Results tagged “RPGs”

The overall gameplay flow of Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen may be familiar to RPG fans who have been playing games in the genre for a while.

It introduces an excellent way to familiarize you with its characters, by playing through their specific chapters to walk you through their history and search for the chosen one (of which you're given your choice of name and gender), hence the game's subtitle. This is how the first four chapters are structured, before you begin the fifth, massive chapter with the chosen one. Its earlier moments consist of linear, by-the-numbers RPG structuring (especially these days), but in Chapter V the world opens for you to explore it at your own leisure. Through this structure it actually offers a wonderful sense of exploration, leaving you to uncover the secrets of the world.

You may have figured out by now that its structure is similar to Final Fantasy VI's. Suddenly one of your favorite games isn't so innovative after all!


But that's perfectly acceptable practice. There's nothing inherently wrong with a game being inspired by another in terms of structure; what matters is how it uses said ideas, and whether it can use them effectively; which FFVI certainly did. And I'm not going to bother delving into the main villain's inspiration, which will pop out as obvious to players once they run into him - even down to his motivations for his descent into malignance.

This may be a recent release, but DQIV on DS maintains a feel that adheres to its NES origins. It's very light on story and exposition, which allows for a more personable experience with its characters. Sure, some of the exposition is gone because of Square Enix bafflingly removing the "Party Talk" feature from the international versions, but the story itself is rather sparse on detail. But that's not to say it isn't sophisticated; everything isn't spelled out, leaving you, the player, to figure things out. In other words, it's the anti-Xenogears.

This game moves at a pretty rapid pace. It's a little slower than the original thanks to the added animations for monsters, but that's negligible. It's typical turn based material, and random encounters can happen often, but they're so brisk that it's not a problem. As the game goes on, you'll realize that there's an excellent balance between your party members and the enemies, which is especially evident during boss battles. Of course, you could always choose to grind and overpower your enemies, but the outcome of every battle won't be as satisfying as merely successfully outwitting then.


DQIV really isn't that different from the original, aside from the graphics and sound being given an overhaul. Its look is similar to that of Dragon Quest VII, but the result here is a smoother transition and a level of consistency between environments that make it nowhere near as hideous as that game -- DQVII's "finished" product looked a little rough, with portions of the game showing its SNES origins and had sections that were obviously built on PSX. You could say it had a very troubled development period. Not to mention that the PSX didn't do 2D very well.

The Dragon Quest franchise has always had the same sound effects for nostalgia's sake, and they feel right in place here. The music is always very well done, and is a testament to why people like Koichi Sugiyama's compositions so much, despite his dubious personal opinions on a certain other matter (go down to "The Case Against Sugiyama). My cohort may not have expressed similar sentiments in his review -- though he did play through the NES version -- but the music is incredibly in-fitting with the game's style, especially the character themes. It's not without its problems, like hearing the same dungeon themes a little too often; but that issue doesn't lie within the music itself.


As a remake, DQIV on DS serves as an excellent way to preserve the style of the original. This was also done for nostalgia's sake. A pet peeve some gamers have with remakes of their favorite games is how they attained a sense of affinity for the original title, something that could be lost with a remake. The DS and PSX versions of DQIV keep that sense perfectly. Not to say there's anything wrong with complete overhauls like Final Fantasy IV on DS, but it's nice to see which interpretations developers like to use. Whatever form an interpretation will take depends on the audience it's being aimed towards.

The main point of contention with DQIV for DS is the localization, which has generated mixed reactions. Dragon Quest VIII contained some beautiful voice work, complete with dialects that matched whatever region NPCs and specific characters were from. Since this game doesn't have voice work, Square Enix, in association with Plus Alpha Translations, sought to convey this through its text. The results are pretty admirable and keep conversations with every NPC lively, but it does have the tendency to go a little overboard at times.


Take the speaking style used for the Kingdom of Zamoksva, where characters Tsarevna Alena, Kryll, and Borya are from. Zamoksva and its surrounding townships are definitely based on a fantastical version of Russia, so it follows that everyone from that area should have a Russian accent while speaking English. The localization team has done their best at keeping that tone, but it can be esoteric for people not accustomed to hearing that dialect used in either real life or other forms of media. Talking to NPCs in RPGs is usually a passive experience, especially if you've done it a lot. But the positive effect of hearing unfamiliar dialects in an RPG is that it makes talking to NPCs a joy, and the time you'll spend making sense of everything will assist in helping you pay attention.

What makes Dragon Quest IV one of the most admired games in the franchise is its sense of subtlety in terms of establishing a plot, along with its unique approach to telling its story. It has ideas that many RPGs still haven't explored, despite the original releasing 20 years ago. The excellent, if a tad overdone, localization only adds to the charm the game offers. If you haven't played it yet, definitely go get it. This makes up for not receiving the PSX version.

Or perhaps you prefer the original?

So! Final Fantasy XIII. This game is a tad monotonous, isn't it? In its outset, it feels like it's really somewhat of a new take on the RPG genre; perhaps you could argue that it ventures beyond being given a generic "JRPG" term. But it's around Chapters 9 and 10 that you realize that you're just going through the numbers, walking from one straight line to another and from one battle to the next. Its battles are incredibly fun and fast paced, but sometimes going through dungeons that can't be completely explored can be a drag.

This is not to say that I think that FFXIII is bad. It's just doing its own thing; and in that respects, it succeeds.

It's after the aforementioned chapters that the developers decided to say, "OK, we've let players walk in a straight line for long enough. Let's give them some freedom." The eleventh chapter presents the entry to Gran Pulse, a world that begs exploration and is full of secrets. The world, I hear is reminiscent of Final Fantasy XII's overall style: it's full of missions (or "hunts," as some call them) that give you specific rewards upon finishing them. And though some of them are pretty tough (like the Behemoth Kings, good grief), they can be rewarding with plenty of Crystarium Points (CP).

