By: Priya MigneaultToday is World Water Monitoring Day and to celebrate Earth Echo was sending out a link to screen the documentary 'Brave Blue World' for free, which I participated in watching. The short film ran 48 minutes long and covered everything from water conservation, to human sanitation in both the developing and developed world. 'Brave Blue World' is a wake up call for the public and government to raise the standards on water protection and usage in all corners of the globe. We follow along as the narrator takes across the planet to see innovators working on water conservation issues, from the USA to Australia and many places in between. A few of the solutions that the documentary highlighted were an initiative in Kenya called Sanivation. Sanivation works to provide the local region with access to personal and clean toilets, which ensures adequate sanitation. The company responsible cleans out the toilets once a week and brings the feces back to their base of operations, where they turn it into charcoal. The charcoal is then sold for a profit, to cover their operation costs, which the customers use as a substitute for firewood. Not only are they providing sanitation to tens of thousands of people, but they are also saving 88 trees per tonne of charcoal sold. In Mexico at L’Oreal’s dry factory, local workers are working on reducing the amount of water their products and facility consume. The cosmetic industry uses an insane amount of water, but it’s not just in their products they also use water in the production process, which is why L’Oreal decided to step up and reduce their usage. They have done this by creating facilities that filter the water that had been previously used in their production, this has resulted in a system that is able to recycle 90% of the water. The documentary also talked about a company called All-Gas in Spain, which filters used water with algae. Algae grows incredibly quickly and has been filtering water for thousands of years. After the water has been filtered through the system it is then placed back into the city’s main water system and reused, the algae however is placed into a machine and converted into fuel that can be used in cars. This facility is the first of its kind in the world and although the innovator behind this says this method will not work everywhere it has the potential to generate a significant amount of energy in a small area. The innovator claimed that if the facility took up half the size of Belgium the fuel created would be able to power 30 million cars, which is the equivalent of 1/43 of Alberta. All of these inventions are groundbreaking, but they are only a few of the many mentioned in this documentary. ‘Brave Blue World’ is an inspiring and solutions based film that encourages people to take action on the issues surrounding water in their local areas and it is definitely a must watch in regards to environmental short films. The only part of the film that I did not enjoy was that it jumped around from location to location very quickly and it felt like it cramped too many ideas and stories into such a short amount of time. The film is available with subtitles in English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. Check out their website below to host or find a screening near you.
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By Kristina Lanuza and Hari Menon
Create Kids Fest is an event taking place in Calgary that aims to bring the magic of the arts to children and inspire them to do more than what they believe they can do. By allowing kids to interact with multiple artists who are masters at their craft, children can experience the performing and visual arts in a way that they can relate to. This June 13, the event moves online to both Zoom and Facebook Live. Organizer and children's performer Mandy Morris hopes that kids will truly enjoy Create Kid’s Fest and that they get some quality family time in by participating. Create Kids Festival is a pretty new non profit organization dedicated to helping kids grow together, bond and help them grow as an artistic community. The organization performs several workshops, helps kids engage with artists, and ensures that kids have fun. “Calgary lost the International Children’s Festival in 2019 -- 2018 was their last year and it just made me really sad because I see what arts can do for kids and I see how important those live experiences are, so we’ve decided last year to just do it ourselves and be good,” said Morris. This year’s online events include storyteller Eli Smart, Juno-nominated children’s artist Beppie, mask making with the Green Fools and a family dance with Puddle of Mud Productions. One of the artists collaborating on this year’s event is Catilynne Mendrek from YYC Princess, a Calgary based company that hosts events for young boys and girls with real-life fairytale princesses. Their goal is to empower children by engaging them in hands-on interactive events, showing that girls don’t have to be seen as weak or frail, and empowering them to be their own ‘Prince Charming’s. “Create Kids Fest is a whole new festival full of tons and tons of art mediums and creators and collaborators and artists all coming together and giving a really beautiful