Summary of The Star Fox Video | An Earnestly Long Analysis

This is an AI generated summary. There may be inaccuracies.
Summarize another video · Purchase summarize.tech Premium

00:00:00 - 01:00:00

The video discusses the appeal of the Star Fox series, its journey, and how the first game in the series, Starwing, is a technical marvel with a memorable cast of animal characters. It also discusses the sequel, Star Fox 2, which was cancelled but eventually released on the Nintendo Switch Online service. Lylat Wars borrows elements from Star Fox 2 and expands upon the story, with Fox McCloud as the main character. Star Fox Adventures is a departure from the traditional gameplay, and is not well-received by fans. The author critiques how Star Fox Adventures introduces its female lead, Krystal, and how the game fails to provide a serious tone that makes Krystal's plight more believable.

00:00:00 The video discusses how the appeal of the Star Fox series is straightforward, and how its journey has been turbulent. It goes on to discuss how the first game in the series, Starwing, is a technical marvel and how its cast of animal characters is memorable.
00:05:00 The video discusses the appeal of the Star Fox team, which includes the carefree Slippy Toad, the knowledgeable Peppy Hare, and the leader Fox McCloud. The team is unconventional compared to other video games of its time, as the characters speak gibberish and do not have character development or personalities. However, the team's bond and their interactions in the game make up for their lack of development. The video also discusses the sequel, Star Fox 2, which improves on the Super FX technology used in the original game. However, by the mid-1990s, the graphics and gameplay of Star Fox 2 were no longer novel, and the development team focused more on player freedom. This led to derailing the Arwings and letting the players move them around freely in open spaces. Additionally, the team added the first two female characters of the series, the flirtatious and bold lynx Miyu, and the upbeat dog with an aristocratic past Fay.
00:10:00 Star Fox 2 was originally planned to be released in 1996, but was cancelled due to the development of Lylat Wars. The game was eventually released on the Nintendo Switch Online service in 2019. This game, along with Lylat Wars, borrows elements from Star Fox 2 and significantly improves upon them.
00:15:00 Lylat Wars introduces the new characters Katt Monroe and Fay, and reintroduces the original four characters from Star Fox 2 - Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, and Peppy Hare. While the game is largely a remake of Star Fox 2, it expands upon the story and establishes Fox McCloud as the main character.
00:20:00 The Star Fox Video provides an earnestly long analysis of the Lylat Wars game, which discusses how the game cemented Fox McCloud as the protagonist and how his father's death affects him. The video also discusses the impact of the voice acting and the sunglasses mission, which shows Fox becoming worthy of the McCloud name and mastering the Lylat system.
00:25:00 Star Fox Adventures is a departure from the traditional Star Fox gameplay, featuring on-foot combat and a focus on one planet. It was not well received by fans at the time, but has since been largely forgotten and is only remembered for its unusual elements.
00:30:00 <could not summarize>
00:35:00 In Star Fox Adventures, Krystal is ostensibly the second playable character after Fox, but she is quickly captured and never has any real role in the story. Her purpose is to introduce the player to General Scales and to be ironically trapped in a crystal contraption to serve as bait for Andross's plan to revive himself. Krystal is barely a character, and her lack of importance is made clear by the story.
00:40:00 The author critiques how Star Fox Adventures introduces its female lead, Krystal, and how the game fails to provide a serious tone that makes Krystal's plight more believable. He points out that Krystal's agency and connection to the main character, Fox, are gradually revealed throughout the game, but are ultimately irrelevant because of her role in the game's final scene.
00:45:00 The video discusses how, originally, Dinosaur Planet was meant to be a Star Fox game, but was reworked into what is now known as Star Fox Adventures. Krystal, the protagonist of this game, was originally designed to be a different furry character named Sabre, but was later replaced by Fox McCloud. Krystal has a lot of personality in her early design, and is described as "cute as a button," "strong and brave," and "vocalized by Eveline Novakovic, famous for composing what is secretly the best Donkey Kong Country soundtrack ever made." The video argues that, despite being a Nintendo 64 game, Dinosaur Planet is actually one of the most advanced and well-designed titles ever released on the system, and that Krystal is one of the most impressive and interesting characters ever created for a video game.
00:50:00 The video discusses the redesign of Krystal in Star Fox Adventures, which drastically changes her role from a main character to an underdeveloped damsel in distress. It reveals that the changes were made due to the pivot to being a Star Fox game in particular, and that there is an explanation for the redesign.
00:55:00 The video discusses how the design of Krystal was not finalized until after Takaya Imamura visited Rare to oversee development of the game, and that Miyamoto himself has said he wanted a sexy character added to the mix. Krystal's portrayal in Star Fox Adventures is said to be poor, and Adventures is said to be her game by virtue of its origins.

01:00:00 - 02:00:00

The video discusses the various endings of "Star Fox Command" and how they relate to the characters' development. It argues that the game is introspective and allows the player to see the characters from a different perspective.