(Yeah, I've never played FFXII. Whoops! I hope to rectify that soon.)

There are also a few story points here and there as you walk around some areas of Pulse. Some of them seem to mainly serve as character development and bonus scenes, but some of them may also hint at possible sidequests in the future - though if they didn't, I'd sure be disappointed. The entire place is also a sight to behold, with some of the most beautiful sights in the game. Said sights are even better when you can capture an image of Cocoon looming ominously in the background.

There's nothing quite like the feeling of trying your hand against opponents that seem to great for you to handle, since the punishment for death in this game is so much more lenient than its predecessors. Though it can be a little time consuming waiting for a chance to get a preemptive strike on something, especially if their senses are pretty high. I'm not sure if you're like me, and you don't want to waste any deceptisols on them, since they cost an utterly ridiculous 30,000 gil.

I have the feeling that I'll be spending a lot of time here, though I don't plan on filling up the blog with too much more FFXIII content. It's a lot to read already! And I hear that even the best things can be bad in excess. Plus, I'll need to save a few thoughts for a review in the future.

P.S. The soundtrack, in addition to being available on Square Enix's website, is also available on iTunes if you prefer your music digitally. The catch? They're selling each song individually. I...don't think they thought this through.

A little over 20 hours in, and I can finally change my party now! It's pretty liberating, actually.

But yeah, I've put a lot more time into Final Fantasy XIII in these last few days, and during that time, you can usually expect a game, especially an RPG, to have developed quite a bit. And it has! Sure, it's had its slow parts (like Chapter 4, and especially Chapter 5), but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having a good time. It's not just the game and its inherent gameplay systems that have developed either: Its characters have also had ample time to develop a relationship with both the player and themselves. They've had time to really grow on you, especially Hope and Vanille.

It's the battle system that's really had time to shine. Throughout the lengthy "opening" hours, the game has spent time placing you into arbitrary teams and has forced you to abide by their setups. Part of the reason for that is that the developers had a story they wanted to tell, so they placed the game's specific characters in these situations to let one particular character (or multiple characters) develop with each other. But another reason they've done this is to teach you how to skillfully utilize the game's particular mechanics.

The game may start off as being a mindless cakewalk, but the further it goes, the more it shows its depth. Paradigm Shifting isn't just way to shift to another moveset for the hell of it. No, there will come a time where you'll need to shift to another set of classes for the sake of strategy. The game places you with arbitrary characters in its earlier moments to teach you what each class consists of. Think of it as an extended training session, because you'll need to learn how to analyze enemies and buffing and debuffing on the fly, or you risk the potential for death - even in normal enemy encounters.

As you could expect, the game looks incredibly nice. In the comments section to my last entry, Joseph was talking about how he liked to just look that the environments to absorb them in. It's something you can easily do in this game. Heck, I recommend that you do it, just to see how much detail Square Enix put into this game's graphics. You can actually see the clouds moving in the sky, along with other objects. The cutscenes are also gorgeous.

And so is the Hamauzu soundtrack, which I hope makes more fans for him. This is the first high profile game he's composed the soundtrack to, and you can tell he gave it his all. Some of the songs during specific stages also have lyrics, which will probably blow the minds of some players - though it probably won't if you've played a Megaten game or maybe Tales of Legendia before. I can't stop listening to "Sazh's Theme," personally. It's ingrained in my mind as I type this.

I'm personally glad to see that I'm firmly in the "like" side for this game, but I can understand how quite a few people don't like this game. It's an RPG whose style differs quite a bit from its predecessors, and some of its changes could rub people the wrong way (like the lack of towns, for instance). But again, in spite of that, I think it's a game that everyone should try to see if they like or hate.

Publishers in the video game industry tend to make many mistakes, but in that particular way it's no different than a lot of other companies within their respective districts. But the mistakes some of them make, especially in the gaming industry, tend to be the most obvious ones; those made because of the management and marketing sectors being completely oblivious to occurrences they damn well shouldn't be oblivious to.

The Final Fantasy franchise is not the direct cause of anything implied above. If you read this blog regularly (or not), chances are you're aware that it's one of the biggest Japanese RPG franchises around. It would, therefore, logically follow that whenever a new game in the series releases, especially if its a mainline title, other companies that publish JRPGs should release them as far away as possible from whenever Square Enix decides to grace us with one. Yet every time one of them releases, there is almost always some company that's foolish enough to think they can go against it. And they always fail miserably, usually to the detriment of gamers as well as themselves.

One of the earliest, and most unfortunate, cases dates back to Final Fantasy VIII. Now, the game itself released at a fine time, in early-September of 1999. But it was a shame that Konami decided to release their main RPG at the time, Suikoden II, mere weeks after it. A game heralded as one of the best RPGs of all time was overshadowed by one of the biggest love-it-or-hate-it FF games in the series. I'm sure there are plenty of people who want a copy of the game now, or wish they owned two so the could sell one to pay off a Corvette.

And it's happened a lot more since then. Capcom decided to release Breath of Fire IV on the same day as Final Fantasy IX in November 2000, which caused people to miss a game that was somewhat of a foundation for a few ideas used in Final Fantasy X. The first Shadow Hearts title, whose tone feels very similar to that of the FF games, was overshadowed (pun not intended; no really!) by the then-impending release of FFX in December 2001. And finally, Final Fantasy XII also managed to claim a victim in Tales of the Abyss, which itself was sandwiched in between that and Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.

With all of these unfortunate victims, companies have now learned to keep their RPGs away from a Final Fantasy game whenever it releases, right? Afraid not.

