Hi guys,
I’ve decided to start doing recommendations of some of the webcomics which I like. It’ll be like a review except only with ones that I’ve actually read all of and enjoyed. So without further ado, let’s meet our first comic.
Author: Brian Clevinger
URL: http://www.nuklearpower.com/8-bit-theater/
Status: Finished
Type: Humor/Fantasy
Art: Sprite
8-Bit Theater is a pretty well-known comic. If you’ve been around in the world of webcomics for very long, you’ve probably encountered it. For its art, it uses video game sprites, primarily from the original Final Fantasy. Its plot also follows that of Final Fantasy: four warriors of light have been called upon to save the world from Chaos (a dark god, not the concept). Unfortunately for everyone involved, the party that gets the official designation from the king of Corneria as the light warriors is somewhat less than heroic in nature. Thief lives up to his name by stealing everything in sight, Red Mage is narcissistic and pathological in his obsession with glory, and Black Mage likes killing and wanton destruction. Of the four-person party, the only one that actually qualifies as good is Fighter, and unfortunately he’s dumber than a bag of rocks. And these are the people who are supposed to save the world.
The comic has a general overarching story (what with all the world saving that’s supposed to be going on), but really the story is little more than a vehicle for humor. The light warriors travel from place to place with for reasons that are tenuous and contrived, but that never gets in the way of one’s enjoyment of the comic. Indeed, part of the fun comes from seeing the party pushed about by the winds of fate and by their own idiocy.
And idiocy is a major theme of the comic. While fighter is openly acknowledged to be deeply mentally deficient, he is not actually prominently outclassed by the other heroes, each of whom lets his neuroses get in the way of his better judgment. What results is a marvelous schadenfreudic (schadenfreudische?) comedy where our heroes’ flaws and constant infighting lead to disaster after disaster that they somehow, through no fault of their own, wind up victorious over.
My one caveat is this: in order to fully appreciate this comic, you need to enjoy either video games or tabletop RPGs. There’s a lot of humor that you really need that background to understand. An ideal reader would be educated in both areas, but I suspect that only one of them is actually a necessity.
So that’s my recommendation: 8-Bit Theater. Enjoy!