festival to the City of Calgary and to the kids in the city who need a little magic in their summer and springtime.” - Caitlynne Medrek, YYC Princess For the Create Kids Fest, Mendrek will be hosting an online virtual paint party with Queen Anna from Disney’s Frozen. Kids who virtually attend will be able to learn how to create a unicorn using supplies that they have at home and they are more than welcome to join even if they don’t have supplies at home. “You don’t need to have paint supplies at home necessarily to join, you can have any tools that you wanna work with. So pencil crayons, crayons, pastels, chalk, whatever you have at home available to you,” said Mendrek. Last year, Create Kids Fest was held over a weekend on the Stampede Grounds and Shelf Life Books, attracting about 200 kids. Due to the impacts of COVID-19 on distancing regulations and social gatherings, Create Kids Fest will not be able to be held in person this year, however, it will be moving to an online platform for kids to still be able to interact and engage with the festival collaborators and artists. Their official festival will be held on June 13th on both Zoom and Facebook Live, bringing many workshops and artistic experiences to children in the comforts of their homes. For more information on the event, feel free to visit https://createkids.ca/ and for more information on YYC Princess, visit https://www.yycprincess.com/ or @YYCPrincess on Facebook and @YYCPrincess_ on Instagram. By: Kristina Lanuza On January 16, Nintendo dropped the first trailer for the Fire Emblem Three Houses Wave 4 DLC Expansion. Aside from having a rocking new soundtrack, the new Wave 4 DLC contains a brand new side-story called ‘Cindered Shadows’ which takes place in a new area called The Abyss, a series of underground networks that houses the secret fourth house of Garreg Mach - the Ashen Wolves. You will have the ability to fight alongside four new students from the Ashen Wolves house as you progress through this side story, them being Hapi, Constance, Balthus, and their house leader, Yuri. Looking closer at the trailer, you’ll also notice that Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude as well as Linhardt, Ashe and Hilda will be joining you in the story. The new DLC also introduces us to returning classes that weren’t available before in Three Houses - the War Monk, Valkyrie, Trickster and Dark Flier classes (in order of appearance in the trailer). They also added new paralogues, quests and activities to keep you busy during your playthrough of the new side story.
After beating the story, you have the ability to recruit the students from the DLC as well as carry on the content from the DLC into your usual playthrough of the game. This DLC holds a lot of promise for those who already bought the expansion pass and those who are planning on purchasing it. It is planned for release on February 12th, 2020 (or February 13, 2020 depending on where you live) and is sure to be something to look forward to if you are a Fire Emblem fan. By Kristina Lanuza Introduction After a period of prosperity on handheld devices, the Fire Emblem series makes its way back into the living room with Fire Emblem: Three Houses – the 16th installment in Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series, a series that was relatively unknown up until its resurgence in 2012 with the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening. Staying true to its roots while introducing us to an entirely new world to explore and a cast of new characters to bond with, this new game introduces a new era of tactical JRPG games that’s unlike anything that came before it. This story takes place on the continent of Fodlan, ruled by the three main powers – the Adrestian Empire, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and the Leicester Alliance. The division of power of what drives the main decision of the game, which is what house you choose to support in your playthrough (and, trust me, each house brings a completely different perspective to the story). From teaching your students how to fight in an academy to waging an all-out war for control over the continent, each route took me around 70-80 hours (all worth the effort) to complete. On the Battlefield with your Students As veteran players of the Fire Emblem may have noticed, this game does not include the famous ‘weapons triangle’ that was prominent in every game that came before it. – swords beat axes, axes beat lances and lances beat swords. Rather than focusing on which weapon to give to who, there is a much bigger emphasis on the unit’s individual skills gained from tutoring sessions. Each unit has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it is up to the player to choose which skills to focus on training and which skills aren’t as important. Teaching your students also allows for the unit to take leadership of different battalions. Battalions are a brand new function in the Fire Emblem series and can be used to change the tide of a battle in an instant. From stunning an entire line of enemies to raining down bolts of lightning on a large area, battalions open up new possibilities in terms of strategy. Keep in mind that enemy units also have access to