Sega seems to be a glutton for punishment these days. I've briefly discussed Yakuza 3's unfortunate release date before, but in case you missed it, it's March 9th. Right on the same day that Final Fantasy XIII releases. Yakuza 3 may not be an RPG, but it's going for some of the same audience that FFXIII is going for. And that's bad for Sega, but it's their fault.

But that's not all: Resonance of Fate, a new RPG developed by Tri-Ace and published by Sega, is going for much more of the FFXIII audience. I pointed out a week ago that Gamestop had the game listed as a March 9th release, which would have been utter silliness. I was also hoping that Amazon's May date was correct, as it would be far away from anything that could pose a threat. Gamespot noted that Sega of America has now officially announced a date for the game: March 16th. I don't know what's wrong with these people. Not only is it still competing with FFXIII, but it also has God of War 3 to contend with. Oh, and it's only a week after the aforementioned Yakuza 3. Have you ever seen a company so willing to compete with their own releases?

Admittedly, things are a bit different in Europe. Eurogamer reported earlier in the week that RoF is releasing there on March 26th. Much farther away from FFXIII, but that's honestly still too close.

The logical thought process for a company usually is (and should be) to keep it out of harms way if at all possible. Yet here we have plenty of them daring to brave the wolves' den with minimal chance of escaping unscathed. These are games that I'd like to see succeed, but Sega seems fully intent on sending them to death. Hopefully they're not cocky enough to think their name on the packaging will sell a game, which sales of MadWorld and Bayonetta should have proven.

Anyone anticipating Lunar: Silver Star Harmony got their first chance to play it this Thursday, as a demo for the game was made available on Playstation Network this week; the sole beacon of light in an otherwise dismal update. Dedicated fans of the Working Designs iteration could find out whether XSEED's version lived up to the one that exists in their nostalgia (and likely on their shelves still). The results are mostly good, but I'm sure fans are going to have a problem with some of them.

As you'd expect, none of the original voice actors reprise their roles. The omnipresent Yuri Lowenthal once again voices an RPG protagonist in Alex. Some of the other voices should also sound familiar if you've played a bunch of RPGs (which you can listen to samples of on the official website). The fact that their changed isn't a bad thing at all, though the redone English intro sounds incredibly awkward. Some parts of the translation are also completely faithful to the Working Designs versions.

The presentation is a mixed bag, however. Graphically, it looks very nice, especially in motion. Game Arts did a splendid job in upgrading the visuals while maintaining the charm of the original sprites. And all of the music has been remixed, and it's redone beautifully. The same philosophy for the redone sprites also applies, as the few tracks available in the demo have been rearranged to keep the nostalgia factor for anyone who played the original games. It's good enough that the extra $10 for the limited edition sounds worth it for the soundtrack.

(I'd make an argument for how it's also worth it for the bromides here too, but I'd like to keep some of my dignity.)

A pity there are some issues that could prove bothersome with the final game. While transitioning from one screen to another, the game has to load the data for the next section. For about five seconds each time. It's bad enough to be bothersome after a while; and even worse, the music constantly stops between the transitions -- though the tracks continue from where they left off. And this is playing off the memory stick! Imagine how bad it could be from a UMD.

Lastly, while the demo shouldn't be any place to judge this, the dungeon in the demo is much easier than it was in Complete. Thankfully, it's not easy and incredibly boring like the sub-par GBA remake Lunar Legend was.

While the demo is a mixed experience, it's nonetheless enjoyable. It may not replace your memories of Complete, but it should be an enjoyable game nonetheless. Just, uh, try to think of it as a new adaptation rather than XSEED trying to heartlessly wrench your memories from the nostalgia-laden section in your brain.

This week, the Geek News Roundup is being posted earlier, for I have something I need to post.  Skip ahead to the last four paragraphs if you're impatient.  But first, the news.

There is a fourth state of matter beyond that which is known to most men.  It is a state of matter as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.  It... okay, it just falls apart the further I get.  But anyway, plasma is being used to disinfect human skin and kill germs.  Personally, I feel cleaner if I use actual soap and water, but if this kind of thing takes off into personal use, then maybe it'll help stem the spread of stuff like the Swine Flu.  The Swine Flu is now the Swine Few.  There are a few distinct variations in the flu, and that is causing some people a great deal of worry.  Hey, if I get the piggy flu, I'll just stay in bed for a week with my video games.  And while scientists are having trouble with the flu, other scientists are making progress in fighting certain kinds of cancer.

In space this week, more evidence of life on Mars has been discovered, and it's looking more and more like a certain red planet was once full of life.  Small, microscopic life, but it still counts.  Also, if you're planning a trip to Saturn any time soon, you might be in time to see a spectacular light show.  What is called the aurora borealis to those living in Alaska can also be seen on everyone's favourite ringed planet.

Microsoft sucks this week.  It looks like they don't want anyone drinking the COFEE anymore, they've issued takedown notices to many sites hosting the software.  Silly Microsoft, people will find other ways to distribute it.  Sarah Palin sucks this week.  She claims that her family used to play Scrabble a lot.  Yeah... no.  Take it from a Scrabble fanatic: I don't know how you play Scrabble in Alaska, but in the rest of the English speaking world, you don't want to hoard the Q, you want to get rid of it and hoard the Ss.  RPGs suck this week, according to Pixel Poppers.  Apparently, as an RPG gamer, I automatically suck at hard puzzles.  Hey Angela, thanks for helping me acquire a copy of Picross for the DS.  I've been enjoying it quite a bit, especially the level 10 (hardest) puzzles.

How's this for interesting?  A book called "The CIA Manual Of Trickery And Deception" is available on Amazon.com.  But wait a minute, one of these authors has already written quite a bit about the CIA, and all of a sudden, he comes across an old spy manual and decides to sell it?  It's not like it just fell into his lap, he had to go digging for it.  But anyway, as for my own writing, Adventures in Canadian Gaming will resume in December, after the end of NaNoWriMo (I am currently at 48455 words, which means I have 1545 words left to go), provided I am still alive.

