Agreed. It does an excellent job nailing that eerie feeling that makes you want to keep exploring, just so you can understand everything about the world.
When I picture this game in my head it always looks incredibly realistic, which is a real testament to just how atmospheric, vivid and striking its locations are.
Every setpiece is memorable, which goes a long way in making this game stand out IMO. That said, I can't picture it realistic - the simple vector art totally does the game wonders!
I've seen a handful of MNOG Let's Plays, and yours is by far the best. The Ghoti's Bionicle knowledge and the rapport between the you and catatouille really makes this a joy to watch. The love of the characters you both have really elevates this and brings a smile to my face :) thanks for making this
I have a very strict policy when it comes to uploading LPs to my channel, and that's that if I don't feel like what I've made is the absolute best LP of the game available on RU-vid, I won't upload it and will sit down to record it again. I do this to ensure that each and every project I upload is the highest quality possible. It's good to see that my efforts have paid off! Glad you enjoyed this series! It was a ton of fun to make, and I loved sharing this game with so many people.
Probably a coincident, but pretty mind blowing, when watching the origin story. Mata Nui fell into a deep sleep and was buried to the ground. The body of Mata Nui (or the face) was buried under the island. Like it was there since the beginning.
Oh man, do I remember this game. Never finished it, but I still enjoyed just wandering around. Also, I actually watched the first 3 movies. They were... something, though as a kid, I liked Nokoma's Toa design on the second film.
My stance on the first three films is that Mask of Light is one of the most enjoyable bad movies out there, it's just so fun and cheesey, Legends of Metru Nui is actually an excellent story that tried to cram about 5 hours of content into an hour and a half runtime, and Web of Shadows is way too edgy but the villains have a great dynamic.
Watching you re-play this game and now watching the LP AND drawing the art for this series is making me really wanna play through this game again myself. XD Also Kapura is amazing 👐
That was a pretty sad time, although them discontinuing it is what's allowed me to complete as much of my collection as I have - had it kept on going, I doubt I would ever have shot to complete my collection! :P
This series is absolutely amazing. Like Bionicle, I hope to revisit this in the future out of the sheer passion it exudes. This is easily the best series on the game on RU-vid imo, thanks again for sharing.
Maybe Bionicle will make a comeback when Noughties nostalgia becomes fashionable? I was never into it as a kid, but it makes me feel peripheral nostalgia. It's that Jetix aesthetic.
I can totally see a comeback happening. The amount of times I've accidentally stumbled across a Bionicle meme/reference on Facebook/Twitter/Reddit is a lot higher than I expected, so it's still in people's minds despite G1 ending a decade ago. I myself only just got back into the series this past September, after I hosted a poll on my Discord server of what I should blow my first paycheck from my current job on. Katie was never into Bionicle as a kid either, but she found herself similarly nostalgic when she played this game for the first time - it just does such a good job tapping into that childlike wonder and intrigue you felt as you slowly explored the world around you and realized just how big it is. Familiar with the franchise or not, I hope you enjoy this playthrough! (Oh, and "peripheral nostalgia" is an excellent term. Mind if I borrow it?)
@@GhabulousGhoti You can borrow peripheral nostalgia. It's not to be confused with nostalgia for someone else's childhood, which is my term for when I long to feel nostalgic for something.
I’ve seen your Let’s Plays for Night of 100 Frights, BFBB Rehydrated, Petz Catz 2, & Madagascar. I’m on this now, and I have to say that the music here is SO trancelike! It’s almost hypnotizing, unlike any of those other games
This game is honestly phenomenal, straight up the best licensed game I've ever played and by a considerable margin too. Madagascar, No100F, and the OG BfBB are all solid games but none of them come close to this IMO.
Totally agree that the living masks in the Movie were unnecessary and I'd add a little weird. The characters can still emote very well without flesh masks.
