Rating Anime and Video Games, an Explanation, Part 2

Hey guys, Lin here with Part 2 of my rating system. To start off, I'll let you know that anime and video game criteria merge. Every subject that is analyzed in anime is also done in video games, however, video games has criteria which is not analyzed in anime...

I'll start with giving very brief descriptions of shared criteria before going into other ratings that specific to anime or VGs.

1. Characters. I judge characters based on how real main characters feel and whether or not they can be related to. I think that good fictional characters have major strengths, but they also have flaws and weaknesses. Examples of bad characters are marysues or one dimensional characters.
2. Dialogue: Cringe worthy one-liners don't get many points, you'd imagine. Dialogue is just how smoothly lines go with each other and how appropriate their script is. Cursing three times in a sentence doesn't make your lines any more meaningful.
3. Story: Is the story engaging? Can you be hooked by the story or is story not really relevant? Those are things that are examined when looking at a story. Sometimes a VG may not have a story or not focus on one. That's fine too. There are times when story is not relevant to a game, however you can imagine that a story is very relevant in certain genres, such as JRPGs.
4. Music: This is beyond how good the music in a game is; this refers to how well sound is used in the media. Once upon a time, someone told me that you can tell how good a game is by the player being affected by it's sound. For games like Amnesia, sometimes the lack of music makes a player tense up and adds to atmosphere.
5. Graphics: This ranking is based on how well graphically the game is doing compared to their competition. The ranking itself isn't really that important, but for games with large audiences and expectation, it has higher priority versus, say an indie game.

One rating that's specific to only anime is:

1. Animation. Since this is the only rating for anime, this'll be a little longer than usual. Unless a game can be heavily cinematic, like FFXIII or Mass Effect, this one doesn't really apply to games. But the biggest question I get is what's the difference between Animation and Graphics. Graphics are basically the style of standstills and images. It asks whether or not the artists put effort into the look and feel of the anime. Also, some people want this to also include how appropriate the graphics are tied in to the plot and feel of the anime, but I don't think this to be true. There are plenty of great anime that has graphics that don't take itself seriously, but is about real issues or has rather dark content. Examples of this Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Elfen Lied.

Video games have a few more criteria to work with:

1. Gameplay. This includes how well the game incorporates its play ability. Is the way the game incorporated it's mechanics fun to play or is it a bore? Gameplay can surpass a lot of criteria and is typically a priority when it comes to games including story, graphics, and music. Remember, a game's mechanics don't have to be complicated to be fun to play.
2. Controls. Discusses how smooth the controls are. This also includes what people run into when trying to control a character, so camera panning or clipping or not clipping into other people or NPCs. Sometimes the lack of control in a game can be a detriment to gameplay.
3. Lastly, Replayability. For me, this is a big one. Sometimes a game may have so much content, there isn't a need for replaying it. However, in most cases, this discusses length of the game, what's the chances of playing the game over and also the content given after finishing the game.

I hope you liked this little explanation on how I rate anime and video games on this blog! See you next time!