In an earlier column, I mentioned Canada's Worst Driver, and made flippant, almost self-mocking comments about my own death by motorist.  It was totally and completely a joke to me.  I even mentioned the corner I figured it would happen on.  Well, at approximately 5:13pm on November 5th, five days after I posted that entry, a motorist driving a dark truck didn't even look in my direction when he was stopped at a stop sign on the corner of Campbell and 1st in my home town of Revelstoke, Canada, exactly one block away from my predicted scene of death.  I was on foot, and I hesitated because not only did I not know what he was going to do and didn't have eye contact, but he also had stopped in the middle of the crosswalk.  I didn't have to stop for him.  It was my right of way to continue walking.  If I had, he would've plowed ahead and mowed me down.  I would most likely have died on the scene or on the way to the hospital.  I hope the extra five seconds he saved driving to the bar was worth it.

On last Monday's episode of Canada's Worst Driver (rerun Fridays, when I watch it), one of the bad driver nominees who was going through the driver rehab course got a phone call.  Crystal Farao's brother-in-law, Thomas Stagno, was killed when a bad driver failed to yield for him.  The driver, Tom Marion, was charged.  Failure to yield carries a $150 fine in Canada.  It might've been worse for the driver who almost struck me, but for Thomas Stagno, that's all his life was worth.  $150.

I had someone's life in my wallet earlier today.  Could've been mine.

Sega and Tri-Ace's collaborative RPG, End of Eternity (Resonance of Fate outside of Japan), is on the horizon now, though it's thankfully releasing far away from Final Fantasy XIII in Japan. A lot of RPG fans who found themselves burnt by Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean: The Last Hope are finding themselves intrigued by the concepts being realized in the game -- though time will tell if all of us are setting ourselves up for disappointment -- but there were a few details revealed that will appeal to fans of the genre as a whole; features that seriously should have been addressed years ago.

Not too long ago, a blog post went up on the game's Japanese webpage detailing how user-friendly the game would be for everyone. Way, way too many HD games suffer from the text being calibrated for HD sets the buyers of some games may not have, the result being some of the smallest, most unreadable fonts SDTV owners will ever see. Some RPGs also tend to suffer from this, which is pretty bad for a genre so reliant on text -- especially you Blue Dragon. EoE thankfully has developers actually being sensible enough to make sure all of the text is perfectly readable on an SD set. That's pretty great, now if only everyone working on HD games could think this way.

There's also another problem that haunts console RPG fans that EoE fixes: The inclusion of a Quick Save option. There's nothing like an RPG that has incredibly long stretches between specific, if not every, save point, the best example of which would be...well, most Tri-Ace games. Good to see they're finally addressing this problem! Seriously, every RPG in the history of everything should have this feature; it's something that doesn't need to be tied exclusively to portables, even if it is most beneficial there.

Though I'm sure some people will raise a fuss about it, I think having the ability to retry battles immediately is a pretty nice feature, as it will save everyone the time from making their way from a save point all the way back to the battle they lost in. It's bound to draw some criticism for being too much of a user friendly idea, but whatever. It's something very similar to what the Wild Arms games did.

Oh! And it'll also be one disc on both PS3 and 360. But it's unknown if they're going to go ahead with their earlier plan of not dubbing everything to keep the Japanese version on both discs, mainly the 360 DVD in this case. As a person who happens to like dubs -- though mainly when they're quality -- that's something I can't get behind. I doesn't make good sense in the grand scheme of things either, since most English-speaking players are likely to play the game in English. I hope they've reconsidered that.

With so much going into this, and for how good the game looks in its latest trailer, it's almost difficult to anticipate it because of Tri-Ace's track record so far this generation. But EoE looks like it could be the exception, coming with ideas too ambitious for Square Enix to touch it. And even if it's bad, I hope the genre and general video game flaws it intends to fix are recognized by a lot of other developers. It hits Japan on January 28th; far enough for FFXIII not to threaten it, but along with too many other games -- one of which is a port of a Tri-Ace title -- also dodging the lightning bullet.

It's been a long, long time in coming, but Final Fantasy XIII is coming very soon. Sooner than you think, actually. And that's not just for Japan either; Square Enix announced Friday that the game releases in North America and Europe on March 9, 2010 (which you might have known already), which isn't too far after Japan's December 17 release date. It's kind of like the Final Fantasy X surprise that America had in 2001, the difference being that this time the process will only take under three months. And they announced it just in time to prevent importers from nabbing the Japanese PS3 version too!* Timely. They provided the date in a presentation video with the biggest "don't you want to punch this guy in the face?" dude ever conceived.

It's been a long time since FFXIII was revealed to the public; about three-and-a-half years in fact. And here we all thought the "announcement followed by a release nearly four years later" format was dead and buried after Final Fantasy XII went through almost the same thing. It's OK though, since the same fate is still befalling Final Fantasy Versus XIII. In fact, given reports from the behind-closed-doors Tokyo Game Show presentation, it might be even worse, since people said it barely resembles a game at this point. Well, at least you'll have Final Fantasy XIV to buck the trend, right?

The American and European versions will also be using a different theme song, as stated in the video. Instead of Eternal Love from the Japanese version, performed by Sayuri Sugawara, we'll get My Hands, performed by Leona Lewis. Fans around the internet seem to be split on the decision, but the only criticism that really holds any water is that while the Japanese theme -- while like any Final Fantasy theme; i.e. not great -- is composed by the actual game's composer, Masashi Hamauzu, the English version will have licensed music -- which also isn't great. There always has to be something to raise a ruckus over.

(And for Christ's sake, don't read the comments under those videos unless you're willing to sacrifice a few brain cells.)