Someone remembers the pens! I got a Pohrok pen on my 7th or 8th birthday. I think it came with a super tiny Krana too (I could be wrong though). Generation 2 Bionicle didn't have the charm the original did. They told the first year's story in a series of flash webtoons (with a single narrator) and the second year had a CGI Netflix series where they rushed the conclusion of the story arc. A lot of the story was pretty much a copy of the first 3 years of Gen 1. I was impressed with the figures. They melded LEGO's new CCBS system with classic Bionicle gear mechanics while giving each Toa a unique build and silhouette. But Gen 1 easily had the superior story and character arcs (there was an implied connection by having "half of the Mask of Time" but it was never elaborated on).
So, at this point in time, I've seen most of what G2 has to offer. I actually enjoyed the webtoons, since I found the style pretty charming, but I agree that wasn't enough. As for Journey to One? Yikes, that was rough. Even judging it as a show aimed at young children, I found it pretty painful and really hard to get invested in. Everything just blended together and felt so mindless :( Katie has collected more than half of G2's sets so far and I'm really mixed on most of them. I think the old aesthetic was so much more interesting but I still enjoyed the figures she has. She's actually managed to acquire that ultra-rare "Exclusive Gali Mask" and it's certainly pretty nice on a shelf!
@@GhabulousGhoti That's really cool about Gali's mask. Honestly, I was willing to give G2 a shot. Yeah the sets didn't share the aesthetic, but there was some resemblance to the Toa's original designs. And again, I thought they found some creative ways to build the Toa and titans (it wasn't just clipping armor pieces to a simple articulate skeleton). I remember looking up Toa Kaita MOCs. But I never got to buy any sets from the final wave because there was no Toys R' Us here. I agree with you on the story. I thought it looked visually appealing. And I didn't mind having a full reboot (catching up to the lore for G1 was tedious if you didn't own all the books or comics, but I was lucky to have the 2007 Encyclopedia which was current up to the Mahri arc). But it was a bit disappointing. I think one of the things G1 had over G2 was that it gave audience's some mature themes. I think Bionicle explored some dark themes that most LEGO original lines didn't even touch lol
Yeah, agreed completely. G2 just dumbed itself down a little too much for its own good. I totally get that G1 was too convoluted in its own right, but they went too far in the other direction :P
@@GhabulousGhoti Indeed. And I would also argue that the first three films at least had atmosphere and charm. Web of Shadows is unironically one of my favorite pieces of Bionicle media. Sure, the movie skipped a lot of stuff from the books, and feels a little redundant because we already knew the outcome, but I thought it was an interesting character study for the Turaga, revealing sides to them that probably only Matoro knew of (outside of the Turaga themselves). Speaking of which, it was chilling in the books for Turaga Nuju to break his vow of speech just to say "Hordika," like it was a forbidden word. I just never saw that kind of depth in any G2 character. The Toa themselves even felt like children. I did have this headcanon that maybe we're seeing the Toa in training before they were ever sent to the island of Mata Nui (partly because they needed the elemental beasts to master their respective element), but it was nothing more than speculation.
Generally with Bionicle I find the story tends to get more complicated with every new island. The Mata Nui stories were generally pretty cut and dry; here’s the bad guys, here’s the good guys, the bad guys seem to get the upper hand, but ultimately good defeats evil, job done. And it was basically that on repeat up until the whole mask of light thing started with the addition of a sixth toa, but even that pretty much followed the same formula. Granted they mixed it up a little by adding some focus to the Matoran and the Turaga, and throwing in some side stuff like the written language and the mysterious objects alluding to the island’s past, but the main focus was always Makuta and his monsters vs the Toa and the inhabitants of Mata Nui. Metru Nui was similar, but a little bit more complex, what with the whole island city thing, and Makuta pretending to be a ruling figure of Metru Nui, and then the whole thing with the insects....and after that I kind of lost interest. The overall story had some pretty awesome ideas, but the issue is more with the lines that join the dots rather than the dots themselves.
The Metru Nui arc is probably my favorite overall. I mean, don't get me wrong - it's Bionicle so it's still a clusterfuck of a story, but the ideas behind it are pretty genius. I personally lost interested around the 2008 arc, but I caught up on everything a year later when Lego announced that G1 was being canceled.
