thing by the end of September, and then it happened again.

From October into the middle of November, I had no computer whatsoever. I was able to keep in touch briefly with a few close friends using my cell phone, but I had to wait until the end of October before I had enough money to purchase a new computer. Once it arrived, I immediately started rebuilding my sound design collections yet again. I now have all of the raw footage, soundtracks, sound effects, and most of the vocals that I will need to start recreating my projects from scratch again. Of course, by the time I had reached that point, the holidays were right around the corner, so there just wasn't time to get anything done with all of the hubbub from Thanksgiving through the New Year.

Thankfully, all that has passed, and I am anxious to get back into the swing of things. It's been nearly a full year since my last major release, which is a great shame. I promise that I haven't given up on any of my projects, even if it seemed over the last six months that I had just disappeared. Although my spare time to spend on sound design will still be much less than it used to be, I do plan to start releasing projects again very soon. I recently purchased a PVR HD screen recording device so that I can capture both Final Fantasy X and Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria in 720p HD after discovering several annoying flaws in emulation of both games on my computer. Those will be discussed in another blog post, however.

I really appreciate everyone's patience over the last year, and I hope to make this year a more productive one on all fronts!