Meanwhile, Japanese gamers are keeping themselves busy with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, which just released there on Thursday. OK, probably not, given that word circulating around the internet is that it only sold 26,000 copies on day one. That's not good! Apparently, Japanese gamers are using DS games to hold them off. Well, as long as they're in plentiful supply.

Hard to believe that the day will be finally here, which means we won't be able to make any more jokes about how much development hell the game has almost definitely been going through. That's a shame. No wait, we've still got Versus XIII. And Final Fantasy Agito XIII. And The Third Birthday. And Alan Wake. And...well, you get it.


*Well, that's if it stops importers.

Or you dreamt you were a moron. Whichever.

Did you know that today is the anniversary of Final Fantasy VIII in America? Well actually, history can't make up its mind as to whether it's the 7th, 8th, or today, but whatever; today is close enough. The RPG that so many love, and that so many love to hate, has an anniversary day for every territory this year, and its impact was pretty big on the RPG community back in 1999.

Final Fantasy games are always known for pushing the pre-established boundary for RPGs in an effort to pave the way for where the genre should be heading, and this game was no exception. Heck, some of its ideas sounded completely zany on the surface. Removing MP for a junction system? A surly emo loner as the lead character? And here fans of the series didn't think that a main character couldn't be more sullen than Cloud Strife! What that presents is a lot of ambition, and if history has proven anything, it's that people tend to accept ambition very differently.

Oh, and there was also the overarching theme of the entire game: love. Definitely a sharp departure from anything that came before, and something that was unsurprisingly also met with much ambivalence. Video games, especially console games, really hadn't touched on the theme of love all that well, so you can't doubt the collective "huh!?" fans said when this was announced. Also keep in mind that the internet wasn't as vast, or fast, as it is now. And all of this would be presented with more realistic character models, another first for the franchise.

But when fans were finally able to play and finish the final game, there response was, uh, ambivalence. The story made a few twists that raised an eyebrow and the game's Junction system became a little monotonous, especially towards the end. At the same time, you had a number of people who weren't bothered by all of this, including some of Squall and Rinoa's bizarre hijinks.

And damn did the game have some good looking CG movies. It was loaded with enough of them that they had to spread the game to four discs, up from Final Fantasy VII's three. Looks like Squaresoft had a lot of money to spend! Though they definitely recouped that and more with the game's sales. Ah, don't you miss the PSX era sometimes?

Legacy:

To the chagrin of its detractors, Final Fantasy VIII is still the fastest selling game in the franchise. But if there's anything that's established the game as a memorable among all video gaming, it's the music. The game's main theme song, Eyes on Me, performed by Chinese singer Faye Wong, won an award for "Song of the Year (Western Music)" at the14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards in 1999. It was the first time a song from a video game won an award there, and it's also been performed by several other music artists since then - among them Angela Aki, who performed Final Fantasy XII's theme. Additionally, the game's opening theme, Liberi Fatali, was played at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, specifically hand-picked by the US for their women's duet synchronized swimming event.

Though its legacy and mark on the genre isn't as large or extensive as its predecessor, Final Fantasy VIII is still pretty popular among RPG fans. Since its release, a few characters have been featured in other games. Squall appears as Leon in all of the Kingdom Hearts games thus far (not sure about 358/2 Days yet), and Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin also appear in Kingdom Hearts II. Squall and Ultimecia also appear in Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Also note that Squall is no longer a sullen longer in the Kingdom Hearts games, a sign representing how much he developed over the course of the game. A pity that's all gone in Dissidia.

Final Fantasy VIII is definitely the first game in the series that created a sharp rift between people that adored it and people who wished they could equip Guardian Forces after finishing it. A shame it's since had to relinquish that title when Final Fantasy XII released a few years ago. Even so, FFVIII will still be remembered well in spite of that, so why not take today to think about your personal experience with it.

P.S. By the way, I wanted to try and keep my opinion out of this since, you know, this isn't a review. It's also been precisely ten years since I've even played the game, and I really don't like to use a decade old opinion as my thoughts today, since tastes change. I was also hoping that Square Enix would do something to commemorate the occasion - not specifically today, but sometime this year - but that seems like kind of a lost cause. The only thing we can expect to happen, I think, is possibly a release of the game on PSOne Classics. In Japan, of course.

So hey! It looks like we have a new feature here. Oh boy. With this feature, I'd like to examine the differences in box arts from different regions. But that won't be all; I'll be sure to merely examine certain box arts and point out anything that's particularly interesting about them, or any inconsistencies. For this, I'm starting with cover art for the recently announced Nostalgia, which is actually your boring ol' region comparison. Yeah, bummer.

You can pretty much guess what a game called Nostalgia is going for. These days, a good portion of the Japanese RPG genre is seeking to capture an audience that was lost because of its "evolution" not being something most fans in Japan could adapt to. That's the reason why so many publishers are embracing the past, eras where the genre was in its supposedly greatest form. Well that, and current generation JRPG development is pretty darn expensive.

The Japanese cover certainly represents this. I think it has a little homage to a lot of epic anime series and movies, mainly some of the classic Miyazaki movies. It manages to fuse that with the feeling of a classic RPG from either the SNES era or the PSX/DC era, most particularly Skies of Arcadia, which itself is fitting for what the actual game is going for. With that, there's no need to change this for America given the audience it's targeting, right? Well, uh....

Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking with this. It eschews the feeling the Japanese cover in favor of something that looks like....well, a video game cover. And that's just boring. If they were going for Nostalgia, they could go for the look of a classic 90s cover; you know, the covers that told you virtually nothing about the game and even went as far as to use a different character designer solely for the cover. This particular one kind of misses the point if it wants to send a message about the scope of the game.

(Or maybe it is sending a message! Nah, probably not.)