@@GhabulousGhoti I was in a similar boat to be honest. Also, at the moment Christian Faber is hinting at doing something Bionicle related that might be more in the spirit of G1 Bionicle, though there is scepticism among the fans about what he has planned. Never the less he released some really awesome pictures on his instagram, including what looks like a more up to date CG image of Tahu's canister on the beach 4.bp.blogspot.com/-xGT8uAEvx1E/V8_rKFB-iMI/AAAAAAAACFU/xsQ54IGPO70P0MDAl7k70PbDju8GkzhGACK4B/s1600/FaberFiles16_Someday%2C+somewhere.jpg
that is great to hear. I might still have time! looking forward for looking through the series. Maybe I can learn a bit more about Bionicles Story along the way. Thank you.
I did a voice acted playthrough of this game at around the same time you guys did or a bit before! Of course I was just one guy going it alone so... yeah.
I'm sorry if we stole your thunder at all! This series did a lot better than I expected, I think it was the blend of us tackling a niche game like this while having a decently-sized audience already (for that initial boost) and having some pretty unique thumbnails that gave us the kick, but I'm still shocked by how well this performed.
little fact for those wondering: the reason the game looks like it’s in fast forward sometimes is because the developers originally programmed the game to look like it’s running at a normal pace on slower machines, but since the more powerful computers are now practically the standard these days, the game has less of a reason to compensate.
This game was really a masterpiece and really got you immersed in this island world with its various villages, lovable characters and mystery. Thats why I lost interest in the franchise when it left Mata Nui. Mata Nui felt like home after this game and others set here. After all we did to fight for a build Mata Nui then it was just “now we are leaving lol” Well as far as I’m concerned the story ends after Mask of Light. It’s a good arc from fighting the Rahi to the Borok to those snake guys.
While I agree that this game is the best piece of Bionicle media, the arc immediately after Mask of Light, the downfall of Metru Nui, is hands down my favorite arc. It's different for sure, but I love what they did with it. Don't get me wrong, the franchise definitely declined as it went on and nothing else quite matched the unique sense of atmosphere those early years had, but I'd say I enjoyed up through the Piraka/Inika arc.
You may have noticed, especially in the battle over Le-Wahi, but the modern version of the game is sped up about 50%. You can use cheat engine to slow it 33% to proper speed.
16:22 A "redoubt" is a kind of fort. So Rahi overrunning a redoubt would put the people of Ta-Koro at a severe disadvantage in being ready for future attacks, I think.
@@GhabulousGhoti who knows. the writer has foreshadowed the brotherhood of Makuta in 2004.(way before we know the brotherhood of makuta.)(writer of bionicle stories might have already setting the concept of team metru.)
@@user-op9ig4df6p So, I actually have done a heck of a lot of research into the plans and development of Bionicle. Templar only had access to the current story bible, which didn't mention Metru Nui (or any preliminary version of it) at all. Additionally, looking at this out of universe just from a narrative standpoint, it wouldn't make any thematic sense to introduce the legend of the Toa Metru only to depict it in a way that implies it's the OG Toa. Lastly, while the core ideas of what would become Metru Nui definitely existed as far back as early 2000 (and potentially earlier), the heroes from that arc weren't always planned to be Toa. The story team toyed around with the idea of it potentially being some of the Matoran from 2001 who would act as protagonists during the Metru Nui arc. The decision for it being the Turaga and them originally being Toa was made behind the scenes in 2002 IIRC, which would be more than a year after this cutscene was animated. So, I'm sorry to say, there's almost no chance this cutscene was intended to be the Toa Metru :(
Just wanted to point out that the Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand and the Cook Islands, not Easter Island/Rapa Nui. So the conflict LEGO had was with the Māori and wasn't really related to the Rapa Nui people.
2:48 I only got the g2 set of Tahu,... the pieces attached like doll clothes (like hero factory), and I think this sorta limited my imagination... compared to the overwhelming possibilities of my collection of old pieces. I especially like custom building an arm, leg, hand, or any other body part from scratch using the rods/rails and some small parts. XD
Katie (my co-host) has more G2 sets than I do, and I would agree that they feel limited. The builds tens to be simple and the aesthetic is way too smooth for my tastes. That said, the way they integrated the gearboxes allowing for both function and posability is a very nice addition.