01:00:00 Star Fox Assault is a game that was first announced in a press release in May 2002, and was released under the name Star Fox Assault. The game saw the return of Arwings and Landmasters in distinctly Lylatian environments, as well as Fox hopping out of vehicles and taking on the action on-foot with an arsenal of big scary guns. Although the game was novel, some people were critical of the ground-based combat being the main focus of the levels.
01:05:00 In Star Fox Assault, the crew has aged since the last game and gone through some changes, most notably Krystal taking over for Peppy as pilot. The story is focused on defeating a new alien threat, and Oikonny and his goons are never seen again after the game. This game uses a different mechanics system, switching between on-rails and all-range mode, which helps to illustrate the evolution of the Star Fox franchise.
01:10:00 The author of the video argues that the lack of significant Arwing levels in Star Fox Assault is a smart move, because it allows the game to focus on the Arwing itself and its spectacle. The opening level, which is meant to fool the player, serves a higher purpose than just reminding players of old games. Krystal, who was introduced in the last game, is included in the game as a formality, but is not a liability. Her inclusion is a sign of the writers' readiness to include her in future games.
01:15:00 In Star Fox Assault, Krystal is a secondary character who has little bearing on the narrative or inclusion in the writing. This says more about Star Fox than Krystal. Throughout the game, Star Wolf will show up in four of the ten levels, often as antagonists to Fox and his team. Their role in the game boils down to being the anti-Star Fox, representing everything the heroes were not. This makes their chemistry dubious, as Wolf and Fox are rivals based on their leadership. This incident ends up being a big embarrassment on Star Fox's part and gives Wolf a massive moral high ground.
01:20:00 In this game, Wolf helps Fox return to the fighting force and teach him about the past nine years, showing him his growth and proving that he was wrong about him. Panther, a new recruit, is a good guy who has something in common with Star Wolf - their shared societal position as outcasts.
01:25:00 Star Fox Command is a linear space shooter that picks up where Star Fox 2 left off, expanding on the ideas presented in that game. The controls are intuitive and the game is well-made.
01:30:00 Star Fox Command is a game about the main character having a midlife crisis, and it's brilliant. The game introduces new characters and expands upon the cast from previous Star Fox games, and it's also less about the encounters themselves and more about where those routes take our characters emotionally.
01:35:00 The video discusses the inevitable breaking up of the team in the Star Fox series, and how it is used as a justification for reintroducing the characters to face a new threat. It goes on to discuss how Fox, as the protagonist, is not fully developed apart from his agreeable attributes, and how this affects how we view him. The video ends by discussing how the player is now allowed to see Fox from a different perspective, and how this impacts the way the player views the team.
01:40:00 In "Star Fox Command," the player has the opportunity to play through nine different possible endings, each with its own unique story. The first ending is the "regular bummer" ending where Fox and his team fail and Krystal falls out of love with him. The second ending, which is the one most players are likely to play through, is where Fox and Krystal have a son. The third ending is a more standard fair ending where the team is back together again with a cliffhanger set up. The fourth ending is a what-if scenario where the team is successful but Krystal dies. The fifth ending is where Fox and Krystal divorce. The sixth ending is where Fox and Krystal have a child together. The seventh and final ending is where Fox and Krystal have a child and they stay married. The ending order is not important, as every ending is logged in the main menu and is a different story.
01:45:00 In this video, the writer discusses how the relationship between Fox McCloud and Krystal Rose is a central conflict in Star Fox Command. They argue that the game makes Krystal a character in her own right and explores her complex relationships with other characters. Some fans are uncomfortable with the idea of conflict or disagreement between Fox and Krystal, feeling that it would damage the character's reputation. However, the writer argues that this is actually the only time that Krystal is allowed to be a real person, with her thoughts, feelings, and drives taking center stage.
01:50:00 Krystal leaves her old friends, the Star Fox team, to start her own life. She joins the only other available flying crew apart from the Cornerian cop unit and that inevitably changes her. Krystal's attitude towards Fox is aimed mainly at him and she doesn't conform to the typical Fox-centric team dynamic. Krystal is treated differently from the other members of the team and is shunned by society. Krystal's ending is a bit of a silly one, but the parallels to her treatment by some fans is striking.
01:55:00 Star Fox Command is an introspective game about the Star Fox series' past and future. It tells multiple stories that are inconsistent with each other to reach an ambiguous and open-ended conclusion. It is the last game in the old continuity of the series, and although it may not be canon, it provides a satisfying conclusion to the story arcs of the characters.

02:00:00 - 02:25:00

The video discusses how the Star Fox series has gone downhill in recent years, with the author arguing that the games have become conceptually dull and have not embraced modern technology. They conclude with a plea for Nintendo to revive the series with new, bold ideas.

02:00:00 The video discusses how Star Fox ended 15 years earlier than we thought, with the realization that the game had a "funky" control scheme and a "weird" ending. They argue that the game's themes were incomprehensible to us as kids and that the rebooted series reflected our desire for a simpler story without too many new ideas or novel control methods. They argue that the games fulfill a promise of stagnation by reverting the premise of the series into always being Fox in a spaceship shooting down a giant monkey head.
02:05:00 The author of the article critiques Star Fox Zero, criticizing its lack of creativity and its reliance on Lylat Wars. He argues that if the game had been created using its wider universe as a foundation, it would have been more engaging. He also points out that the game does not represent diversity well, as it reduces characters to their basic elements and ignores other games in the series.
02:10:00 The author discusses how Star Fox Zero follows outdated and sexist standards in its character design, specifically noting that there are no female characters present in the game. They argue that this undermines the franchise's potential and makes it difficult to see it as a meaningful example of contemporary video gaming.
02:15:00 The author discusses how fans of the Star Fox series have long debated the series' status, concluding that Star Fox is not currently dead but may be if it does not modernize itself. He argues that the series has a core of values that can be embraced by a wider audience, and that these values are what draw fans in. He says that while the series has not performed well financially, this may not be because of its "weird places" or "absurd control methods", but rather because it has not fully embraced modern technology.
02:20:00 The video discusses how, apart from the original "Star Fox" game for the SNES, all subsequent titles in the series have been conceptually dull. The video argues that the broader strengths of the series, such as its characters and world, transcend the space action. The video concludes with a plea for Nintendo to revive the series with new, bold ideas.
02:25:00 Alicia introduces the names of supporters who made pledges since the last video, and reveals that she is finally free to breathe after being trapped in a head cast for two months.