Though there's still time to fix the cover, I doubt they'll actually go through with it. And that's a shame, because I'd love to see something that differs from the norm and stands out within the customers' view as something unique. And when you have a niche property in a semi-niche genre, isn't that the point? It's disappointing for a company that put together such a great site and trailer for the game.

At this point, it's officially time for everyone to accept that the next main console for RPGs will be the DS, with the PSP not too far behind. That is, of course, if you haven't already. I already made a post talking about Saga 2: Goddess of Destiny and Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver, along with mentioning Dragon Quest IX on numerous occasions, but there are a few more that are worth your attention if you like portable RPGs. Some of them might actually make it over to other parts of the world. Even though this blog doesn't get much traffic, I'd like to do as much as I can to spread the word about them. So make sure you take it all in!

I've totally forgotten to mention anything about Blood of Bahamut. Like at all. It's an interesting new RPG (alike?) from Square Enix that releases next Thursday whose looks seem reminiscent of, no, not Bahamut Lagoon, but Shadow of the Colossus. Except in 2D! It's a conclusion a lot of people who first saw the game made when it was originally revealed late last year, but its inspiration was confirmed by one of Famitsu's reviews from last week's issue. I guess Famitsu reviews are worth something. Just don't look forward to too much criticism from them. Or integrity.

It's a forgone conclusion by this point to merely say that Blood of Bahamut looks pretty good (because it's gorgeous, but you knew that), so let's say that it's concept is also intriguing. Oh, and the art is beautiful. So here's hoping gamers who live in Japan or who plan on importing give some positive impressions, and let's hope Square Enix won't pull a Sigma Harmonics on us.

Meanwhile, I may have mentioned Final Fantasy Gaiden: 4 Warriors of Light before, and that's because of how intriguing it looks. In fact, I think it's the most interesting-looking upcoming Final Fantasy game. In other words, it stands in stark contrast to Final Fantasy XIII! That's because of it's intentions: to capture the look and feel of an older Final Fantasy game and bring it into the current generation (well, so to speak). Personally, I'm a big fan of RPGs with classes, and since it doesn't look like Final Fantasy V is going to get the DS treatment, I'll take this instead. The game will release in Japan on October 29, with it probably hitting other countries in spring 2010.

Finally, there's Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, which Angela mentioned in last weeks edition of the Geek News Roundup. It's intriguing solely because it's a new, main line SMT game, the first since Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. (Though that's not necessarily saying that this game is Shin Megami Tensei 4.) And, like the older games, it's in first-person. Unlike the previous games, the adventure that won't completely take place in Japan. I'm sure more details about the battle system and the adventure will trickle out before it's release on October 8, if you want to know them at all, of course. It'll probably hit America in early spring of next year, if Devil Survivor's localization time is anything to go by.

While this is basically kind of a preview of Japan's DS RPG lineup for the fall, you can also consider it a taste of what we'll have next year. Aside from Blood of Bahamut, they're all probably going to get localized. Meanwhile, we have plenty of DS RPGs coming out in America this fall, so the wait won't be too bad.

It's good to see that someone is bringing over Demon's Souls, a game that Sony decided to pass on localizing despite its voice acting already being in English. But it's good that Atlus is bringing it over in their stead. Despite already announcing the game for a US release, Atlus noticed that gamers were still importing it for some strange reason. Yeah, there's the omnipresent gamer desire to have and play a great game immediately, but come on. Why pay high import prices for something with some nearly unreadable Engrish when you can wait for an Atlus translation? Atlus pondered this as well, and introduced a "Stop Importing It" edition.


However! For anyone who, god forbid, still wants to import it, Atlus has added another incentive for them: the entire soundtrack. And this is in addition to an art book, a special edition slipcover, and a 150-page strategy guide, the last two of which are included with the $69.99 special edition version of the game (the soundtrack is also included with the standard edition, by the way). And you may want to put down the $10 to get the special edition, as reviews from random gamers and professional websites so far have said that this game is incredibly difficult. With that, the "Stop Importing It" becomes the "No Really, Stop Importing It" edition.

I'm thinking about preordering it, even though I don't even own a PS3. That's says quite a bit about my concept of how to spend money (i.e. it's anything but logical). But that also says a lot about how nice of a package this thing is, especially the special edition. It looks like one of those useful special editions that I talked about when describing the contents of Blazblue's Limited Edition, though it'll undoubtedly be overshadowed by the likes of Batman: Arkham Asylum's and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's. Do you really need a Batarang replica? No! A fully functioning pair of Night Vision Goggles? Unlikely!

(Though they do look nice. I'll give them that.)

If you want to know more about Demon's Souls, be sure to check out Atlus' Official Website. There's also a plethora of information at the Demon's Soul's English Wiki. Also, you may be interested in reading 1up's blog post about it on The Grind and Eurogamer's stellar review. The game releases on October 6th.

XSEED Games has made quite a good name for themselves in the last few years for giving us great localizations of Japanese games. In doing that they've established themselves as one of the most reliable companies for bringing over niche games that only a specific-yet-dedicated audience (regrettably) wants; you know, games that bigger companies wouldn't dare touch because of their reputation with the same fans or because they have too much fear of losing money. So yeah, it's great we have them.

So we shouldn't be shocked at this point to see that they've announced a new title that's aimed at that same niche. However! This one has a bizarre twist: it's based on the Wizard of OZ. It might be a game you've heard of if you followed it's unveiling in Japan around the Tokyo Game Show of last year. Released in Japan as RIZ-ZOAWD, The Wizard of OZ: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is a unique little RPG for DS from Wild Arms developer Media Vision. It was definitely bound to come over eventually, so the questions were who would bring it over and when it would come out.