Oh my godddd bionicle was my first obsession as a child. People thought I was weird for liking it cuz Im a girl xD god i loved playing this game and I remember pointlessly grinding crap in the sequel but I could never get past a certain point
I mostly played the sequel as a kid and it definitely doesn't compare to this game IMO. Nothing weird about liking Bionicle! I played Barbies and PowerPuff Girls with my sisters, that's just how it be sometimes :P
I don't really discuss details of future projects (partially to avoid spoiling the surprise and partially to not get people's hopes up if for some reason it never happens), but we've definitely tossed around the idea of MNOG II and there seems to be a lot of viewer interest, so I'd say it's more likely than not!
@@GhabulousGhoti Oh, one other question! Have you ever considered playing the old Lego games? Like, Johnny Thunder (if it is available somewhere, there are short games with the Golden Dragon and the Minotaur), Rock Raiders, Soccer Mania? I think I've only seen one person play Rock Raiders on YT in several years, but it would be really neat!
I've never played those so I haven't given it any thought, but I wouldn't say never. I host open polls on Discord every few months where members can vote on games for me to stream, so they're always a possibility if any win!
"Inconsistent worldbuilding" would be a better way to put it. We know so little about most area's cultures other than a few surface level details, which I will mostly chalk up to Greg writing for 10-year-olds. I find a large number of holes in the way parts of the world work that leave a lot to be desired.
Yeah, I actually played MNOG 2 way more as a kid. I have a few concerns with LPing the game, but know that it's something we've definitely discussed and exists as a possibility in the future.
Commentary begins at 0:00, and if you don't want commentary, there are plenty of other channels that can provide a silent gameplay experience which you may be more interested in.
@@GhabulousGhoti you know, I was just thinking about it. if they were to get a mixture of new blood, as well as veteran members from the G1 BIONICLE team, a reboot MIGHT actually be possible, and face success. and veterans members of the G1 team would include names like Greg Farshtey.
Metru Nui was similar, but a little bit more complex, what with the whole island city thing, and Makuta pretending to be a ruling figure of Metru Nui, and then the whole thing with the insects....and after that I kind of lost interest. The overall story had some pretty awesome ideas, but the issue is more with the lines that join the dots rather than the dots themselves.
@@TheArkhamOne Not at all. Funny thing with those - back in 2015 I found one of the pieces of the toothbrushes that I had as a kid so I looked them up on eBay and found the three of those. It was a super impulse buy in a nostalgic moment :P
You teased this when I mentioned Bionicle in a comment, didn't you? ;) I love seeing Bionicle and Xenoblade on the same channel, though. Two of my favorite stories ever.
I may have - projects are planned way in advance to teasing/hint dropping happens a lot. Also, Xenoblade is just Bionicle for adults. The amount of parallels between the two are crazy.
Of course! I followed the story religiously until the end of that arc, and I caught up on the comics/books/serials I missed when I found out G1 was ending in 2010. I'm a bit rusty of the details at this point, but I remember the bulk of the plotpoints.
@@GhabulousGhoti I actually had this confused for the Final Chronicle edition that was released in 2003. So I pretty much watched like almost this whole series fandoming and nostalging on a game that actually wasnt the one I really played lmao. Great series though dude keep it up
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed! I definitely played more of MNOGII as a kid than I did this game, but this one is way better overall IMO. Not as buggy and better thought out. That said, we're actually looking to cover MNOGII sometime this year.
Then you're in for a treat. This is one of those rare nostalgic bits that not only holds up, but you actually appreciate way more as an adult IMO. It's easily the best licensed game I've ever seen, and by a bit of a margin too.
You can play this via BioMediaProject, they've recompiled it to no longer require Flash although you can play the original if you still have Flash on your computer.
@@user-op9ig4df6p I wouldn't mind if they did one day but I don't see it happening any time soon personally. The company isn't in a position where they need to take risks like that.
Maori are from New Zealand and it was our cultural society that sued Lego because they didn't credit them for the cultural application. Alot of the lore is just Maori myths and legends so the more they had to make up the worse it got
