KHI note ... regarding hippos.

[telophase]

(Will be posted over on Tpop site once their servers stop acting up, hence the first paragraph, since I know most of you know that lived in Africa.)

Many of you on this site don't know that I lived in Tanzania as a kid. My dad was a grad student in wildlife science, and so he moved us to the Serengeti National Park for two years while he did field biology there and gathered data for his dissertation.

What this has to do with a video game is that having lived in East Africa, where there are real hippos and real hippo pools, and knowing a lot about hippos, means that I know they are dangerous creatures. Way cool, nifty to see ... but you do not mess with hippos. Hippos kill more people than lions in East Africa. Our favorite hippo-pool had a cliff over it, where we'd drive the Land Rover and park to watch the hippos. Since it was up on a cliff, the hippos couldn't get out of the pool, go all the way around the edges of the pool, and climb up the road to the top without us seeing them, so it was reasonably safe. As safe as you get in the bush. We knew better than to get out of the car on the other side of the pool, though, because hippos are deceptively fast.

So the bit in the Kindom Hearts I game where you actually swim through hippo pools? Scares the bejeezus out of me, every time. It doesn't matter that it's animated and the hippos are big pink balloons that bob up and down that you can jump on. There's just something in the back of my brain that says: hippo pools=bad mojo.

(...and since I'm still in the middle of the game, no spoilers please. :D I've hit the big cut scene after the boss fight in the jungle and after you go behind the waterfall, but I haven't gone any further.)

Comments

[farli.livejournal.com]

Hee! :D

How're you enjoying the game so far?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Pretty good. I grew to loathe the jungle, though, since it took me so long to get out of it, and if I never swing on another vine again, it will be too soon. But other than that and the occasional seasickness from the motion, I'm having fun and my lousiness at games doesn't count for much, since if I screw up and get killed - which is happening less and less as I figure out how to use the various fighting skills and magical attacks - the game just starts over at the exact same place.

And Cloud? Who I met in the Coliseum and took, like, thirty fucking seconds to defeat?* Whiny emo bitch who can just bite my fantabulous ass.




* I suspect he's programmed to be easy to beat, actually. But still...

[chisotahn]

Cloud is SO uberly emo strange in KH. I consider him pretty OOC in the first game. >>;

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I would hate to have to play him for hours if he was that way normally.

[chisotahn]

Naw, Cloud's really a bit of a dork. Anyone who leads the party off to the final battle to save the world with a "Let's mosey!".... yeah. XD

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

You and your earth logic! ;) Don't you know hippos are ballerinas??

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And pink!

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I was watching a hippo show on animal planet thinking, "Boy, I know those are just about the most dangerous animals* in all of Africa, but how can they be so massive and prancy at the same time?" They practically dance on tip-toes when they are feeling frisky.

*Cape buffalo are also dangerous, unpredictable, and often underestimated by people who don't know any better.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's amazing, isn't it? I remember seeing Cape buffalo, too - we never got out of the cars around them. Cape buffalo are kind of thugs - they've got those funky horns on their heads that the peer out from under in that sort of "You lookin' at me funny? I'm talkin' to you! You wanna start somethin'??" way

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

The hippos were a part of the game I found annoying and handed off the controller to more patient and video-game inclined people.

OT: Did you ever say if you ended up liking Return to the Labyrinth or not? I have seen some mixed reviews on it and was wondering your opinion on it before I head off to the bookstore again.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually finished reading Return, because every time I look at it, I think that I don't want to be annoyed as much as I think I will be, and pass. I'll try to get to it this weekend. :)

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

You know, I realized I'd never actually seen an angry hippo--all the ones I'd looked at in pictures or zoos seemed either sleepy or sort of dopey and cheerful--so I went looking for pictures.

...I am now terrified of hippos and afraid that an enraged one is going to charge in here and kill me. *hides under the desk*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Now you know how I feel playing KH1. There's these two pools, and three sleepy hippos floating in them, gently bobbing up and down, and it freaked me out when I realized I was expected to swim in there. And every time I fell off the vines, I landed in the hippo pools and had to swim for the shore, and I was positive that at any second, one of them would open up its freaky-ass mouth and charge.

[the-z.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I'd wished the hippos would've just turned and CHOMPED Sora in that area. I hated it!

Hippos are craaaaaaaanky~

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Vines. And emo Tarzan. I totally wanted to throttle Tarzan with the vines. And I go so. damn. seasick. in that area.

[the-z.livejournal.com]

The camera in that game is one of its biggest flaws. Even I would get eye strain and mild vertigo from the camera whipping around so often.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Putting it into Sora's viewpoint and looking around the area to see stuff? Enough to make me want to hurl.

[unrelatedwaffle.livejournal.com]

OH DEAR LORD THE HIPPO POOL. I hate all of the Deep Jungle, but the Hippo Pool may take the cake for most annoying place in the game at that point (because you can't even jump that far yet). Don't worry, you'll make it through. And find a friend to do the gathering fruit game, because I couldn't just sit there for hours gathering fruit.