Gamers originally took notice of it because of how stunning it looks for a DS games. It's definitely one of the best looking games on the system in terms of its adaptable graphics style and unique character designs. But more notable, of course, is looking at how it plays. You move Dorothy on the field by using a track ball on the touch screen, her speed increasing and dwindling depending on where your stylis is. In other words, that control scheme sounds like what should've been in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, which chose to disregard its traditions for a more, uh, traditional RPG route. Oh Sega.

Anyway, it's a shame to see that XSEED is dropping the clever anagram from the Japanese title for a more generic name for the US release. Oh, and they're changing the cover. Yeah, I don't know what they're thinking with a cover like that. The image itself harkens back to a scene from the movie itself, which a lot of people will be intimately familiar with, but simultaneously it looks more generic. Honestly, it makes it look like shovelware that people like to buy in droves for the system.

But maybe that's the point.

It might be enough to see that there's a game based on The Wizard of OZ that piques their interest enough that they'll pick it up out of curiosity. It's not like your aforementioned dedicated niche audience needs a cover to convince them to buy a supposedly (read: hopefully) good RPG. There are a lot of potential buyers who rely on covers to catch their interest, an audience that could see the incredibly anime-style Japanese cover and be done with it.

Or maybe I'm just out of my mind. I don't know.

Anyway, Beyond the Yellow Brick Road hits this fall, and possibly September if Amazon and Gamefly (who originally blew the surprise annoucement) are right. I'm going to put it on my firgurative "interested" list, and hope that it's actually a good game.

Square Enix is slowly revealing more information on Final Fantasy Gaiden: 4 Warriors of Light via the main website, and one of the updates consists of new videos now on the official website. One rather lengthy one depicts what the game looks like while you're navigating towns and the field, while the other gives a short preview of the battle system. The game looks great in motion, and it makes anyone who initially shunned the game look silly. Also, battles definitely look to be an improvement over the "oh, come on" slowness of Final Fantasy III DS and the "well, this is better, but still" battles of Final Fantasy IV DS.

Sure, I could just link you to the individual videos to show you what I'm talking about, but those exist on Youtube, whose format consists of a stretched aspect ratio to fill its screen. The result is a blurry mess and videos with an unstable framerate. Not ideal at all.

Also, some of the first outfits for job classes were revealed in last week's Japanese Shonen Jump. Some of them are pretty neat, and go beyond the usual look for RPG classes. I love the Zorro-esque one, and I could tell you what class that went with if I could read Japanese. So you'll have to wait until someone translates it. Someone probably already has, but this scan isn't widespread yet for some reason. Maybe we'll know when this week's Famitsu comes out.

Anyway, this game really seems like a 3D version of Sega's 7th Dragon. And thinking about that made me wonder where that game is. I'm not sure if Sega will localize it, but I think it would be right up Atlus' alley given how it's similar to their own Etrian Odyssey -- and by the same creator, Kazuya Ninou, no less. Atlus is no stranger to localizing Sega games (they localized three Shining Force games), so it's possible.

If you're anticipating Demon's Souls from Atlus, their first Playstation 3 release, it's probable that you haven't already imported it. It turns out the Anime Expo isn't solely for anime announcements, as they announced at the show that it'll release on October 6. (Though they also proved that last year when they announced Persona 4 there.) Not only that, they're also spoiling it with a package that includes a 150-page strategy guide and a slipcover with the original Japanese box art for $10 more than the standard edition (that's $69.99 instead of $59.99). Oh, and if you preorder either edition, you'll also get an artbook.

For some strange reason, people are still importing the Asian version despite Atlus announcing it back in May, so they're fittingly calling this one the "Stop Importing It" edition to cease that. It is genuinely a confounding situation, though, with to the high price of imports these days along with the import version containing some glaring grammatical errors -- though they should've been tipped off by the warning on the cover. The special edition will undoubtedly be more for the money. If you like dungeon-crawling RPGs like Wizardry, you might want to keep an eye on this game.

Meanwhile, if you're one of the three people anticipating Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, you might be pleased to learn that NIS America is giving it a two-disc release, but you will be pleased to see that they're doing it for good reason. Disc 1 will have an English language localization, with Disc 2 having the original Japanese version with English subtitles. This is a first. People who have familiarized themselves with the original voices over such a long time will be satisfied to hear this. This edition will be for both the Playstation 2 and Wii versions when they release this winter for $39.99, so you won't have to wait long to see Gemeni Sunrise.

Don't ever say that niche companies never did anything for you.

No one could successfully guess what game, or what kind of game, was being teased in Square Enix's countdown, which started a week and a half back. All that was familiar was the beautiful art style of Akihiko Yoshida (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story), and a different-though-familiar musical tune, which invoked senses of nostalgia. And though fans of the company didn't know what it was for, there sure were some interesting guesses. SaGa 4? A new Romancing SaGa? Final Fantasy V DS? It turned out to be none of those, and was something entirely different from everyone's expectations. But it was welcome one nonetheless.

By the way, I'll admit that I'm guilty of thinking it was a Final Fantasy V remake, and I was kind of disappointed to learn that wasn't it. Kind of, until I learned what the new game was. That game, Final Fantasy Gaiden: 4 Warriors of Light for DS, is one of the most interesting looking -- and hopefully playing -- games I've seen come from Square Enix. It's basically a new Final Fantasy title that will be in the style of the older games, complete with super-deformed characters and a class system similar to Final Fantasies I, III, and V. It's a representation of the "everything old is new again" approach that's grasped Japan by the gut, but it's certainly nothing to complain about if it has a good degree of heart to it. The use of the "Final Fantasy Gaiden" title is also a nice touch, which hasn't been used since the original Seiken Densetsu (actually the first Mana title, localized as Final Fantasy Adventure).