battalions, so simple strategies may backfire on you depending on the situation. Exploring the Monastery Three Houses isn’t just about the large gridded maps or the turn-based strategy, it makes you interact with those in your house and explore the large Garreg Mach Monastery and Officers Academy. Every other day that you don’t teach your student, you have the opportunity to explore the gigantic map of Garreg Mach and interact with all the students and staff there, building relationships in the form of unique support conversations. All of the students are divided into three houses (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer) based on which ruling power in Fodlan they hail from. For example, those who are from the Holy Kingdom on Faerghus are enrolled in the Blue Lions. Depending on the house you choose at the beginning of the game, you’ll get to lead and teach a unique band of students as they learn the meaning of fighting in a war. Something that I really appreciated about this game was the different characters and the voices that gave them personality. Each and every character had a different personality to flesh out their characters and make them relatable to us, as well as distinct voices to suit those personalities. Not only that, but each character had their own story and each story was connected to the plot as a whole and allows us to see perspectives we may have never even considered before. Students with Personality Ever since Awakening, characters have had the ability to talk with each other and form relationships through fully-voiced support conversations, and I must say that the voice actors have done a phenomenal job with voicing every character. Fewer romance options in Three Houses allow for some more focused and grounded support conversations between characters that have good chemistry (whether they be friends or romantically involved with each other). All of the conversations were also realistic, such as the slightly hostile conversations, which goes to show the amount of detail that has been put into all of the characters. Living by the Calendar Everything that you do in this game is dictated by a calendar system, in which all (or most) of your weekdays are dedicated to teaching and your Sundays off can be spent either battling, resting or exploring the monastery. At the beginning of each week, you can choose to personally tutor any student of your liking as long as they are motivated enough and you can set goals for your students to focus on throughout the week (for example, swords and flying). Sometimes, your students will even come up to you to ask questions about either their personal lives or about class changes. At the end of the week, once all the teaching is done and all of the statistics are added up, you have the choice to either battle and complete quests, paralogues (character side-quests) or explore the monastery. Whichever option you choose will greatly affect your gameplay in the future, so choose wisely about what you want to do for the remaining month. The Flames of War
The story of Three Houses is just absolutely phenomenal in every way. The plot is woven together in a way that touches on realistic issues that we can relate to – discrimination, social classes, politics and so much more. It also focuses on the three main lords (Dimitri, Edelgard, and Claude) and their relationships with each other; their separate pasts and how they are all connected to each other, deepening the plot even more. The first route that I played was the Blue Lions route, and I adored how you could see the main lord, Dimitri’s change of personality before and after the time skip. As you play through the route, you can see his past slowly unfold into a deep and emotional story that tells you why he is the way that he is now, and it is done in an engaging and expert way. Amongst all the Pros Everything about this game to me is top-notch, and it is possibly one of the best JRPG’s that I’ve ever played so far. Although, if there were a few things that I could change in the game, it would be the backdrop of the conversations taking place in the story and the variety of the battle objectives in the game. All of the conversations are really engaging, but the 2D backdrop of the conversation can sometimes really take away from the immersion of the game. The battle objectives are also good enough to keep the player invested in the game, but a bit more variety from the typical ‘Rout the enemy’ of ‘Defeat the Enemy Commander’ would make the game a tad bit more enjoyable. The Verdict Overall, I believe that Fire Emblem: Three Houses has done an amazing job in succeeding the games before it in the Fire Emblem series and that its story, ambitious as it is, has been told in an incredibly engaging way that keeps us on the edge of our seats. Each and every character is relatable to us in their own ways and the depth of the characters brought on by their well-written personalities and voice acting brings us into the immersive experience of a JRPG. With a classic yet fresh take on strategic elements and new functions to enhance gameplay, this game makes you want to pick it up over and over to see what’s coming next. |
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