I also like the look of it. I decided to wait until the official website was up (which has a great music track accompanying it, though it's currently sparse on information), so I could see what the game really looked like before jumping to inane conclusions about its aesthetics like too much of the internet. What it has is a fittingly classical pseudo-cel-shaded style rather than the pure 3D look that the DS versions of Final Fantasy III and IV adopted. We'll still have to wait to see it in motion (and hopefully not until the Tokyo Game Show), but I think it'll work in its favor.

Hopefully the team behind it can put together a great game with this, though I'm pretty optimistic given the team behind it. Sure, Matrix may have some slight missteps at times, but they have Final Fantasy III and IV behind them, along with Avalon Code. It's definitely aimed at anyone who openly shuns the futuristic over-the-top approach Final Fantasy XIII has. It's due to hit Japan by the end of the year (the same time as FFXIII), and I'm sure it will get an overseas release given what it's called. I'm going to guess that will be around summer 2010.

As I was looking at a bunch of release lists for America, I didn't notice that the only RPG for HD consoles this year will be Star Ocean: The Last Hope. That pretty much speaks volumes about how much Japan's tastes have shifted in terms of which consoles they want to develop their behemoths for. Even if you factor in the Wii's output, you still only end up with Arc Rise Fantasia...if it releases this year --it's release date is an ambiguous "this winter," which sometimes could mean right by the end of the year. Maybe. Meanwhile, systems like the DS and PSP have plenty to offer. Heck, Japan has three big ones coming out within two months of each other.

If you follow releases in the genre, you're already well aware of Dragon Quest IX's impending assault on Japan's collective morale. 1up has a pretty neat article measuring exactly how big the franchise is in Japan. If you thought Madden was a big gaming franchise in America, that's nothing compared to how big DQ is among Japan's citizens. And before you compare the sales of something like Dragon Quest VIII to one of the more recent Madden games, keep in mind that the number is based on a lower population count.

But big RPG releases for the DS won't end there. A mere two months after DQIX (where it will probably still have legs), Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver will release in Japan to commemorate the games' 10th anniversary. You're probably aware of how big Pokemon is, even if you don't play video games. But it's pretty amazing to see that the games still set the sales charts on fire over ten years after the games were introduced, though that says more for its staying power in America and Europe rather than Japan. Anyway, I have no doubt that this game will also sell big when it releases on September 12th. The question is whether DQIX's legs and game length will affect sales of it. It's possible, but it probably won't be too big of a hindrance. These will probably release in America early next year, which would make sense seeing as how next year is the 10th Anniversary here.

Those legs are actually more likely to affect the sales of SaGa 2: Goddess of Destiny, which releases the week after the Pokemon games. Personally, I never played SaGa 2 (aka Final Fantasy Legend II), but from the reliable opinions of it collectively shared by the internet, it sounds like something special and unique. It really looks like the team behind it at Square Enix is putting a lot of love into the remake, entailing perfectly encapsulating what made the original such a special, stand-out experience. Here's hoping a lot of Japan doesn't skip on the game on September 17th due to them being too occupied with the two aforementioned juggernauts. The game's probably (hopefully) a lock for a localization, but I just wonder if they'll go the extra mile and call it Final Fantasy Legend: Goddess of Destiny.

That's a pretty nice assortment of RPGs for only the third-quarter of the year. Well, in Japan at least. At that same time, America will have to cope with games like Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (which, if it's as good as the first two games, is well worth looking forward to), Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (which kind of counts), and Nostalgia. That's not as attractive of a lineup, certainly, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than what's releasing on consoles these days. Meanwhile, it looks like we'll have these sometime early next year. I have my fingers crossed that Golden Sun DS will release around the same time, which could make that time really special.

I usually try to avoid trailers nowadays, seeing how so many of them are capable of ruining a little facet of the game. Sure, movie trailers are still worse, but as this entertainment medium inches closer and closer towards becoming more Hollywood-like -- to the benefit and chagrin of gaming, depending on the situation -- the trailers themselves follow suit and begin to mimic them. I'm talking about the ones that have a narration of precisely what the gameplay entails, along with showing some of the plot -- along with the voice-over narration doing their best Don LaFontaine impression -- not the industry's recent fascination for ridiculous CG trailers that serve minimal purpose.

But I couldn't help but look at Dragon Quest IX's new trailer that was released last week. Admittedly, I was curious of it more because of its length rather than its content. Seven minutes? Really? I was expecting an incredibly overlong and dreadfully boring preview of the game (in a language I can't understand, mind you), but that sure wasn't what I received after watching the entire thing. I found myself anticipating it more than ever.

And that's quite a bit! DQIX is, at first glance, worth noticing because (1) it's a Dragon Quest game getting ready to release in Japan, which you know is going to be huge, (2) it's the next main game in the series for a portable system, and (3) damn it looks good for a DS game. But what the trailer emphatically details is that none of those are the most important aspects of the game. Not even close. Instead what's worth noticing is where it intends to take the entire RPG genre. And, in a way, it looks like the alternate road to where the genre should be going these days (if you accept that Final Fantasy XII was one).

DQIX will assuredly have the astonshing sense of adventure that its games are known for, but it will also have so much more. For one, it has one of the most extensive and unique character customization modes I've ever seen in a JRPG, and that's more important than it initially seems. That character customization will help immerse you into the game more. Involved in this adventure will be characters that you created, and it will be your responsibility to guide them through the world of DQIX. That's something that will help you connect more with the characters you've created and the characters you meet in the world. Not to mention the places you'll undoubtedly travel to.

And it's all on a console that you'll be able to actually finish the game on. It's definitely going to be slower than Dragon Quest IV and V, but hopefully the pacing is a little better than VIII. I'm not too worried about its localization prospects, given how Square Enix seems pretty determined to make the franchise viable outside of Japan (though they're running into a few stumbles, especially in the US). Really, the only question is when, and I'm willing to bet that's sometime in the first half of next year.